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Browsing online is not as much fun as browsing in the stores.
If the answers to last week's Vote is any indication, record stores are indeed in trouble. What percentage of your music purchases in the last 12 months has been at a brick-and-mortar retailer in your area?
If I can find the CD I am looking for at my BMG Music Club it's a better buy...they always send me certificates for any CD for $5.99 plus shipping ($2.79). Otherwise I find a lot of the CDs I am looking for on Half.Com or eBay at a fraction of the price. There is so little adult oriented popular music today so I am fortunate that I love jazz and still have plenty to choose from at a good price if I do not patronize the local brick-and-mortar. Having grown up buying LPs for 25 years at Tower Records I wish it was the other way.
There's a brick-and-mortar retailer in my area? Where? Oh, you must mean K-Mart with it's fine selection of Kenny G Christmas CDs. Sorry if I haven't been paying attention (and my hard earned money). I'll get my music some other way, thank you.
If stores had s greater selection, I would buy more there. The trend is to have less and less inventory so I'm afraid my purchases at local stores, and likely my overall purchases, will drop. The hands-on experience is preferable to me.
About half. I belong to a couple of clubs that offer discounts online, and if I can get a good deal on enough CD's to overcome S&H charges, I will order them via the web. I would prefer to browse and look, before buying, at a retailer that has a wide selection: maybe I'll see something I want but wasn't looking for. Tower Records has a small store in the lobby at Disney Hall, and whenever I go to a subscription concert I will usually buy a CD or two while waiting for the the music to begin. Interestingly, there are many small specialist shops in downtown LA that cater to our large immigrant population (mostly Latino music) and these appear to be thriving.
First, I think we should support record stores, if they are enterprising and interesting places to go. Second, I find it enjoyable to rummage through a store's stock for interesting music or talk to staff (if they're good), and though I might have had something definite in mind, there is always the serendipitous pleasure of finding something one hadn't expected to find. Besides, a good store will order things in for their customers.
A major factor driving Internet CD purchases is the huge explosion of indie releases, in increasingly segmented genres that bricks 'n mortar stores can't possibly keep up with. Then again, previously mainstream genres like classical have become niche markets. My neighborhood has a wonderful record store (Sound Garden in Baltimore's Fells Point) but they can't keep up with the increasing niche-ification.
The only reason I purchase any music online is because it is either very hard to find, because it is rare, or it is very hard to find because it is an SACD or DVD-A title. The most important reason I purchase my music from the brick-and-mortars, is because i can't wait to listen to my new music!
Absolutely none. I buy all my music online--mostly, but not entirely, from iTunes. I can't even remember the last commercial CD I bought. I do however purchase entire CD programs fairly often, and burn them to CD myself for playing on my big stereo, which is not yet connected to a hard drive.
I only buy CDs and my response, 10%, excludes the very few and ultimately disapointing CDs I bought at Startbucks because I don't believe that is the sort of brick-and-mortar store this survey had in mind. I promise not to buy any more music at Starbucks. The most significant reason for this low percentage is my current focus on buying SACD and my local retailers' failure to carry SACD and/or to shelve them separately. It's just easier to buy online or browse online and then make the purchase over the phone.
I tend not to go to pick up a title I've heard or read about. I usually jump online, and often buy it used from a 3rd party on Amazon. Going to the record store (Tower) is sort of a pilgrimage for me. Two or three times a year I'll go and buy several titles, usually without knowing in advance what most of them will be.