MP3s: The CD Is Dead. Long Live The CD!
Can you imagine? Pre the internet, before the iPod, when cordless phones were nonexistent and people actually drove American cars, listening to music was a completely different ballgame. During the last century, retail outlets like Tower Records, Peaches, Coconuts, and Sams Discount Auto kept a serious inventory of CDs, LPs, and (gasp) cassette tapes on hand. The idea being that punters would maybe see a movie or enjoy a live concert than perchance drift into the store to peruse the inventory.
I remember Tower Records on West 4th in Manhattan. Upstairs, 12" dance singles from Slick Rick to Bananarama to Madonna (yes, she is that old) could be had for like six bucks. Across the floor, jazz and classical titles bucked up against easy listening from grizzled veterans like Paula Abdul and Abbie Hoffman. You had to walk across the store like some marathon artist just to pick up some tunes. On the main floor, you had all yer rock stuff: Aerosmith, Metallica, Deep Purple, and even a sprinkling of, er, grunge and alternative. Downstairs, with the magazines, workers with pink hair and striped pants polished the cassette tapes.
Today, we don't have to bother with any of this mass merchandising hooey. We don't even need independent record stores, shoveling their college-oriented wares. The independent record store was a true evil. Little men with big dreams hoping to cash in on the sweat equity of your local rising rock star or independent label hussy. Oh well, they're all gone now. Now we can look through millions of titles from every genre online! You gotta admit, surfing the net for sounds is a superior experience to driving to the record store, paying for parking (and 97 cent gas grandpa), looking for titles...it's enough to make me hyperventilate.
Here's something you could never get at Tower Records: free top ten downloads from every genre - spanning the globe!
Tracy Shedd's Cigarettes & Smoke Machines
Tracy Shedd
"Never Too Late" (mp3) from "Cigarettes & Smoke Machines"
(Teenbeat)
More On This AlbumDragonette's Galore
Dragonette "I Get Around" (mp3)
from "Galore"
(I Surrender Records) More On This Album
Buena Vista Social Club at Carnegie Hall
Buena Vista Social Club "De Camino a la Vereda" (mp3)
from "Buena Vista Social Club At Carnegie Hall"
(World Circuit) More On This Album
Mamadou Diabate's Douga Mansa
Mamadou Diabate "Bolomabory" (mp3)
from "Douga Mansa"
(World Village) More On This Album
Robert Svensson's Young Punks Are On The Never-Never
Robert Svensson "Young Enough" (mp3)
from "Young Punks are on the never-never"
(Nomethod Records) More On This Album
Twilight Hotel's Highway Prayer
Twilight Hotel "Viva la Vinyl" (mp3)
from "Highway Prayer"
(Corazong Records) More On This Album
A Patriotic Salute to the Military Family
Bands and Choruses of Air Force, Army, Navy, Marines & Coast Guard
Perry Barton and Lisa Webb "We Are All a Family" (mp3)
from "A Patriotic Salute to the Military Family"
(Altissimo!) More On This Album
