the day the music died...

for a more years than i'd like to count, i donned a lanyard dressed in various promo stickers, cut open boxes of stock and grinned through the frequent rotation of top 40 albums as a sales associate at a local record store... was it comparable to the overly dramatic demonstration we were introduced to in empire records? well... no... but there was romance, anger, dancing, laughing, and memorable christmas parties... not to mention free discs and posters...

thus this retail past left me nostalgic for liner notes -- there's something so complete about owning the actual "album" and shelving it, versus downloading... i digress, i have been known to dabble on limewire and explore the world of complimentary, yet illegal tunes...

therefore, my mixed behaviour in obtaining music has left me at odds with how i feel about the bankruptcy of canada's last standing music retailer... music world has thrown in the towel... and although it leaves me reminiscing about the days of stocking a tuesday new release wall, or helping a parent pick out punk for their polar opposite angst-ridden teen, i also have to admit that i'm not shocked at the news... compact discs are fading, just like cassettes did before them... how can a jewel case with $17.99 on the sticker compete with an entire album plus bonus goodies for $9.99 on itunes? better yet, how can a $20-something priced "import" disc compete with 10 minutes of scouring through file-sharing software...

is this the right way for the music sales industry to go? ummm... the answer is more complicated than i'm prepared to take on in this post... but, i will attest that whether it is the correct path or not, it's an obvious reality... after all, radiohead paved a new way most recently by selling their album through a pay-what-you-want method online... the music will never truly die, but the industry is drastically changing... cd buyers are dying breed...