Are there any good music stores left?

Is it me or do a majority of music stores suck now a days?

I went out for lunch, such a nice day decided to get out of the office for a bit, and go to a music store to see if I could pick something up by either "The Flower Kings" or "Porcupine Tree" and guess what zippo....

I couldn't find either band I mean nothing. I went to 3 music stores .

1. Tower Records
2. Tunes
3. Strawberries

So I was like ok I'll fix my musical addiction by maybe picking up a copy of "Momentary Lapse Of Reason" considering my copy is really scratched up.

So I go to the Pink Floyd section.....a big ZERO "0" "ZED" "NADDA" "NOTHING"

All they had were like 20 copies of the Wall a Pulse CD and "A Collection Of Great Dance Songs"...oh sure they had that title but not "Momentary"???

Come on. I used to be able to walk into a record store and actually get what I want instead I'm subjected to buying something I already have as a replacement or waiting a week to have delivered to me off the net.

I feel really bad for musicians today...no wonder certain bands can't sell records....you can't buy their stuff even if you want to. Or you have to wait the obligatory 5-7 days for it off the web.

Whatever....just ranting.

Where have all the good music stores gone??

I don't know about where you live, but where I live, they consist of major companies who have eaten up the small stores. There used to be a number of really good small stores who were interested in what the discerning music fan wanted. The people running these shops took an interest in what you wanted. Sadly they have been swallowed by the likes of Virgin Records and HMV, where the sales assistants believe they are really pop stars......(groan)...now I'm beginning to sound like Grampa Simpson

It's the same here. Al the mega stores with 1,000s of copies of Britney Spears...but yet you can't pick up something like Frank Zappa or some new up and coming band.

There used to be one great new and used CD store which actually had everything you wanted and then some but....guess what they are gone. The place was called Compact Disc World...oh well gone forever in a puff of smoke.

I guess I'll be doing all purchass through CD stores on the web now.

It's been a looonnnggg time since I've been able to find any music I want in a record store. And the music industry would like to blame the decline of these retail outlets on pirating. CD stores on the web are good, and if you're still having trouble finding something there's always ebay - I've found some really old and obscure stuff that way.

www.eil.com


You can thank me later

Yeah I know how you feel, but there's one really awesome music store here in Indiana, in the town Broadripple, which is pretty much the music town of indiana, theres a store there called "Indy Vinyl and CD" i beleive and it has some good stuff in there, pretty much anything youre looking for is in there. If you look hard enough i bet you could find a good store like that somewhere in Jersey.

Over here I have CD Addict, CD Universe, and CD Warehouse. I also have found a good floyd selection at Best Buy and surprisingly, Wal Mart!

here we have HMV which takes over most everything, and i went there once to check out what Floyd they had and they have a big bold letter dividing up each section so you know where "A" starts and ends or whatever, and when i went to look in "P" they had a whole 3 rows of cds and in big bold letters "PINK FLOYD" so there they sure have a good suply of everything i need. and right across the street theres this little shack-like place where they have used cds and they have a ton of floyd for like $10 each. i know tons of good places to get cds, and i havent been to one music store that HASNT had more than 5 different floyd cds.

Oh I forgot about CD World. Tons of Floyd, Zeppelin, Skynyrd, Metallica, Radiohead, all my favorites. And one day I went travelling way into a ghettoish town and there was this huge place called bills records and they had thousands of vynyl and cd's just everywhere.

I usually find what I want at Best Buy, they've usually got a huge collection, but the assistants haven't an inkling of musical knowledge, if i don't find what i want there I usually go to Silver Platters, the people their actually know what their talking about. Still searching for a place that carries The Green Pajamas though...

Eek, pricey! At least in US dollars.

Thats no lie.

And yeah RM, the best music stores are usually in ghetto type places.

i went to this ghetto type place and it kinda scared me, i was with my friends and we were checking out this highschool and all these people were like eyeing my friends purse. im going to that highschool though and my friends think im gonna get shot or something. but i will check out the music stores around there, if you say its any better?

Yeah, there's a lot of record stores near Milwaukee, which isn't far from where I am, but I don't have the time to go there. So I have to deal with the bad selection at Wal Mart. Sometimes I can get to Best Buy, which has a relatively acceptable selection. There's also a Barnes and Noble which actually had some Zappa and Beefheart! I once found this weird record store by State Fair Park (in Wisconsin) and managed to get some rather nice records. Unfortunately, I had limited musical tastes when I went there. Goodwill also has some interesting records, and strangely lots of Barbara Streisand.

I have about 4 or 5 nicely stocked vinyl/CD stores near me. I've found some gems locally - a lot of mono Beatles vinyl (even Sgt. Pepper's and Magical Mystery Tour), an original copy of Zappa's "We're Only in it for the Money" (minus cut-outs, sadly) and good Who vinyl (a mint Decca pressing of 'Sell Out') - all from the same store. Another has a long wall of 45s - damn near all of them collectible (I had to get out of there before I spent my paycheck).

The CD selection is pretty good, too. The same store that I found the Zappa vinyl at will order anything they can get, if you ask. That's service.

Anything I can't find locally, I get off of eBay.

d_h: Interestingly enough, the only place I could find a copy of Zappa's 'Freak Out!' was at Barnes and Noble's.