Arpil 19: Record Store Day

On Saturday, April 19, 2008, hundreds of independently owned music stores across the country will celebrate “Record Store Day.”

Stumbled on this. Saturday is Record Store Day. Not sure what it means, but I think we sure can use one.

I still buy CDs. I will for awhile. Despite the convenience of digital, the size and the fact that you can store thousands on something the relative dimensions of a playing card, I have a nice high-end component stereo system at home that sounds so much better than anything digital. And I would dearly love a really good local record store where I can touch them and read the covers and just breathe them in.

Right now I buy from Borders on Downtown Crossing in Boston, which is wildly over-priced and where I only buy on sale. I've also heard it's going to go out of business, and maybe one of the reasons is that it's one of the worst places to buy music because the listening stations are the worst things in the world.

Then there's Looney Tunes up on Bolyston by Berklee, but that's a used store so it's all hit or miss if you're looking for something special.

F.Y.E. on Downtown Crossing is another option, but again, over-priced, but at least they do carry some used country. But the selection is pretty slim, limited to a lot of the popular country.

Newbury Comics on Newbury Street is pretty good, too.

But in the end, places like Amazon.com are still the places to go for CDs, where you can get used CDs that are the same quality of new, for the price that they should be in the first place.