It's tomorrow. 16th April. Isn't it lovely?
For those who don't know, Record Store Day is an international initiative trying to keep independent record stores alive. I think we're all aware of the shift towards big chains, supermarkets and online stores for music. But there's something wonderful about poking around in independent stores. I can't remember the last time I did that. The amount of interesting looking record stores I walked past while I was in Melbourne in December and didn't go in because my friend wasn't interested... oh so many. Part of the reason I intend to go and poke around in some of the indy music stores in Hobart tomorrow. Maybe I'll find something wonderful. Unfortunately, if I do find anything, I'll have to wait till I get back to the UK to be able to play it, given that I have no CD drive. Grr.
A few friends have asked me in the past what the point is in buying physical releases instead of downloading. Admittedly, most of my purchases in the last couple of years have been downloads, but there's still something wonderful about CDs. I'm not that much of an audiophile that I can notice any difference in quality of sound, but there's something lovely about opening a CD case, slipping the disc into the player and having a listen. Plus you get the added awesomeness of album artwork, lyrics and the like. Bands are increasingly releasing these in digital format along with the album, but nothing quite compares to leafing through a little album booklet. It's not really the same, reading a PDF file.
That's all I really wanted to say. I think Record Store Day's a great idea. Really, I should've poked around Hobart's indy music shops before now - blame my utter dislike of shopping. It takes a lot for me to really go mooching around shops, but once I do finally get into a music store... well, HMV may be a big chain, but I can get lost in there for ages. God knows what I'm going to be like tomorrow.
More info HERE and there's an interesting article HERE from the Telegraph.
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