| Why I love my local record shops: * chatting with the owner who is supremely knowledgeable about the kinds of music I like, and buying records based on his advice * looking for something similar to music I've found online, perhaps by the same artist or label * looking for music I can't easily stream online, such as jazz from the ECM label. I stumbled upon one album while digging last time I went that I'd had in my sights for a while, but bought it for half what it would have cost on discogs (like an eBay/catalog for music). Or the Zimbabwean soukous album I just got that is super funky that doesn't exist online at all, and I'd never have heard had I not picked it up in the record shop for a listen. * looking at cool things that I won't easily find online but probably also won't actually buy (e.g. the €70 original pressing 1970s Ghanaian highlife, or any other unusual rarity) I'm super passionate about music and I love everything about the physical aspects of vinyl, so hopefully now you can see how ridiculous it is to suggest that record stores are useless because Spotify and the like exist. I'm listening to Spotify all the time too, but I definitely love my records more. I'm definitely not the only one. |