originally posted on April 24, 2008
Unfortunately, there is no simple answer. There are tons of places to be exposed to new music and also to track down that song you've always been looking for. And believe it or not, I rarely use iTunes. I always prefer to buy real CDs, and that's what I'll be mostly focusing on.
It all depends on what you're after. If you're looking for new music, there are a couple of great places to check out new artists. One of my favorite is cdbaby.com, which is an independent distributor that isn't a label, just an online record store for artists.
The idea is that artists manufacture their own CDs and then send cdbaby about 5 copies. Cdbaby list the album on their website (with free streaming samples in high quality) and if someone likes it, they buy the album on cdbaby's site, they ship it from their warehouse and the artists gets nearly all the money.
There's lots of great indie artists on there and a lot of unknowns too, but it's well worth checking out and you can easily spend hours there. Many ways to search, either by similar-sounding artists of your favorite music, $5 discount bin, new additions to the site or even browse by artwork, like a virtual record store.
Another great place to check out music is musicblogs. There are thousands of them and it might take you a while to find a decent one that shares your musical interests, but it's fun to explore. Now, as you know, it is illegal for people to post music online without the musicians permission. However, a lot of musicians know the power of having a track posted for free download on a highly-visited blog in terms of exposure - hence the emergence of major label artists giving away full albums online and selling them too (hello Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails...Jane Siberry did it first).
It's the best kind of promotion that they don't have to pay for, and in effect can make new fans out of their music. So you can take advantage of this, or not depending on how you feel about the issue.
But if you want some completely legal music that you won't feel guilty downloading, Netlabels are for you. Thanks to a little thing called Creative Commons, indie musicians (and some big time shooters) are posting their music online for free download, and there's millions of free songs floating around in various styles. Two resources that you might want to bookmark is the "netlabel forum" over at Archive.org and Jamendo.org, which are the two most popular music hosting sites. There's a lot more electronica than anything else, but it's always worth listening because you never know what you might find.
Now, let's talk about buying real CDs. I always visit the local record stores at least once a week, new and used outlets, to see what's new (if anything). Now, I love record stores. I always will. But unfortunately, a lot of them are doing business all wrong. Particularly, if I walk into a record store and want to order something, there is only ONE store in all of Vancouver that I can actually place an order for something...and they often charge 30% more than anywhere else. All other stores cannot order anything - even if you pay for it upfront and that is the worst business practice if you want to survive in this global marketplace.
Of course, this leaves me with little alternative but to order the item online from a Canadian distributor (you can guess which one). Often the price is better, if I can be patient enough to wait an additional week to get my item.
However, there is a downside to ordering online: CDs and especially DVDs can get damaged in transit and you can get stuck with a scratched disc that skips in your player and it costs an arm and a leg (and a lot of hassle) to send it back and get a replacement. If I was able to purchase what I want in the store (or be able to order it!) I could easily take defective product back to the store for a replacement. So what you make up for in selection, you can't guarantee the condition of your stuff.
Another neat tip for more obscure albums is that you are able to order items online from other countries. It's amazing what is available for importing directly to you door, but not available in your record store due to licensing problems.
I regularly buy from a Japanese CD outlet that offers about 50% better prices on new, sealed Japanese imports that are not available in North America, or contain bonus tracks.
I also browse the British equivalent of Amazon for albums that aren't available here. For example, for about two dollars more compared to the Canadian price, I ordered the next wave of the Alan Parsons Project remasters series (Stereotomy, Turn of a Friendly Card and Pyramid) from the UK, because the label has no definite plans to release them in North America.
However, watch out that you make your orders under $40 otherwise Canadian customs will slap a duty charge on your order. You might get charged even under $40, but it's usually only happened to be on orders larger than $40.
Whew. So that's a start. If you've got another favorite place to discover music, send me an email and I'll post it below.
Elsewhere, I know it's not exactly breaking news but Radiohead have a remix contest for their song "Nude". You have to purchase the 'stems' (individual vocal, guitar, etc tracks) and then upload your mix to their website for voting.
I decided to have a whack at it, and posted my remix here. Apparently I'm #2103, so I don't expect to win or anything. But I thought it was fun to try and make a drastically different version of the song. I didn't listen to alot of the entires, but I did enjoy this mix from one of my favorite artists Thomas Dolby.
An archive of Lee's posts from his Early Edition blogpage.
