Has it been that long?

Really, has it been that long since I have stepped into a record store? I used to live in my local record shop (Zia in Phoenix) - buying at least 2-5 records a week. Nowadays, I buy all my music (120+ albums in the last few months) through digital retailers, namely iTunes. Although I am discontinuing this because I recently learned Apple is so greedy (taking 30%) that the artist can actually get less from a full priced (9.99) digital download than they can through the physical sale of their disc (on average, an artist makes about 90 cents for each physical disc sold).

So, today Magera and I were working from a cafe in the Haight-Ashbury hood that happened to be next to the world famous Amoeba records, so of course I had to pop in. Immediately I felt overwhelmed, had I totally forgotten what to do? I mean, where are my recommendations, the just for you's? When I did find something worth looking at, where was my 30 second preview clip, and people who had purchased that album - what else had they purchased? I had totally forgotten, for better or worse, what a time consuming process digging through the racks was. After rummaging around forever I could not even find the Vincent Black Shadow (not the late 90's crappy VBS) I was looking for which I could have immediately (sans download time) online. So after stumbling around I picked up the latest Black Angels album (which I will review once I have spun it a few times) and got out of there.

It definitely bothers me that I do not patronize local record shops enough, but I must say one thing that really bothers me is the price of used CD's. Browsing the racks today at Amoeba, nearly every used disc was 9.99 - keep in mind that artist's do not get one penny from the resale of one of their album's. I understand that record stores need to make money, they are a business, but that much of a mark up when the artist is not making a dime? No thanks, I'd rather go to iTunes, even if they take 30%.

PEACE!