Movie soundtracks and video game soundtracks. With my favorite being the original killzone menu theme.
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All of our large media stores have largely closed, and what is left is small indie shops. And even some of the previously most successful indie shops have had to scale back. If you’ve ever watched the Scott Pilgrim you’ve seen Sonic Boom. What you didn’t see was that Sonic Boom had a whole second floor below the one you see in the movie. Sonic Boom has since moved into a space that’s easily a tenth the area of the original.
I haven’t seen a real increase of physical media at stores like Best Buy, we don’t have Target (they failed to gain a foothold in Canada) and admittedly I don’t really visit Walmart. Using Best Buy as an example, other media like games and Blu-Ray have been severely paired back and quite a bit of it shifted to their online store or even third-party marketplace resellers. I’d be surprised if they stock audio CDs. And if I visit bestbuy.ca, I don’t see anything under the music category that isn’t sold by third-party resellers. It doesn’t look like they stock anything themselves.
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I just checked walmart.ca, and while they do list physical albums their media section in stores tends to be exceptionally small (last that I did pop into one of their stores) so I suspect most of their album stock is only available online.
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Last time I checked Best Buy was a few weeks ago, but I can attest that the one by me is also pulling back on physical media, with only a small shelf at this point. When I did see the vinyl, it was on a shelf full of other random odds and ends near the Geek Squad section.
It doesn’t look like 2nd & Charles has any presence in Canada but it is a nifty store with some okay prices depending on what you are looking for, but like any resale shop that is more than a couple stores, they tend to go crazy with prices from time to time.
The closest record shop is 30 minutes away, so not too bad, but I haven’t felt all that compelled to revisit in a while.
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We do have lots of great indie shops, and plenty that specialize. I work a five to ten minute walk from at least five or six alone. So it’s not hard to buy music media, we just need to go to dedicated album shops. Which I prefer anyway.
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I greatly agree. I love just talking shop with some of the employees as in my experience, they often know quite a lot and have always been very pleasant to me.
It’s the way I used to feel going to GameStop when it first came around in 1999.
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I find that Walmarts and Best Buys are usually spotty, but Targets usually always have vinyls. However their selections usually lean towards the most popular music, as you would expect. I’m lucky to have several smaller shops in my city that I usually buy from. That, and thrift stores, of course.
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Not everything is released physically now though. Lots of game soundtracks are only digital (luckily I’ve always been able to buy the files) and a few recent film scores have been the same. Sometimes songs done for a spercific reason - the track I mentioned in my previous post was for one of the ne Ass Creed games - don’t always appear on the artists albums. So while yes, for the most part you are right this seems to be changing.
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I can’t speak for everyone here or every location but what I have been noticing is a weird ebb and flow in this. Whereas there used to be a lot of smaller music shops around me, a lot went away over the years to be replaced by the bigger chains, and now a lot of the bigger chains aren’t doing too hot and I’ve seen more interest return to the smaller stores. Weird how circular this stuff can be at times.
It’s still pretty impossible to find game soundtracks; Only online have I seen those, though I find the occasional film score here and there.
It is pretty neat though and I find myself pretty fortunate to be in this area as there is a huge used bookstore (filled with other items as well) in Detroit, John K King Used and Rare Books and it is amazing what you can find if you dig a bit. Sometimes the hunt in your local area is better than the convenience that purchasing online offers, depending on the item of course.
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I enjoy going to thrift stores or music stores for CDs. Haven’t had much luck lately.
Im not big into vinyl but can appreciate it
Ive found some really obscure and excellent music hunting at thrift stores.
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That used to be one of my favorite hobbies back in the day going to vinyl stores!. JUst because of working all day its hard to go out and do that awsome hobby! But I try to do by myself cds for my twenty year old car still.
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Loving the latest MGMT single. Three for three.
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Latly I have been listening to way too much of Irish music from the band Dropkick Murphys and also Halo 2 music way too much.
Haunting. I love it so much. This MGMT record is shaping up to be a big one.
I’ve been listening to the new Green Day record. It’s quite a bounce back from their last one, Father of All, which was definitely their worst record thus far. This one has its fair share of quite questionable moments, but it’s much more listenable.
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more people should play this game. jasper byrne is a maestro of game soundtracks
Crystal Clear - YouTube
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Stevie Wonder’s They Won’t Go When I Go transitioning into Bird of Beauty should be studied. We need to understand how he went from such darkness to such light.
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I love the cover art of this soundtrack!
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