The New Record Store

I went to Borders Books last night to do some research on a design project. I used to love to wander around the music section at that store, hunting for the next great CD. I'd dig through the racks of plastic jewel cases, hoping to unearth a treasure. Sometimes I'd get lucky and stumble across an incredible record like Frou Frou. But something has changed. I had no interest in looking around over there any more. I simply don't go that route now in my quest for new music. Don't get me wrong. I'm just as driven to find new bands and fresh sounds as I was when I was 13 years old. I've just found a better way.

Like many people these days, I look for music almost exclusively on the internet. I'm getting more ideas all the time about how to discover music there. One thing I do is to listen to online radio streams. My current favorite is called Radio Paradise, and you can link to it on iTunes Radio under "Alt/modern Rock". They play excellent commercial-free music 24 hours per day. I'm constantly writing down the names of songs and bands I've never heard before. Later, I'll take all of those names to the Apple iTunes Music Store and explore these bands in greater depth.

Another approach that works for me is to explore the huge variety of playlists on iTunes. For example, remember Death Cab For Cutie? I gave them my Album of the Year Award a few weeks ago. Well, they show up on iTunes today with a DCFC Celebrity Playlist where they recommend 83 different songs that have influenced them. How cool! Not surprisingly, their suggestions send me in new directions I've never been before. I find interesting bands like The American Analog Set, Teenage Fanclub and Burning Airlines. Before you know it, I'm using up another iTunes Christmas Gift Card.

I suppose there will always be a place in the world for a truly great record store like Music Millennium in Portland, Oregon. But for me, those types of stores are holding less interest these days. What I really miss are the album covers.