Olly Thoughts

Olly, the developer of the Pagecord blogging software, just published a post on something I was thinking about with regards to music. I’m not buying a lot of physical media these days, but when I do, it’s usually CDs. I just went to a new record store called Hunky Dory that just opened downtown near me, but they weren’t celebrating Record Store Day. I wasn’t sure about going because I didn’t think I would buy anything. So I can relate to Olly.

Indie record stores are so great, especially my local, but there’s no reason for me to go in and bother them because I won’t be buying anything. I feel like a fraud! I’d love to be able browse the music physically like everyone else, chatting to the staff, listening to stuff and getting recommendations, but rather than bagging the vinyl I’d like to pay them for a FLAC download that gets delivered to my inbox. To make it more of an event and add a physical dimension, maybe they could offer me a postcard version of the cover art too? That would be a nice keepsake.

Olly feels, as I do, that we have enough physical stuff and there isn’t necessarily a need to buy media for music anymore.¹ At the same time, it’s a worthy cause to keep the independent record stores afloat. I had the same thoughts when I was in Asheville earlier this year. I bought a book at a cool indie bookstore where I could admire all the amazing covers.² In all honesty, though, I prefer to purchase e-books for my Kindle. I just could hardly bear the thought of not contributing to the cause of having small bookstores in walkable downtowns.

We need a physical digital music experience - Olly

I love the idea of Record Store Day but I no longer have a turntable, cassette deck or CD player despite the hundreds of vinyl records going mouldy in my…

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1. I ordered Slowdive’s Everything Is Alive on CD last year. Now there is a high-res version that sounds better on Qobuz and that CD is essentially obsolete. ↩︎
2. Mary Beard’s Emperor of Rome ↩︎