"Do You Want To Buy A Three-Year Extended Warranty For That LP?"

The news broke last week that Best Buy is going to experiment with selling vinyl albums. Thanks, but I can get my vinyl here in the glorious city, thank you.

I likely mocked the theory of viny's "warmth" for years, but two events changed my mind: 1) A few years back, I was working on a spreadsheet and had the original Jeff Beck Group spinning on the turntable. At the beginning of a song, Rod Stewart said: "Listen!" I damn near jumped out of my chair, I thought somebody was in the room. 2) This weekend, I was blasting side one of Raspberries' Best and no way does the guitar in "Go All The Way" sound that blistering in any digital format. We're talking BLISTERING.

On a related note, like I mentioned before, this year is the one where I effectively stop buying compact discs. I don't want to invest in any more storage shelving and can buy most songs online via iTunes. And if an album is worthy, it gets burned into iTunes anyway. Plus even if I find a cheap used CD via Amazon.com, you add on the shipping charges and it's comparable to the iTunes rate. And with iTunes I can get the music right now. So I may be purchasing the odd CD now and then - I'm thinking of last fall when I bought a nineties-era Pretty Things CD for just one song that I couldn't find via download - but this is the end of an era.

Mp3 downloads plus used (and new??) vinyl = The Future (for now.)