Last week, Frank magazine reported that Halifax’s HMV location (5523 Spring Garden Road, 425-1082) is closing. Such a closure wouldn’t be unexpected: When’s the last time you bought a new recording at a brick-and-mortar store? It’s 20-frickin’-12, for dog’s sake. No one buys CDs or DVDs anymore in the age of the interwebs.
But staff at the store isn’t talking, the corporate mouthpieces in Etobicoke aren’t returning our phone calls and Nancy Tissington, director of the Spring Garden Area Merchants Association, has no deets. We can confirm, however, that rumours of a buggy whip/top hat outlet opening in the space are completely unfounded.
This article appears in Oct 4-10, 2012.
Ummm I DO! All the fricking time. Why? Because I like music. CDs or vinyl have better sound quality than down-sampled mp3s, I like reading the liner notes, and the pure zen-like pleasure of browsing through a store and stumbling across something unexpected.
Same with DVDs and BluRays: better picture quality and better sound than some streaming rubbish, essay son the films (at least in Criterion Collection movies), and the pure zen-like pleasure of browsing through a store and stumbling across something unexpected.
Does that make me antiqued and some old fogey? If so, fine, I’ll take that and realize I’m enjoying the better quality.
Also, I’ll still have my CD, DVDs, and BluRays if the hard drive on my computer crashes … you won’t.
Fortunately, the Halifax Shopping Centre HMV location’s still in business – just bought the latest Offsprings album there yesterday (and the latest two by Rush, the latest Jethro Tull, the latest Joe Jackson, and 3 GWAR albums [including their two latest], not that anyone cares :P).
Physical media is far better than digital…
[Oh, and just noticed that now we have to allow scripting in our browsers in order to see comments or post. :/ Facebook integration is not good, either. Why do so many web sites have to go backwards in user-friendliness these days? :/]
Buy in a brick and mortar store? Not in awhile. Buy physical cd’s and dvd’s, yes, but online. I only stopped buying in B&M stores because the local ones never carried the music I listen to. The selection of dvd’s online is better, too.
But, as long as physical music and movies exist, I will buy them. They are so much better in so many ways than downloading. The trouble with the techno generation is, they have no concept of quality or of tactile experiences, they have no idea what these things are supposed to sound like. I’d miss the artwork and liner notes and all the things that come in a cd. It’s the whole experience that matters, not just the songs.