A trip to the record shop

One thing @slobberchops and I have in common is a love of the music of Steven Wilson (well most of it anyway). Mr Wilson has revived his old band Porcupine Tree for a new album and I saw Mr Chop bought the download. Actually buying physical music media can be tricky and expensive these days. Fortunately there is still a record store near where I work. HMV (His Master's Voice) used to be in nearly every town, but now branches are thinly spread. There is also a shop that sells mostly vinyl nearby and that is where I met Mr Wilson at his book signing.

With Porcupine not being a mainstream act there was a chance that even HMV would not stock them, but when I got there I saw a good sign (literally).

Actually there is a chance this album could top the UK charts next week. I imagine you do not have to sell anything like as many copies to achieve that as you might have in my youth and so a band with a small, but dedicated following may get there, at least for a week. Steven Wilson can sell out the Royal Albert Hall over several nights, so he has more fans than you might expect. As they are largely an older crowd they have the money to spend on the special editions he loves to put out.

When I walked it I mostly saw toys (e.g. Funko Pops), shirts, DVDs/Blu-Rays and vinyl. I am not a vinyl purist and CD is more convenient. I found a single copy in the new releases rack. I think music CDs make up less than a quarter of their stock when it would have been the majority not so long ago. Streaming and downloads has really killed that market. This is why I value shops like this where there is at least a selection to browse. Supermarkets only tended to have the chart stuff and some have given up on that.

Eventually I spotted this rack by the checkout. I could have got the Vinyl/CD/Blu-Ray special edition, but at £65 I considered that a little pricey and so I just paid for my CD (that was £13).

This CD joins my little collection of Steven Wilson and Porcupine Tree music. Actually I missed out a couple of concert videos. You may see a couple of these were signed. One was bought at a concert and the other was done for me at the recent signing session. Some are special editions with extra material, but I am missing quite a few Porcupine Tree albums. I just lack shelf space and I can hear them on Spotify. I am not a completist collector anyway. I did see they have some assorted live recordings on Bandcamp. I will check those out.

Do you still buy physical media? Call me old-fashioned, but having something I can hold for my money still means something to me. A file on the PC is just not the same. Mind you, I tend to rip the CDs and play them on the PC. I really do not mind paying for music and I know it matters to the musicians, especially those who do not get mass exposure. When I die it can be sold or donated to charity. Nobody will buy a second hand download.

Rock on!