2008 Woodie Awards
More head-banging for your buck?
Some of the Triad area's best locations for reasonably priced music
Ashley Johnson
Issue date: 4/15/08 Section: Arts & Entertainment
In order for me to afford music at the rate in which I listen to it, my wallet has to keep a steady pace with my ears. This means I have to buy my music cheaply, it must be of good quality, and most importantly, it must be legal for me to own it. So in honor of my depleting funds due to a hobby that I actually take pride in, I thought this would be the perfect time to share some relatively expensive, cheap, and free music-buying options with you.
Let's begin with the more expensive options first. Buying your music at the retail price affords you the opportunity of having the first pick on the day of release. I honestly don't care about release dates unless it's an artist that I really like, but on the other hand, I like having a leg up on what's new. I really like Best Buy because they have a very large selection of music to choose from. If you can't find an album that's been out for a few years and you want to buy it new, Best Buy is the easiest route to take. Target and Walmart are the second most expensive to buy except Target will sell most new releases for $9.99 during the first week of release. Walmart does something to this effect, except their albums are sometimes a dollar less than retail. It's also open 24 hours, so you can buy your releases as soon as they restock at night. A drawback to Walmart is that all of their music will be edited if the parental guidelines aren't up to par. And I don't know about you but If I don't have my music in is full unedited brilliance, then I expect a 15 percent discount. Walmart doesn't agree with my reasoning, so I don't buy. Anyhow, I'm sure there are other well-known places that can give you a wide variety of music but these are the three that I visit the most. Plus this is about cheap music alternatives, so on to my favorites.
I don't like bootleg CDs. To me, opening up my CD case and spotting an endless sea of shiny, colorless, characterless discs is like waking up on Christmas morning and someone has already unwrapped my gifts for me. Except in this case, the music has been stripped its casing, multiplied by hundreds, and sold on a shoddy street corner under a tent near a fruit stand by a man whose background goes amazingly unquestioned. The point here is, if you're going to buy music's version of a fake Fendi, buy it with a smidge of dignity-buy it used.
Let's begin with the more expensive options first. Buying your music at the retail price affords you the opportunity of having the first pick on the day of release. I honestly don't care about release dates unless it's an artist that I really like, but on the other hand, I like having a leg up on what's new. I really like Best Buy because they have a very large selection of music to choose from. If you can't find an album that's been out for a few years and you want to buy it new, Best Buy is the easiest route to take. Target and Walmart are the second most expensive to buy except Target will sell most new releases for $9.99 during the first week of release. Walmart does something to this effect, except their albums are sometimes a dollar less than retail. It's also open 24 hours, so you can buy your releases as soon as they restock at night. A drawback to Walmart is that all of their music will be edited if the parental guidelines aren't up to par. And I don't know about you but If I don't have my music in is full unedited brilliance, then I expect a 15 percent discount. Walmart doesn't agree with my reasoning, so I don't buy. Anyhow, I'm sure there are other well-known places that can give you a wide variety of music but these are the three that I visit the most. Plus this is about cheap music alternatives, so on to my favorites.
I don't like bootleg CDs. To me, opening up my CD case and spotting an endless sea of shiny, colorless, characterless discs is like waking up on Christmas morning and someone has already unwrapped my gifts for me. Except in this case, the music has been stripped its casing, multiplied by hundreds, and sold on a shoddy street corner under a tent near a fruit stand by a man whose background goes amazingly unquestioned. The point here is, if you're going to buy music's version of a fake Fendi, buy it with a smidge of dignity-buy it used.
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