Buying Music. How We Did It Then, and How We Do It Now

I remember buying music in the past. It’s way different than the way we buy music now.

Remember 78’s? Admit it, you don’t know what I’m talking about, do you? Well, a 78 refers to records that sold during the 1940’s and 1950’s, that spun on your record player at 78 RPM. They went out of style by the time I was a teenager. By then, record albums spun at 33 and 1/3 RPM, and 45’s spun at, you guessed it, 45 RPM. By the way, 78’s and 45’s got you two songs. One on each side. Albums got you more music, but you mostly got only one or two of what were considered hits. Unless it was a hit album, meaning that every song was at least decent.

I remember as a kid, going to the record store with my parents, seeing them select a 78 from a table where they were organized, then take it to a booth and listen to it. It was a “try it before you buy it” deal. If they didn’t like the record, it would be put back in stock.

That’s the way we used to buy our music. Record stores were essential.

Then came the audio tape. I actually remember seeing, although not a lot, albums on tape. No. I don’t mean on cassettes, but on reel to reel. Imagine having a reel to reel tape recorder in your living room. We used to have entire stereo systems in our living rooms. And if you had a reel to reel tape player, you would have to manually feed the audio tape through the mechanism, then turn the dial to “play”. The nice part of that was that you didn’t have to turn the record over to hear the other side. The whole thing played continuously until the entire album played. Hopefully it was a hit album.

That’s another way we used to buy our music. Record stores were still essential.

Then came record clubs. Like Columbia. And you know what they used to do? Send you an album that you never ordered, along with a bill. And the hope was that you would pay for it. And  if you did, you became a member of the record club. That’s OK if you live out in the boondocks, where there are no record stores, but I lived in New York City, where there were tons of record stores.  They actually sent me an Allen Sherman record. I never paid for it, being a kid with no money. And they sent letters demanding payment, which I ignored. And of course, since I never actually ordered the album, they had no case, so I got a free album. At that time, Allen Sherman had a hit song called “Hello Muddah hello Faddah”

That’s yet another way we used to buy our music. In record clubs. But I used to go to the Blue Note a few blocks away instead. Record stores we still needed but record clubs were an option.

Then tapes got small. No more reel to reel. Now they were in cassettes. Which you could play in boom boxes, or portable tape players, like Sony Walkman devices. They were cool dude! But record companies lost a lot of potential profit because all we did was buy blank tapes, borrow albums, and copy them onto the blank tapes, and we essentially got the music for free, or at least for the cost of the blank tapes, which were not that much.

But the folks who sold us music decided that we needed quadraphonic sound. What’s that you ask? That was the next advance from Stereo. You see, mono records were well, mono. You only  needed one speaker. But stereo had two speakers and you were able to hear pianos on the left, and horns on the right. But quadraphonic had four speakers. That way you had more separation. It would be like being in a concert. They thought it was going to be a big hit, but alas it never caught on with the public.

Another flop? The 8-trac tapes. I don’t remember if they had recorders that you could buy but you could buy prerecorded music on them. But they had a problem. They would switch tracks right in the middle of the song. Imagine you’re living in the 70’s, dancing the night away, getting your grove thing on with some lovely lady on the dance floor when suddenly “clunk!” the music stops, you stop dancing, your lady love stops as well. Then another “clunk!” and the music would continue right where it left off. Not cool man, not cool.

But the record stores are still in business at this point.

Then came CD’s. For the first time ever, a record could actually be played over and over again, countless times and no matter how much you played it, it would essentially sound great, just like new, even the 10,000th time it got played. Or the millionth time. That’s digital. It lasts forever. Not the disc itself, but the music as long as it’s digital. Hopefully you backed that CD up to tape before you spilled that drink on it, or scratched it up really bad.

But now, are record stores needed anymore?

Not really. Music got digitized and now is sold online where  you download it from giant servers . ITunes, Amazon, Napster and other companies all sell music. And it’s played on digital music players like iPods, Zune’s and other iPod knock offs. Even on your iPhone. But you don’t really need to buy music at all, if you don’t want to.  Just subscribe to Pandora Radio. And just listen for free.  But if you’re buying, you usually buying it on line. And probably from iTunes. That’s the way we buy music now.

I still see record stores around. There’s still a market for vinyl. But once that die hard breed of old music lovers die off, the record stores will either adapt, or die.