In the nineties, there was a great local record shop that was set up in a former bank that had been built in 1930. Marble floors and walls. Wrought iron rail

In the nineties, there was a great local record shop that was set up in a former bank that had been built in 1930. Marble floors and walls. Wrought iron railing with a loft above the main floor, which had a huge vaulted ceiling. There were listening stations where you could sample music and several floors above, all full of music in various genres. It wasn't quite a large as Tower Records, but it was a much nicer building and was just a 15-minute walk from my high-school. I blew far too much money there. In terms of the sheer percentage of my disposable income it gobbled up, no other format has ever come close to CD's. As great as this store was, it was still sometimes hard to find specific albums. Imagine special ordering physical media these days! I forget if you had to pay in advance or just put down a deposit, but sometimes it took months to get some albums in. Today, even if you still have to have physical media, you can get the most obscure releases off of amazon (heck, even amazon japan) in less time. In every measurable way, online distribution of physical media is superior to the old mega-stores, and digital media is more convenient still. However, there was something special about walking into a big space that was packed with tens of thousands of different albums and being able to wander down the aisles browsing album art. One of my big hopes for virtual reality is to bring this kind of experience back to life, only with all the advantages of digital media. Imagine shopping in a virtual record shop, being able to walk down the aisles, pick a random album off the shelf and, just by looking at it, be able to listen to the tracks. Maybe there will even be a way to chat up other people browsing the same genre!