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[Cartilage Head]

What sort of things do you tend to look for/be captured by when you are shopping for albums or simply carousing through a record shop? This is mainly to do with albums you either weren't aiming to purchase when you first entered the store,or albums by artists you weren't previously familar with.  What sort of things inspire a purchase? Impulse? Boredom? Wacky album art?

[penpen17]

I'm way too poor to buy an album on impulse.  I only buy an album if I really like the artist and don't have the album, or if I already had the mp3s and want to support the artist by buying it.

[Spartan Pho3nix]

Eh. I perfer to spend my limited musical budget on concerts and apparel.

[Inlander]

I am frighteningly susceptible to pretty cover art and nice packaging.  "Ooh!  Soft cover!  Feels so nice!  . . . What's that?  You want me to buy you?"

[Thrillho]

Thinking 'I recognise that band name...oh it's THAT song! That's awesome!' *buys*

Got BRMC's most recent album that way. Magnificent.

[Velly]

I often go by price tag....hehehe


Actually, cover artwork can go for me as well.  Or people casually mentioning the band on the 'net or RL.

[Misereatur]

I usually look for bands I know or heard of. But when I'm in Second-Hand CD stores or just stores with a lot of underground/independent stuff I just look for somthing interesting and listen to the first two-three songs at the store to decide.
I can spend like 3 hours in a good CD store, I drive the people who work there nuts.

[dancarter]

For me, after people making reccomendations, a lot of it has to do with price point, especially when trying something I'd not normally listen to, being that it's rather difficult to find the music I usually buy at the local stores.

So, do I want to spend 35 dollars Canadian on that new Industrial/EBM/Whatever cd or can I get two discs by say, Waits or The Smiths (as their entire back catologue can be had for about 8 bucks a piece), and then mailorder my usual stuff for much cheaper?

[Slick]

I usually shop at this massive used record store downtown, and then the main thing is often price tag (<$12 yay!). Besies that, novel art, amusing names, or anything interesting looking. As well, if I've heard of something or recognize for some reason an album, I may pick it up, but I'm loathe to spend more than $15 on a cd.
I picked up one album that was really good (schoolyard heroes), just because it was in an clear jewel case with only an insert on the back, and the cd was black, printed with "Album: TBA" and the track names.
Also, unknow EP's are something I buy up in bulk; at uder $10 I can walk away with a half dozen new albums I've never even heard of.

[valley_parade]

I only buy an album if I really like the artist and don't have the album, or if I already had the mp3s and want to support the artist by buying it.

Yep. Same with me.

[Reno]

I usually go up to the person at the counter (the staff at the Scratch Records store in Vancouver are very knowledgable) and ask them what is new in the store, what is local, check out the staff picks list, and see if they have any suggestions that arent on said list.  Then I use my judgement based on my own personal tastes before i buy it.

[Thrillho]

Album art has never been an issue with me. A lot of albums I like a lot - Turn On The Bright Lights, Emmerhoff and The Melancholy Babies - have really shit album art.

Equally, something having badass album art doesn't make it a good album. And nor does having a half-naked woman on the front, I'm looking at you, Deftones.

[Garcin]

I don't actually shop in record stores anymore.  I do all my CD shopping online.  Basically the only reason I still go to music stores at all is to see if their collection is better than mine.  This attitude may have something to do with the fact that I won't be buying my own place to live any time soon.

[nuisance]

Currently I go to the massive store near me, and first go to the section where there are listings like "contemporary" / "avant pop" / "post-rock" / "ambient" and listen to everything on the listening posts that I haven't heard.  While doing that I do a bit of browsing of any nearby CDs to see if anything looks familiar or rings bells.  

In terms of new names I'm generally looking at labels to see if a label I like has released something by someone I don't know.  Also, of course, spotting names or titles I saw mentioned online somewhere.

Then I head to the section for pop and r&b and repeat, but with no interest in labels cos most of this stuff is on majors, nothing with a particular sound or style attached.

I at least walk past the listening posts for indie stuff as well, but generally only listen to things I've already heard about.

I also do ridiculous amounts of reading about music I like - get all the label mail-outs etc. - so that when I go into a store I have this kind of "passive knowledge" of what I might want to check out if I stumble upon it.

Usually this takes 2-3 hours and I don't buy anything.  

[Rubby]

Unless it’s $0.75 records from the thrift store I just don’t buy on impulse; I’m too broke to be partaking in this sort of behaviour. This is why I’m a pirate (arrr), that way I don’t have to impulse shop and I know I’ll like everything I buy.

[Melodic]

I buy CDs from a store that offers 2-for-1 or 3-for-1 on select CDs. If one of the CDs I originally came for has a 2/3-for-1, I'll pick up an album with a similar 2-for-1 sticker on it, usually something recommended by one of ye.

[E. Spaceman]

I don't buy on impulse. However the one time I did it was awesome:  I was browsing through some emo band's rack (this was when I was a loser/misanthropist teen) when I saw Tigewrmilk by Belle and Sebastian, lloked at it, bough it for nearly $40 and it changed my life.

[Schmendrick]

I'm way too poor to buy an album on impulse.  I only buy an album if I really like the artist and don't have the album, or if I already had the mp3s and want to support the artist by buying it.

Agreed

Although I'm a sucker for a good song title.

[Kai]

tommy, I am so sorry.




I will buy it if the band's name happens to be "Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention". Otherwise, fuck it.

[Garcin]

I don't buy on impulse. However the one time I did it was awesome:  I was browsing through some emo band's rack (this was when I was a loser/misanthropist teen) when I saw Tigewrmilk by Belle and Sebastian, lloked at it, bough it for nearly $40 and it changed my life.

Did it teach you your special purpose?  

(Ted Leo on stage:

Ted:  Have you guys heard of the Blitz?  You know old school punk?
3 random guys in the audience:  Cheers.
Ted:  So . . . do you guys like music?
Audience:  Confused cheering . . . is Ted mocking us for our lameness?
Ted:  Yeah . . . so I'm going to be playing Belle & Sebastian covers for the rest of the show.
Audience:  More confused cheering.  On the one hand we like B&S.  On the other, he is definitely mocking us.
Ted:  (Very insincerely)  I'm just kidding -- I love Belle & Sebastian!

This was at the show that I took my avatar from.)

[missscenester]

I download alot of it, there are so many new artists coming out, it's hella hard to keep up. When I do buy, I don't have to have hear the album already. However, I don't impulse buy, I buy things only if I have heard of them through friends, some music review, internet, etc.

It really depends what your tastes are, if you know what you like, then you will know how to find it.

[The Hammered]

I don't impulse buy either. I tend to spend hours looking through information on bands on the Internet, and either find so many that I can't actually buy them all, or find a bunch of bands that are obscure enough I can't find their stuff near where I live (not a hard feat). And I prefer not to order stuff online when possible.

[TrueNeutral]

I decide by downloading it first - if I like it, then I will shell out the money.

[Misereatur]

There's only one store that I know that will actually do that, and I hav'nt been there for way too long. I once spent two hours there talking to one of the clercks about lables and bands, the other clerck allways gives me stuff to listen too that he thinks I'll like (Prog' Rock mainly). Nice clerck in CD stores is the best thing in the world.

Also, I love buying on impulse. I never impulsed bought a CD that I ended up not liking.

[Johnny C]

Impulse buys are motivated by art, vague memory of hearing about the album, producer, label. Bam.

I haven't impulse bought in a while though.

[Liam]

I impulse-bought The Shin's Chutes Too Narrow based on the album art alone. I normally don't do this, but the album art was so indicative of the style that it worked out for me.

I shop for music almost exclusively at Rasputin/Amoeba in Berkeley, and since I don't have a car, it's usually a while in between visits. Because of this, I almost always have a big list of things I've had recomended to me.

Strangely, I probably would have a harder time bothering to get out there if it weren't for Blondie's Pizza being next door and The T-shirt Orgy across the street.

Go Berkeley, go.

[Inlander]

I also impulse buy like mad if there's a sale.  In Australia the standard price for C.D.s is A$30; yesterday I got Steve Earle's Copperhead Road for A$10, and John Vanderslice's Cellar Door for A$15 (reduced from A$35 - great buy).  Less successfully, I recently bought the Eels' Beautiful Freak for A$10 based on everyone continually raving about them, and on fond memories of "Novocaine for the Soul".  I've listened to it once and apart from that one song (and half of "Susan's House", which I also remember off radio) I didn't like it at all.

[Praeserpium Machinarum]

As some have already said, I don't impulse buy because I am too broke for that. I did impulse buy Mr. Bungle - Disco Volante once because I couldn't get all the cds I actually wanted and thought "fuck it, I'll buy this instead and get a whole bunch of genres". I never listen to it, so it wasn't a particularly good buy.
All the stores I shop at are corporate, except for that place in Iceland, so there is hardly any service, much less friendly service.
The place in Iceland, which I sadly can't remember the name of, had a really boring floor with classical and shite. But they had this indietastic cellar, where there was a whole rack dedicated to "In the Aeroplane over the Sea", why the fuck I didn't buy it I don't know. I bought Björk, Sigur Rós and My Bloody Valentine instead.
New cds in Denmark cost around 28 USD, which I think is insane.

[Velly]

Wow, a country where CD's are even more expensive than here!

[Synchronicity]

Usually I check out CDs from the library to see if I like them before I buy them. My library has a system were you can put holds on books/CDs/whatever from all the other libraries in the system which is nice. They also have a lot of indie bands (not really unheard of stuff, but they have stuff like Architecture in Helsinki, The Apples in Stereo, Neutral Milk Hotel, etc.)

I often go to thriftstores and my two local used CD stores but that's more for impulse buys.

[mainmanmazz]

I usually go by cover art - unless something is prerecommended or I know some songs on a CD.

[timehat]

Uh I research the hell out of music, so when I go to the store, I either look for specific albums, or come across ones that I have a strong interest in for some reason or another but am not consciously thinking about at the moment. Ocassionally, when I really want an album, and I can't find it in a store, I will order online. In fact, I need to make some rather large online CD purchases for really obscure junk.

[Johnny C]

I impulse-bought the first Franz Ferdinand record prior to the hype blast and I also bought the Tyde's Twice, and I impulse-borrowed-from-the-library Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot which was how I initially got into indie music (it was for a school project that I wound up choosing RATM for but I took a likin' to these Wilco guys and then started looking for similar stuff and bam here I am two and a half years later reviewin' music for the Interweb).