what would my life look like without music?

[Trane]

I prefer browsing through brick and mortar stores over buying online. I have more memories on albums I bought that way, than on stuff I bought online. It might be easier, but it also gives an unlimited choice, making things less memorable.

I totally dig that and my best buddy is still doing that every chance he gets - he even creates his occasions (he calls them "field trips", instead of city trips). I think it's an addiction for him.
But at one point (later 00's), I got sick of coming home empty-handed, because what I was looking for was too acute to have any chance of finding it. I found spending (or losing) much less time for new discoveries via the web - though it meant waiting a few days (weeks when ordering from North Am). Record shops were also closing around that time as well, before new LP-only shops started popping up. I even stopped going to Cologne's Saturn mega-shop around that time. We'd go at four in a car and come back with collectively some 150 CDs. The joy of unwrapping them in the car on the way back (except the dtriver - we did that for him). Saturn is probably 1/20th of what itr was back around the millenium, and only stocks garbage.

I don't have the patience for record fair (Utrecht or 'Serthogenbosch and the likes) anymore, because of the hungry pushy crowds.

I still flipped through thousands albums in the racks at my library system, though, but that's also over since the system is now almost dead - only two places left in Brussels, and 5 throughout the French-Belgium, when there used to be 50 of them (not mentionning Flanders). Covid put the near-fatal blow on that system.

Nowadays, I go 5 or 6 times a year to a B&M record store - whereas this was almost weekly prior to covid and pedestrianisation partly because I can't go downtown on suday noon with the car before heading out to the GF and then North Holland afterwards (evening). So I skip the weekly bookshop and record shop sessions.

[Rarebird]

I totally dig that and my best buddy is still doing that every chance he gets - he even creates his occasions (he calls them "field trips", instead of city trips). I think it's an addiction for him.
But at one point (later 00's), I got sick of coming home empty-handed, because what I was looking for was too acute to have any chance of finding it. I found spending (or losing) much less time for new discoveries via the web - though it meant waiting a few days (weeks when ordering from North Am). Record shops were also closing around that time as well, before new LP-only shops started popping up. I even stopped going to Cologne's Saturn mega-shop around that time. We'd go at four in a car and come back with collectively some 150 CDs. The joy of unwrapping them in the car on the way back (except the dtriver - we did that for him). Saturn is probably 1/20th of what itr was back around the millenium, and only stocks garbage.

I don't have the patience for record fair (Utrecht or 'Serthogenbosch and the likes) anymore, because of the hungry pushy crowds.

I still flipped through thousands albums in the racks at my library system, though, but that's also over since the system is now almost dead - only two places left in Brussels, and 5 throughout the French-Belgium, when there used to be 50 of them (not mentionning Flanders). Covid put the near-fatal blow on that system.

Nowadays, I go 5 or 6 times a year to a B&M record store - whereas this was almost weekly prior to covid and pedestrianisation partly because I can't go downtown on suday noon with the car before heading out to the GF and then North Holland afterwards (evening). So I skip the weekly bookshop and record shop sessions.

Well, I don't like record fairs. But I still have great memories on browsing through recordstores and finding something I didn't know about.

[soundsweird]

I actually found some stuff I was looking for at the last 2 record conventions here in Austin, after striking out a few times. I don't do online because things disappear out of mailboxes and porches in my neighborhood, and I'm usually not home at delivery times. I found a nice bargain my last trip to Waterloo Records: the Moodies' "Time Traveler" 4-CD box set with the bonus live disc for $9.99. Still, not buying much these days.

[Tangram]

Actually I don't miss this part at all.
I won't say that I wasted tons of hours looking through record bins in the hope to finding the odd gem

When I first got on the web (circa 04), I found it sooooo much more enjoyable to find (and order) the record than the fruitless hours of searching for it the previous decade. Nowadays, when I now go to a B&M record store, I hardly look through the bins, I just ask to see if they've got what I'm searching for, or at least point me to where to look.

I don't move all that much anymore, but I will make one final one, reuniting my two pads at retirement time, but the merging into a single library room will certainly lead to some unloading of stuff I don't find indispensible, though I don't see myself ever go dematerialized for music & books.

I don't buy much anymore and the last few purchases have been electronic files (see hate moving the stuff anymore. Just junked the rest of my cassettes and VCR tapes today. I actually thought I was done with them but I found yet another box. Watch out Laser Disks and albums, I'm coming for you next!). But if I'm in a store and I see a bin, I have to go thru it. There are some "I know where I was when I found this album/CD" moments that are permanently burned in my brain. Tose thoughts always bring a smile to my face.