A paradigm shift is not only going on in the music recording side of the business, but also the distribution side. With web site ordering of music and music downloads, the days of the "big" standalone walk-in CD/record stores appear to be waning. Walking into the CD store on a Saturday and browsing away the hours through potentially thousand of titles to find that right album is on the endangered list.

To test my hypothesis, I recently went to a national chain book and CD store and was browsing through what seemed liked a vanishing quantity of vintage country music CDs. I had noticed for some time that that genre of music seemed to be disappearing at this and other stores. It is getting harder to find music from the late Buck Owens, or the German import of David Allan Coe, that were easy to find in the store 10 years ago.

The nail in the coffin came when I heard a store manager telling his underling that this store was no longer going to carry all the scores of Miles Davis CD titles. After all, the wiser boss said to the earnest understudy, all of Davis' albums could not be good. "We are only going to sell the 30 or so that people will buy," he wisely explained.

This overheard conversation made me angry. As I checked out, I mentioned to the cashier what I had overheard and asked if this was official store policy. She confirmed my fears, and said "you should see the number of titles that already have been eliminated."

That is just great. The record stores are becoming like fast food restaurants." No depth to the menu selection; give 'em the stuff that sells. I suppose the trend is to cater to the teenage crowd.

Maybe its progress, evolution or convolution. I don't know, but this trend saddens me. I always thought the music store inventories (record, CD, etc.) were like libraries. If Mile Davis had a hundred albums - you ought to make them all available. Doesn't mean you have to stock 300 copies of Bag's Groove, but at least one until it sells. That is how the music stores did it for years.

Call me old fashioned, but I always thought it was an adventure to spend hours rummaging through the racks of music titles that were not the current hits. I have done it my whole adult life. From my weekend forays to the bargain bins at my college town's lone National Record Mart to the three-hour bin-prowling sessions at Tower, I found some great music.

I know these big music chain stores are hurting from competition from Internet sales and downloading, and yes, I have bought a few titles from Amazon.com - but only when I could not find them at the CD store. And yes, I use my Music Gremlin Wi-Fi MP3 downloader to sample hard-to-find songs that may have been remastered. Once I find the song or album exists, however, I still go and buy the CD or the high-resolution version if available. If the fast food transformation formula is considered progress for music distribution, how come I don't feel good about it?

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