which I tend to do for basics (butter, bread etc) and reached the checkout desk.
There was a young man in front of me - can't have been much over 20, black, very hip hop, little beard, very cool clothes... buying the new Beatles mix CD.
"Glad to see the young still appreciate the music of my generation" I said.
I continue to chatter to everyone despite the prosecution at my trial wrongly claiming it was inspired by carnal motives.
"Oh hello Jonathan", he said with a big smile, "My Mum bought me the anthology some time ago and I've been a fan ever since. Do you think it'll be good?".
"With George behind it at least it won't be bad", I replied.

Somehow I found it very exhilarating that 1) good music still crosses all age, colour and taste boundaries and 2) that total strangers are still almost always so nice.

The guys who allways serves us at our "Tescoessentialscom", is facinating, as he is allways writing poetry/scrpts in very small writing on the back of till reciepts.( of course he might be trying to ba part of the pale and interesting brigade)
I have read a couple , and he actually is quite inventive.
I am sure there is a lot of talented people stacking shelves etc,as there allways was,

There are times when I think the era of artists making a living out of selling recorded music is dead. I'm still slightly surprised and pleased when my 17 year old son (who's not a Dastard) comes back from town with his friend with a bag-load of CD's that they have bought (usually from HMV). It's reassuring ...

Stretch

The thing is sadly Stretch, that the next generation coming up, would appear to not have that wonderful feeling of leafing through the product they have just bought on the way home on the bus.
Will they get the same buzz that our generations had, leafing through our records and cds, unable to contain the anticipation of actually playing them when we got home?
I don`t want to sound like an old fart, but this is the crux of what has gone wrong with people that can make a living out of sales. The pleasure in the buying has virtually gone. An i-tunes purchase is not a pleasure.

I found it a pleasure to buy a song on download only to find it had DRM. You don't get burned twice that's all I can say.

On a comparison of digital VS physical, I haven't noticed E-Books gaining in popularity and threatening the production of the physical. Do people want to read pirated books?!? OK, maybe books aren't quite the cool media that music or film is, but I would rather read a physical book than stare at it on a screen. I suppose you can download a film and burn it to watch on your telly and you can download music and burn to a CD, but printing out a book to read would probably cost more than buying it in the first place!

Where's this going you ask? You may well ask, I haven't a clue!

Yes - it does make yiou think about the buying / using experience. I agree that a download provides no buying experience pleasure whatsover. As a DJ in my younger days I absolutely loved rifling through the singles at Reddingtons Rare Records in B'ham and in the import section of Oasis. (I still do it occasionally - but it's mainly in junk shops and car boot sales now).

Even buying CD's doesn't really feel the same. Maybe its because there are less of them in a store (mainly the chart CD's and a few well known ones).

As far as books go, there's no substitute for a physical book - although the e-book unit does look like it might work as it kind of replicates reading a book (until the batteries run out - or someone nicks it on the bus ...)

They are kind of 2 different things though - one is about the buying experience - and one is about the 'using' experience (ie once a download or CD is actually playing, it will sound much the same, but reading a paper book and reading the words on a screen is entirely different).

And as we have a musician and a writer in the family I'm very much aware of how this is affecting us.

So - in many ways technology still has a long way to go!

Stretch

We have missed out only one thing in this debate, re sales, and the joy of them.
You cannot enjoy the smell of a new downloaded book or mp3.
I love the smell of record sleeves and books, and sadly, errmm, fag packets, which I am told are sprayed with cardboard essence to enhance the new purchase experience.

<<< that the next generation coming up, would appear to not have that wonderful feeling of leafing through the product they have just bought on the way home on the bus.>>>

I think it maybe has far more to do with other ways of disposing of cash for young people !

When I were a lad (eee !) growing up in a small Northern town, we had a couple of cinemas and that was it !

Kids now have loads of other things to spend their money on - ringtones / mobiles / clothes / video games / computer games etc etc etc (and even going to the cinema too !)

I cannot disagree MM, the cash still burns a hole in kids pockets, but the choice of products is now too wide.
Perhaps we should be looking at a single in MP3 format, vinyl format, and an interactive video/game "pet" that fits in your pocket and needs several plays an hour to remain in the top twenty.
Oh dear , I think I have just invented the future of the chart!