Support your local music shop!

I went into a music shop in a town I was visiting yesterday. It's always a surprise and a delight to actually find a decent one selling a good range of music, and not just the same old stand of "Big note Easy to play Lennon and Mc Cartney", or "Play blues harmonica in an afternoon" ( you know the ones).

While I was in there, I got talking to the owner, and heard the familiar tale of people going in and leafing through the books then going away and buying them cheaper on the Internet, or taking books, photocopying them, then taking them back. He also said there is no point selling current popular songs now because everyone just downloads them.

I felt very sorry for the music shop owner It was a far cry form the day when everyone bought sheet music. He was however providing a wonderful service for musicians, a great selection of music, and the chance to get books in your hands and really look at them. Clearly things are becoming very difficult for shops like this, and unless we support them they will disappear altogether.. this is starting to happen already.

After having a very sensible conversation with the man I left the shop. As I opened the door to go, and he shouted some parting words to me.... " By the way, What you need to do to sell more of your books, is put a few modern pop songs in them, the kids love those! "(HMMMM!!!)