I’m not sure if the stores pay for the album cards before a transaction is made. Traditionally in the music industry, the stores have taken the least amount of risk, meaning that even with CDs, they don’t pay for what they don’t sell, they just return it.

I agree with Tessa though in that that if you’re cool with getting your music in MP3 format, and cool with purchasing those MP3s, maybe you’re more like Alanah and you’re not going to go to a record shop to buy CDs, you just want the music and you’ll just get it online.

In terms of listening before you buy, I think this is pretty much fulfilled by the internet (file sharing, online streaming sites), you don’t need music store listening posts (and their lineups) for that anymore.

But you’re suggesting that people also want that community, that knowledgeable record store clerk that you just don’t find when shopping on iTunes. Perhaps it’s an opportunity for an innovative online retailer to offer access to a community of “clerks” who are available to chat with you online about the lastest releases and must-have classics.

Selling download codes at record shops seems like a great fit though, good idea.

These days I only buy CDs as a gesture to support artists and I only buy them at shows. Having the CD as an object is just annoying. Naturally, it becomes tempting to just download music for free if you aren’t interested in owning an actual cd. I’m still a little wary of paying for stuff online (call me old fashioned) and I think your solution is a good one. I love the idea of the code coming with a booklet or a poster, or a t-shirt, or something to make the purchase more fun.

i like the idea of having a real product (maybe a print or a booklet) that would come with the mp3 code if you bought it at a record shop. so you wouldn’t need to buy the cd, vinyl, cassette to get the code, but you’d still have incentive to shop locally. does it make sense to hang onto the idea of exchanging a physical product when we’re talking about digital downloads? i’m not sure.