I see, I'm not underground enough to understand your side of the argument. That's clearly fair enough. Although I don't see how you could be so 'underground' yourself if you hadn't the internet to get hold of a lot of your music. But whatever, that's just my opinion.

I'm in close proximity to the DC/Maryland scenes. All it takes is one person showing you one band.

I see. Well I live in a practical wasteland, there's next to no contact with the outside world here, so I don't get that privilige. Where you live, if someone tells you of a band, would there even be anywhere close-by to buy an album if it's so unheardof?

where do you live? if you're that into music its worth thinking about moving out. seriously... thats one of the main reasons i moved from Norfolk to Nottingham.

there are always mail order catalogues, and im sure you can make it to an HMV once a month or so... its hard to find anywhere THAT cut off in the UK!

Anyway.. making it easier to buy/sell CDs is one of the good points of the internet. its just making it easier for bands to market themselves and for fans to 'obtain' their music thats bad.

There was a point at which the internet could have been entirely beneficial to the music scene... with music forums, wiki, band/label info and distros, like the peak of a mountain :P Myspace, iTunes and the mp3 have crossed that line and its downhill from then on!

I`m the same I live in a remote area

Yes your right there are catalogues . However I spent 7 YEARS looking for one album. I spend ages sending off SAE`s , phoning up specialist dealers all over the UK. Nothing.

Got connected to the internet , found it in 3 days in a little shop in New York that I would never have found otherwise.

HMV? :laughing:
That goes against your anti mainstream views a bit doesn`t it. Wouldn`t you rather I`d buy from small record companies online instead?

obviously.. thats where the interenet has benifits. i was just talking about a no-internet situation and HMV is the most widely spread shop in the UK.

Obviously there are other proper shops too... Selectadisc in Nottingham has better stock than Amazon for example, they have a lot of foreign imports inc vinyl and will stock even the smalled 'unreleased' CDs. ive bought loads of blind buys from there and have never been disappointed.

oh and gig distros.. thats where to find the real gems.

im not really against HMV anyway.. ok they charge a bit much (both to customers and clients!) but they're an important part of the music scene.

I've not even heard of selctadisc or gig distros. Here, we have a Virgin, HMV, and a very tiny little solo music. And even then, I have to pay about £8 to actually travel to these places. I'm not exaclty made of money, and like Urban Hatemonger said, HMV hardly has the most obscure releases around.

But anyway, I completely understand why you'd be against it if you have access to these records and are hearing of new bands anyway. That just doesnt happen so much around here, so... I'd be a bit screwed with out the good ol' internet.

As I said before there are plus' and minus'.

If the internet wasn't around, I'd probably have a smaller music collection, BUT i'd still be into to pretty much the same stuff.

I love what its done for music. I don't believe the downsides can compare to the benefits. What an artist loses in profit or money terms is made up for in a vast increase in general awareness around the globe. Any band/musician that tours would have to be greatful for this.

The internet is a cheap means of advertising, a cheap means of sampling, a global distribution of music, anyone has the potential to utilise it, an outlet for the underground that doesn't make them so "underground" anymore, potentially increases a bands longevity since they don't have to get off their arses and tour as much to create awareness.

And I know many of us would still be in the dark if it wasn't for the net.

Huge props to the net.

I'm with Merkaba on this one. If I had only word of mouth, tv, magazines, and radio to rely on for my music... I shudder just thinking about it.