Feeding the Frenzy

I think it's clear that we as a society are drowning in a sea of new technology. Cell phones, mp3 players, computers, game boys etc.. its a never ending cycle of new gadgets to amuse ourselves with. Don't get me wrong I love my iPod as much as the next person, maybe even more. What makes me wonder is how businesses are being affected by these new, easier ways yo get media. Instead of buying Cd's at the local music stores, many now just purchase mp3's offline not only because it is much more easily accessed, but because its much cheaper to purchase offline for your mp3 player, then drive to the store and purchase the actual CD, much more time efficient too.

Granted, you would think those music stores would suffer, lose business. But FYE, the local entertainment store, has recently decided to hand out flyer's, encouraging that the customers use their Used Product Program. The flyer's passed out by FYE say on them "Buy it, Rip it, Trade it." FYE has recognized the fact that many people are using programs such as iTunes to get their music and have now pushed this policy to redirect some of its business. What FYE wants you to do is to buy their Cd's, burn them on to your mp3 player and then return the CD for store credit or cash, not full price though. This way, sure they will take a small financial hit, but its better than not getting the business at all.

This isn't a bad thing, I'm 100% guilty of buying music off of iTunes and not in the store. It's just interesting so see this massive transformation. It just makes me wonder, whats next? In the future, will music stores be obsolete?