HiFi Subjectivist ¦ Audio Forum ¦ NVA User Group

One of the delights of wandering around record shops in my early days was the sheer variety of music around, so what if I never bought that album of Indonesian Nose Flute Music, it mattered that it was there. At time before Progressive became Prog Rock, it mattered that there were new things to hear. Now the internet is the high street and we're all being pushed to the WH Smiths and HMVs of the internet, where do you go to find the other stuff (or maybe even the good old stuff - what's a good site for classical music lovers). Anyway, I guess everyone here knows HDTracks (now becoming less useful since Ivor Stiffer'un got into digital downloads). But I thought a thread on alternatives might be useful, so here's some I've stumbled upon. Apologies if they're already well know

http://www.beatport.com/

https://bleep.com/

http://bandcamp.com/

It's not something to be proud of, but my sources are mainly blogspots, different forums and Russian trackers. There is always a morality aspect, but IMO it's just like with hi-fi dealers, making money off poor customers. I prefer to pay my favourite bands directly by going to their concerts and buying t-shirts and CDs directly from concert stores. Also, lots of music is availble only on illegal sources, limited issue (downloading ripped is the only way to listen to it), availability overseas only etc.

Yes, I do have a tiny collection of 7 vinyls I can't listen to and ~40 CDs.