Virgin Megastore - London residents can ignore this

Posted by: Ian Hughes on 15 December 2004

For us country dwellers up for the day, the Virgin Megastore at Piccadilly Circus has a rather nifty piece of kit.

30 second excerpts of every CD track they sell is stored on computer. Take a shrink wrapped CD to the comfy chair equipped station, put on the headphones, hold the bar code under the laser scanner and hey presto! - music samples!.

You can now try out CD's before you buy them, which makes the process of musical exploration less risky.

(Well I thought it was cool anyway!)

Posted on: 16 December 2004 by greeny

Borders have been doing this for ages (well the one is Stockport has). Though only about 75% of their stock is included, so inevitably the one you want isn't on preview. Also the 30 second samples are all from the start of the track which can be a bit frustrating (may tracks barely getting going). Even so it's a good service.

Posted on: 23 December 2004 by Metalfreak

when i have bought cds from my local record store
reflex and focus sounds
they have always let me listern to the cd via the in store cd player and in reflex using the stores walkman
even the whole cd if i wanted
one time i was in focus for near on two hours playing different cd's
and they didnt mind at all on the times when i decided the cd was not for me
but of cause
they do not have the large selection
that big stores have.
but i found them esp focus to be cheaper
which is strange as you would think virgin and hmv would be cheaper would'nt you.

Jason

Posted on: 24 December 2004 by Jez Quigley

Cor, tracks ripped from CDs that you don't own actually encourages people to buy more CDs? Whatever next?

Perhaps the BPI should be told...

Posted on: 24 December 2004 by Andy Kirby

Wow, technology is amazing isn't it. To think I used to be able to talk to the guys that worked in my record store about music, they would make knowlegeable suggestions and you could listen to any record in the store, for as long as you liked in special little listening booths.

I just read an article that is talking about the possibility of 'wireless' tv here in the US... Amazing!!!

Andy