A public service announcement.

Ordering CDs is a bit different than ordering books. First of all, books are often ordered up to four months in advance. CDs are mostly ordered one month in advance of release date. No real reason why except that record companies don't make them available to music vendors for ordering until that time. So, once a week, I get shiny catalogs with all kinds of "come buy me" advertising in them. I love those. Just last week I got the "Universal Music Group Distribution -- January 30 & February 6 Releases" shiny paper. I have to admit that I wasn't too terribly moved by what was in it. This isn't a hot time for new releases. At least, that's what I hear. Anyway, when I looked up the titles from our vendor, most of them weren't available to be ordered yet. So, I hang on to the shiny paper until I can get them.

In addition to that, I get something called ATM Distributing Co. This lists dvd and cd releases for a two week period. Love that too. It lists things by musical category and by format. And it lists everything. Did you know that LPs are still being released? Yeah, me either. But, they are. Not a lot of them, but some.

But, of course, the bible is Billboard. I spent a lot of time with the past two weeks BB yesterday, and nothing makes you feel old like that does. I did get to have a bit of fun with the charts, though.

Sting's "Songs from the Labyrinth" is at the top of the Classical charts.

The R&B/Hip Hop top 100 song charts are always fun.

#98: Sista Big Bones
#92: Kool Aid
#90: Chicken Noodle Soup
#88: Sideline Ho
#62: Rock Yo Hips
#61: Grew up a Screw up (LOVE this title! Never heard the song......)

Come to think of it, I've never heard ANY of those songs.

The winner of the Top 200 (most important chart in terms of what I do in ordering albums) is NAS -- Hip Hop is dead, which debuted at #1.

The albums on the charts the longest are Michael Buble's "It's Time" (98 weeks!); Jack Johnson's "In Between Dreams" (93 weeks) and Dierks Bentley's "Modern Day Drifter" (80 weeks)

These people all need new albums.

In the top 10, only 2 albums have been on the charts longer than 10 weeks: Justin Timberlake (15 weeks, #9) and Carrie Underwood (58 weeks, #4) She's been on there over a year and she's still in the Top 10?!

Checking the BB 200 can take the better part of a morning because you really should (especially if you don't know what you're doing) check every title to see if we have it, how many we have, how many holds there are. But, on the other hand, at least there is a list. You check it, and you're done.

The other part of ordering music is magazines.

Yesterday, I read two issues of Gramophone, two issues of Downbeat, 1 Country Weekly, 1 vibe, 2 Billboards, 2 New Musical Express, 1 Mojo, and 1 Spin. I love that this is part of my job, but actually having to get something worthwhile out of it kind of takes the fun away. Gramophone was the most worthwhile (Billboard excluded) because it had real reviews that were helpful. Classical music buying could be a post all by itself. If you're buying the new John Mellencamp CD you don't usually have to worry about which version of it to buy. When you're buying a Beethoven Symphony CD, there could be a hundred to wade through. Reviews rock, especially good ones.

Country Weekly was the least helpful. If there were reviews in there, I didn't see them. It was mostly a "country lifestyle" magazine. Think.......US weekly for country music world. I saw a very scary article about Reba McIntyre's eye makeup, but not so much about reviewing country music CDs. A waste of a good five-seven minutes.

The upshot of this all is: If you're not checking CDs out from your local library, I really wish you would! It's damn hard work to get them in there, and they need your appreciation.


Thanks!