"Something We Can Hold in Our Hands Is, Simply, a More Complete Visceral Experience"

"I miss the old Virgin Megastore in Union Square, which shut down in 2009, and the visceral experience of flipping through the stacks, discovering new albums through means so simple as their interesting cover art or, even better, via new-release listening stations equipped with a skip-track button and germy headphones. If the label sent you the record, spending the time opening all that packaging—ugh, the impossible-to-open sticky tape on jewel cases—was still an investment, like reading a book in the library.

"Now I discover most new music on Soundcloud and Tumblr, and while it's infinitely more convenient insofar as it does not require me to physically part myself from my laptop, it doesn't feel quite as adventuresome."

Julianne Escobedo Shepherd in The New York Times laments the decline of physical music media.