The first thing I’m gonna do when the shelves are built at the warehouse is take all the compilation CDs out there, spread them out on tables, and sort the everloving hell out of them. I’m ordering bin cards for the occasion. These little shits will be organized within an inch of their fucking lives.
The two areas that usually look like disaster areas in most of the record stores I’ve seen are classical and the various-artists section. Comps are like kudzu – they proliferated in the pre-streaming era because they’re basically a mixtape you pay for, and they make a great impulse buy. Most of the people picking up a “Groovy 70s Vibes” disc weren’t collectors, they were just flipping through the racks and saw an hour of AM gold in one place.
There are expertly curated, digitally remastered, impeccably liner-noted series on reputable labels, and there are slapdash collections dumped into bins at truck stops for a few dollars. Some companies are infamous for hiring old and worn-out pop stars to re-record crappy new versions of their old hits to avoid licensing the versions people actually want to hear, then printing ‘new stereo re-recordings!’ in four-point font somewhere on the back of the CD.
The compilations bin can be a real shitshow to keep organized, and most places don’t bother trying.
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