Music market channels: I’ll start off by saying I know nothing about the music business. Very little about it makes sense to me. Recently, I read (WSJ subscription required) where being for sale at Starbucks could help make a CD into a hit. Then I saw an big poster at the Nashville airport promoting a new Alison Krauss & Union Station, featuring Jerry Douglas (AKUSFJD) CD that’s available exclusively through Cracker Barrel Restaurants. And yesterday, it was announced that Garth Brooks will only sell his music via Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club stores and their online outlets.

I guess no one buys CDs at “record” stores anymore. And, frankly, I didn’t know that anyone bought Garth Brooks CDs anymore, anywhere.

Cheap thrills: 49¢ downloads of short stories from Amazon.com. (Story on siliconvalley.com)

Observation: Now this is what I’m talking about.

(via: iwantmedia.com)

Mad extensions: “The magazine industry may be struggling, but MAD, which has provide madcap satire to generations of readers — is expanding. MADKIDS, geared to the 6 to 11 set, is due out in November. MAD CLASSICS, ”the best of the worst,” as the magazine’s editors love to say, debuted in July.”

Saturday morning happy news: It’s the weekend. Time to reflect on the important things in life, like news in the New York Times that the prices of big screen TVs “are pretty much in a free fall.” I guess that means if the price of gas keeps going up and we can’t afford to drive anywhere, we can at least afford big screen TVs to watch while we’re stuck at home.

Interesting quote:

“When it comes to $2,000 TV-purchasing decisions, surveys show men control the purse strings.”

Obviously there was a typo in that sentence as apparently the reporter left out a couple of words. I’m assuming the sentence should have read, “When it comes to $2,000 TV-purchasing decisions, surveys show men pretend they control the purse strings.”

PC Worlds: One PC World is a very successful magazine (5.5 million readers) published in the U.S. by a giant business-to-business media company. Another PC World is “the UK’s largest computer superstore.” Apparently, the superstore is about to launch a customer magazine called PC World Magazine and will print a million copies. I feel certain there are some people who read this blog who can shed some light on whether or not these two worlds are connected or on a collision course.

David Grisman on Vassar Clements: After approximately 1 p.m. eastern time, there will be available online The NPR website has a brief interview from this morning’s Weekend Edition by Scott Simon of David Grisman regarding Vassar Clements. Clements funeral is today.

Update: The “rememberance” page now also includes links to several archived stories that are worth a listen, as well.