🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <l9srjtINN5ms@cato.aa.ox.com> jih@cato.aa.ox.com (John I. Hritz) writes:
>	Our local truly amazing record store , Tower Records, has put in a
>touch screen based search system for records, CDs and tapes.  The system
>will search by  album titles, song titles, artist names as well as build
>discographies.  Entries for newer releases have a picture of the album cover
>to make finding it in the racks even easier.  The MUSE system even includes
>a printer to spit out hard copy of your finds. Using the machine is no charge.

Just so that people don't get TOO excited: this system only lists albums
that are currently part of _regular_Tower_USA_warehouse_stock_.
It doesn't even list most of the imports that are in that Tower store.
It only contains a small fraction of what is in print, even in the US. 
The hardcopy "in-print" books and CD catalogs are infinitely more complete.
All Muse really tells you is which albums *Tower* is willing and able
to special-order, and that's something that you could always find out by
looking at their printed list at the counter.  

In article <1992Aug29.065113.16465@zip.eecs.umich.edu> kalex@quip.eecs.umich.edu (Ken Alexander) writes:
>Just so that people don't get TOO excited: this system only lists albums
>that are currently part of _regular_Tower_USA_warehouse_stock_.
>It doesn't even list most of the imports that are in that Tower store.
>It only contains a small fraction of what is in print, even in the US. 
>The hardcopy "in-print" books and CD catalogs are infinitely more complete.
>All Muse really tells you is which albums *Tower* is willing and able
>to special-order, and that's something that you could always find out by
>looking at their printed list at the counter.  

	Although I have used the MUSE system in the local Tower (with great
satisfaction), the USA Today article on MUSE led me to believe that the
data was compiled by a third party not affiliated directly with Tower.  USA
Today is not the most reliable source of info, of course.  While it is
true that the Schwab CD book is a useful resource, it does not list all the
tracks on the album, nor does it list personnel, the MUSE system has all
the tracks and lists "notable" guest artists.  And for those that have not
been to Tower, __regular_Tower_USA_warehouse_stock_ covers a pretty
substantial amount of ground.   Think of it as the Borders of record stores.
The USA Today piece gave 80,000 albums as a rough estimate of the coverage of
the MUSE database.
	As you say, there are alternatives to this tool, and I would add that
helpful sales staff like those found at Schoolkids and Discount beat any
computer database.
-- 
John Hritz, jih@ox.com                     Photons have mass!!??
O.T.A. Limited Partnership                    I didn't even know
101 N. Main, Suite 410                            they were Catholic...
Ann Arbor, MI 48104 (313) 930-1888