Saturday, the 7th of July, I went to Target to get the new Smashing Pumpkins CD, “Zeitgeist”. I walked over to the CD section and looked at the “New Release” end cap. After about 2 minutes of combing the release rack for the red cover of the new album, I concluded it was not on the rack. There wasn’t even an empty spot with a label for the CD, so it wasn’t even that they were sold out. So I figured, “I must be looking in the wrong spot”, so I moved to another section that has a larger selection of newer releases. After combing that section for another couple minutes, it struck me that Target usually releases their CD’s on a normal Tuesday release schedule. I went to ask the person working at the electronics counter if he knew where the new CD was stocked, and he looked in a white book and said “oh, that CD doesn’t come out here until Tuesday.”

I replied, “That is really strange, the website of the band says the CD is supposed to come out today.”

We talked for a few more minutes and he concluded that the CD must just be subject to Target’s own release policy, and it didn’t matter when the artist actually claims the release date to be. I said “Thanks for the info”, and I decided to make my way over to Best Buy across the street to see if I could find it there.

I get to Best Buy and go to the new release section to see what I can find. No surprise, its not there either. I walked over to a sales person to enlist their help in finding the CD, and after looking with them for a while, they check their dates and find that it won’t be out at Best Buy until the 10th of July, a full 3 days later than the “Release Date”. I said thanks and left.

At this point, I am just going to wait to buy it. I don’t know if it is available on iTunes or not, but I imagine it is, in all of its DRM’d glory. No thanks. I (gasp) don’t even have an iPod. I just wonder why I can’t buy a CD on the day the artists say it is going to come out? Is it the retailers that don’t want to deviate from their normal release schedule? Is it the record company’s failure to provide stock to the retailer? I am already getting screwed because I “have” to buy 3 different albums to get all the songs being released, which is already irritating enough. Now I have to wait extra days to even buy what I want, when all along the intended release date has been set.

If anyone has any idea what is going on, post it up in the comments section.