Re: List of Top 100 Jewish Music Stores and resources

[Mayer Pasternak <mayer...>]

There is an inherent problem with what you are trying to do. You seem to be
looking for sources of "oddball" products. The average judaica shop at stops
the equivalent of top 100 recording while the better ones (there are 10 in
the US) stock 200 - 500 titles. For the most part they are all getting most
of their music from about 7 distributors in the US. There are a few stores
that take product on consignment from local artists. But by and large the
best way to get specialty items is from the distributors direct retail
catalogs or on the web. Anything that they do not carry you will need to get
directly from the artists. There are a few stores in the country that have
eclectic assortments of product that has a ccumulated over the years both I
am unaware of any that are computerized or have a catalog.

The following are the major distributors in the US that sell retail and have
the largest selections that you are looking for.

USA
Tara - Jewishmusic.com
Soundswrite - soundswrite.com
Hatikvah (Simon) - only via email - Simon has loads of eclectic stuff you
wont find anywhere else
Hataklit - they have a website predominantly Israeli products
Sisu (Kol Ami) sisuent.com - there website is sparse and they dominate more
in videos
Aderet -  aderet.com they have a retail that is predominantly Frum or
orthodox music
Sifrutake - they have a selection available on the jewishmall.com they have
a retail store in Brooklyn
Sameach - is the other orthodox distributor and they have no retail



Virtually all the jewish music getting into the stores - are through these
companies and the odds of finding other products on a consistent basis is
hit or miss. It is true that most of the Judaica stores can get almost
anything through these distributors - they sometimes do special order
products for customers - but many of them do not stock the products that
sell one or two copies a year for the specialty buyer.