The new Best Buy on New York’s Union Square at 14th street is one of a number of the chain’s stores that carries a full line of “pro-sumer” musical instruments—including Gibson and Fender guitars. The Best Buy music-gear locations join a list of emporiums that includes Guitar Center, Matt Umanov’s, the Soho branch of Rudy’s Music Stop, and many other guitar-stocking shops, all located at the south end of the Manhattan—an area that is fast replacing 48th street for guitar shopping.

Best Buy celebrated their entry into this fertile music marketplace with a show by Anthrax on the music department’s stage. Being between lead singers, Scott Ian (left) and the boys gamely played instrumental versions of the band’s repertoire for the assembled fans. Ian encapsulated Best Buy’s crosspollination of music and media when he jokingly recommended that fans use one of the band's sponsors' products—the Zoom Q3 video camera—to bootleg Anthrax shows. That Zoom Q3 is available at Best Buy, by the way...

Click the following links for photos of the Best Buy event in NYC:

www.flickr.com/photos/guitarplayermag/4326051879/

www.flickr.com/photos/guitarplayermag/4326786150/

www.flickr.com/photos/guitarplayermag/4326045209/

www.flickr.com/photos/guitarplayermag/4326042751/

www.flickr.com/photos/guitarplayermag/4326048011/