Let's get one thing straight right from the top:
Unless it's a recording of a movie musical, the recording of a show is not called a soundtrack, but a cast recording. (It's only supposed to be called an original cast recording if it was recorded using — duh! — the original cast.)
There. I've said it. Now don't make that mistake again!
Good. That's out of the way. Unless you live in a big city, chances are you'll have a tough time finding show recordings in your local CD shops with shelves crammed to the brim of The Best of the Led Zeppelin IV (Vol. 14), The Stones — Menopausal Hits, The Grandmamas & the Grandpapas, and Hootie — The Solo Album. Luckily, the Web can cover most of your bases for you.
For your standard run-o'-the mill cast albums, you can't beat the two big guys on the net, CDNow and Music Boulevard. Their prices are great and they provide secure online ordering. In a very lightweight test I found them to have very similar stock: CDNow had some lesser known shows that Music Boulevard didn't carry, and vice versa. They both always have some kind of promotion going (Music Blvd. is currently offering free shipping; CDNow is having a blow-out anniversary sale — they also have frequent contests and offer $$ off coupons as consolation prizes). Both companies have plugs into the All Music Guide, an online database that contentiously refers to cast albums as soundtracks (for slightly more detail on the AMG, see this previous article).
By the way, in case you were wondering, MCI's 1-800 Music Now site is pretty much defunct. A visit to the site provides a link to randomly selected music sites.
For those harder to find, small label, limited edition, foreign language, and import cast recordings, you can't beat Footlight Records. Where else can you find not five, not eight, but 12!!! different Annie Get Your Gun recordings; the 1945 Song of Norway, starring Kitty Carlisle; Pico: Das Starclub, the German cast recording, featuring Rattles; the Dutch, Czech, Danish, German, two different Japanese, Spanish, French, Swedish, and Austrian cast recordings of Les Miserables (not counting the variety of British, French, and American studio, concert, and special recordings); and that hit Lebanese musical, Mais El Rim. Although their searching is rudimentary, and their online order system is not secure, nowhere else online will you find this kind of bonanza. Their prices are pretty good, too. They also stock a large variety of magazines and periodicals for the collector and music (theatre and otherwise) afficiando.
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