Downloading didn't kill the music store. Wal-Mart and Best Buy-- stores that charge reasonable prices for CDs instead of the insane prices the mall music stores charge-- are the real explanation. Best Buy routinely advertises new release CDs for $9.99 that are selling for $16.99 or more at places like Tower and FYE. No wonder they can't compete.

i'm with ya! soon, kids can get their first computer, connect to the internet, and never leave their room for 60 years or so.

we have such an object fetish...sheesh!!!

;-)

Object fetish, perhaps, but at least if our hard drives crashed tomorrow we'd still be able to listen to our music.

I guess the thing I find so untenable about the amassing of an exclusively digital music collection is the notion that it's ephemeral -- I'm reasonably certain that most people don't back up their hard drives sufficiently to be able to feel safe (or smug) about the long-term viability of their stuff.

Great article, Stephen. I feel much the same way about bookstores, too -- I buy an awful lot of my books from Amazon, but nothing beats browsing the aisles, does it?

yes, to us 'old timers', a music library consisting of nothing but bits does feel "real". it never will.

ah books, tell that to my sagging shelves.

I still have about 1100 slabs of vinyl left plus whatever I have on CD (and a few cassettes!), and yes, it passes for a small personal library of recorded music. A list of files just isn't tangible and talismanic enough to pass for a mojo.

talismanic....a friggin' perfect word for this.

I agree with Michael's comment that Tower's demise probably had more to do with prices than with downloading. However, the appeal of a place like Tower or indie shops (when I lived in Austin, I loved going to Waterloo Records)for me is that you can (or could in the case of Tower) find albums that places like Best Buy or Target don't carry. You can even find local bands. And, perhaps best of all, the employees are music-savvy.

I used to drop 00's of dollars at Waterloo when I lived in Austin; much mo' better than Tower.

Berkeley had (still has?) great record stores, too. I had to make the pilgrimage to Rasputin's and Ameoba Records every time I was in the Bay Area.

Ahh, those were the days...

-P

I agree with a lot of what you say there in #7, Jason, but it was with great chagrin that I spelled "Dylan" for an employee who was obviously unfamiliar with him.

Tower and other records stores charge(d) more for there cd's and dvd's because the record company charged them more. Target and especially Wal-Mart get special prices from the record companies and movie companies because they for the lack of another word "blackmail" record companies to get the lower rates for there products. example: Walmart has let record companies know that if they are not charged rates that are drastically lower they will not sell their product. And the record company needs places like Wal-Mart but Wal-Mart do not need the record companies so they can blackmail them.
In short Wal-Mart and Target ect. dont need to make money from cd's and dvd's sale they just use them to get people in the store. Record stores like Tower are trying to make a profit from their sales and they have to pay the record companies more the same product.

Great article Stephen.

Comment on Comment #1:

Wal-Mart and Best Buy's competitive lower prices need to be put into perspective.

The advent of "big-box" retailers in the marketplace getting into the traditional "music business"--which really took off in the nineties--are a big part of what eventually pretty much killed the indie music store, which for decades had been the backbone of the music industry.

Small indies, and even to some degree music-oriented chains--operated on a shoestring for years with one of the most disgustingly low profit margins in retail. The record companies set the "suggested list price" at something like $16.98 a CD, which the retailers purchased wholesale (usually from a one-stop who added their own mark-up) at prices ranging somewhere between $10. and $12. (and if you are a smaller indie, we are talking about the upper end of that).

So in order to stay in business, and stay competitive, indie stores had to eat the roughly $4. a CD they'd make at "suggested list" and offer their own discounts. So at the end of the day, they might be making $2. a CD, and still looked at as the "villian" because they can't "lose a buck" for every CD they sell, by matching the "big-box" prices (bought in bulk at much lower wholesale than for the little guys).

And lets talk about big-box retailers. What they are mainly interested in is selling "appliances"--be it a computer, a refrigerator, or even the increasingly antiquated stereo system. It means nothing for them to "give away" music, to get you into the store if even to take a look at that new Plasma TV you've been eyeing.

But I'll tell you what? Go into a Best Buy and ask that kid in the nice uniform with the smile on his face where you might find that hard to find album by say, Django Rheinhardt or Quicksilver Messenger Service. After he recovers from the deer caught in the headlights look on his face, and recollects himself, he'd likely point you somewhere towards aisle 3. If you get a clerk not too busy, he might also look it up on the store computer for you.

Its not the kids that that work there who are at fault either...they're just trying to do an honest job at retail wages. But they are not Music People. Not like at the indies Stephen mentions in his article, or even the green haired kids who worked at Tower. Those people didnt need a freaking computer to tell you who Django Rheinhardt was/is.

That was the begining of what killed music retail, and at least in my view, is ultimately killing music.

And I oughtta know.

When Future Shop moved down the street from my own music shop, it was only a matter of about eighteen months before I had to shut my own doors.

Great article Stephen.

-Glen

Thanks for your great comments, folks.

Glen, you are right on about "big box" loss leader strategy. I actually worked at a Future Shop for a few painful months, right as they began selling CDs at prices below cost. It is to "get people in the door," and nothing else. They have no interest whatsoever in being a "record store". Salespeople were even discouraged from helping customers looking for CDs since there was no profit to be made selling them (not to mention the crappy $79 CD player prominently advertised in the flyer.)

But the real point is that Future Shop, Best Buy, Wal-Mart are only "competing" price-wise with Tower and Co. on the most mainstream, watered-down -- albeit most popular -- bare-minimum catalog titles they stocked.

Wal-Mart wouldn't even bother to stock the Albert Ayler "Holy Ghost" box set, the complete back catalog of import Scott Walker CDs, four different recordings of John Cage's Sonatas & Interludes for Prepared Piano, or anything at all by John Zorn.

But becase of the overhead costs and lack of profit margin in DVD/CD sales (even at Tower's "high" prices), the business model simply couldn't sustain itself, I believe. Add to that the increasing availability and convenience of cheaper and tax-free (or totally free) online retail and downloadable alternatives... I'm really not sure how Tower could have kept going without becoming a mere shadow of its former self. Someone has to pay the rent on those buildings and most employees aren't gonna volunteer their time.

The other catch-22 I always wondered about was the huge value of unsold inventory that Tower (and other "deep catalog" stores) need to keep on hand in order to boast the incredible and varied selection. You can't survive that way unless you're cranking out top-40 stuff at a decent profit and in large volumes. And we all know where people are getting their top-40 kiddie-pop these days.

Cheers.

I stumbled on this write up while doing a google search - it's excellent! I'm shocked no one's mentioned eBay, though. Where once the market for second hand CDs was scattered, mainly found in specialty stores in large cities and sometimes flea markets, eBay created this giant consolidation of used music. You can find things on eBay within days of their release (sometime BEFORE their release!) and a glance at final auction prices shows new discs that are $9.99 at Best Buy going for half that online! My point is that several factors have lead to the demise of the retail chains, not just music downloads and big box retailers. And sadly, the few indie stores that are left seem to be migrating towards the same eBay model I mention above - because they find they can't pay the rent and keep up with online only businesses. It's sad. I'm surprised this hasn't hurt bookstores more, but I think books are something that people enjoy browsing much more; plus, folks like sitting down with a newly purchased book and drinking a coffee. You don't see people doing that with CDs. Still, it's only a matter of time before this catches up to Borders and Barnes and Noble. But that's a whole other story!

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Don't forget about the deals you can get online at Your Music, owned by the BMG folks. Under $7 per disc, free shipping. And they are starting to get product available closer and closer to the street dates of releases all the time.

Too few can compete with that.

It's enough to make this ole music retailer cry...when I'm not busy buying my cds there.