In the rush of excitement that followed the explosion of music downloading in the wake of the original Napster and Kazaa, and then the birth of legal services like iTunes and the rest, we sometimes fail to take into account the toll this has all had on record stores (yah I realize that they sell CDs but I call them record stores out of habit and choice).
My geek instincts positively revel at the thought of being able to download all kinds of music, legally, from the comfort of my home computer, especially of those indie bands that are hard to find these days and even The Rock and Roll Report has become an Amazon affiliate. And I'm not denying the laziness factor inherent in all of this but will this be the final nail in the coffin of the struggling indie record store?
According to the Philadelphia Inquirer article Downloading Music a Blow to Retailers this could very well be the result. Now I am not so concerned with the Wallmarts or other big box retailers so much as the cool independent record stores that are still vital to the kinds of bands that I, and a large number of people, like and want to support. Have you even been to a record store lately?
I gotta admit that I don't go as often as I should and even then it's to a place like Future Shop for heaven's sake! Walking into a funky little record store is so much fun because of the sense of musical adventure that permeates the place. Posters featuring bands you've never heard of. Racks upon racks of cool looking CDs that you won’t see anywhere else. And the people. The people that work there are a veritable encyclopedia of cool rock and roll (or hip hop, electronica, dance whatever turns your crank) that are absolutely fascinating to talk to. Even the other shoppers are fun to kibbutz with.
Article comments
1 - TDavid
Online music availability will reduce impulse music buying, at least in my case, for artists that aren't regular listens or those artists who haven't produced as good quality music in recent releases.
It isn't going to have any effect on those who can't wait for new CDs to come out from favorite artists. They are going to be at their favorite store on release day.
The problem, for lack of a better word, that I've found with some independent stores is that they don't usually have the amount of new titles that department stores have. They do have a better selection of out of date or rarer music though, and more and more of this music is becoming available online so that could very well hurt their sales.
2 - Mark Saleski
i go once or twice a week.
...but i'm an old fart.
there's nothing like browsing through bin after bin looking for surprises.
online buying just doesn't do it for me.
(plus i have zero interst in downloading)
3 - The Theory
same here, mark. however, i'm 19 (going on 20) which means i run myself poor running to the used cd stores once or twice a week.
yet i do it anyway... dastardly!
4 - The Theory
by mark i meant "mark s"... not the author of this article.
5 - Mark Saleski
it just seems to me that people want to "own stuff"...and all this stuff about record stores comletely disappearing in the next five years is a big loada.
we'll see what happens when the economy picks back up (if it ever does)
6 - TDavid
Just as Ma and Pa convenience stores, book stores, etc haven't completely disappeared neither will independent record stores, but to suggest that they will exist in the numbers they have to date is a longshot at best.
Let's bump this thread in 5 years and see what really has happened ;) Otherwise it's just pure speculation on everybody's part.
7 - Tom Johnson
I use my local indie stores to buy used CDs. I simply cannot and will not pay the exorbitant prices they're demanding when I can get the same thing at Best Buy or online many dollars cheaper. I love indie stores. I love them. I could spend hours in them every day and not get sick of them. But I simply cannot afford to pay the prices that they've raised over and over again - they're right up there with Sam Goody, et al. I hate it, because I want to support them, but they're going to have to support me too - I buy more than my fair share of new music, and would happily do so at their stores if they'd sell at a fair price. But I don't count $17.99 as a fair price anymore. No new CD should cost more than $14.99, unless it's in some special packaging. When I can go online and find the same thing for $11 plus a couple bucks shipping, and wind up saving $3-4 each time, I have to take that option. $3-4 for the average buyer (someone who buys music once a month, not once or more a week) is nothing, but for someone who may buy 3 brand new CDs a week, it adds up quickly (essentially, my frugality pays for one of those CDs.)
I fully understand the heartache the small stores are feeling, but raising the prices like they have will do nothing to bring back the sales. But I still support these places by buying far too many used CDs, because I can't pass up a good bargain.
I too believe that the demise of the record store is about as believeable as the demise of guitar-based rock. We hear both of these claims every few months it seems, and neither has so far panned out. Maybe a little thinning of the herd, but sometimes that's a good thing. I really think people are going to tire of the paid download quickly once they realize that they've spent thousands on high-end audio equipment and have all these horrible sounding lossy audio files to play back on them. We didn't come this far with audio technology to take the evolutionary step backwards to something similar in fidelity to a cassette.
8 - TDavid
Well said, Tom. There will be cases all over the country of shopkeepers who continue to do well with their music store. Fewer of them, I believe, in the coming years but there will be some cases of success out there.
If I was one of those shopkeepers, though, I'd be looking into some more diversification in the shop ... just in case.
9 - dan
Isnt all this downloadable crap all shitty sounding MP3s .It lacks in quality and good art work .So I will seek out those small stores.
10 - Eric Berlin
Is it digital music that is really hurting the small indie stores, or is it, as you mention, Wal Mart and Tower Records and so on?
Years ago, I was a regular at a funky little shop in Long Island, New York called Mr. Cheapo's: there was always a vague sense of mystery about the place (and a vague smell of pot as well). "Discovering" classic rock bands and full catalogs of music that were put down on tracks before you were born is one of the cooler parts of growing up.
Today, any variety of shopping is a pain in the ass. I prefer to do most shopping online, and as someone mentioned, the ability to easily hear song samples before purchase cancels out a lot money wasted on albums with one pretty good song.
It is sad that a sense of community is being lost in certain ways -- this of course is a lot larger issue than music and music shops. Society is changing rapidly.
I think people are seeking out new forms of community now, and I believe places like blogcritics.org will be at the forefront of that.
Eric Berlin
Dumpster Bust: Miracles from Mind Trash
http://dumpsterbust.blogspot.com