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Requiem For The Record Store

Rick Zeman writes "The Washington Post has an article (minimal registration required) in which record stores ('Daddy, what's a record?') are preparing for their own demises. They attribute this to the big box stores (Best Buy, etc), online retailers (Amazon, etc) and, you guessed it, downloading, both illegal and legal. 'The fat lady is warming up, but she's not exactly singing,' says one retailer, knowing that he still has a few more years until his business is totally moribund." Get it while it's hot -- soon, the Washington Post is switching to a more annoying registration system.

8 of 348 comments (clear)

  1. Does this story have a pic? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    "The fat lady is warming up, but she's not exactly singing..."

    I need to know if there is a photo before I look at the article.

  2. Re:Same in the Netherlands by HungWeiLo · · Score: 2, Funny

    Isn't it obvious?

    They wanted to...Bach...up their collection.

    Thank you. I'll be here all week. Try the veal.

    --
    There are a huge number of yeast infections in this county. Probably because we're downriver from the bread factory.
  3. hey babe by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny
    98 year old female truck driver living in the Virgin Islands with an income of $2,000,000 per year

    want2cyber?

  4. How to Actively Fight Intrusive Registration by Jah-Wren+Ryel · · Score: 4, Funny

    Marshall said the company and advertisers would not send messages to the e-mail addresses unless the user gave permission to do so during the registration process. However, the company is not promising not to send mail to the home addresses, he said.

    There are a couple of old-as-the-routers methods to passively fight these intrusive registration system like, "Don't read their content" or "Make up a fake person" or "Use the google back-door." But the Washington Post is providing us with a great way to actively fight back here.

    Everyone who registers for a pseudonymous account should be sure to use a zip code in the DC area and then pick a real home address in a more expensive part of town. But, make your pseudonym offensive.

    Simply calling yourself firstname fuck lastname you probably won't work because that is easy to filter for. Instead, be creative with the spelling and the spacing for example, "C'King, AssFu" or "Suk-My Long-Dong." When they start using these addresses for their own promotion or selling them as a mailing-list, there are going to be some pissed-off, humorless rich white folk. All it will take is a lawsuit or two and the Post will see the error of their ways.

    Of course they may consider canceling all free access, but that knife cuts both ways and they've got a lot of competitors who are happy enough that they don't feel the need to squeeze every last penny out of the system.

    --
    When information is power, privacy is freedom.
  5. supply a bogus address by Alien54 · · Score: 3, Funny
    If you don't care about them sending you email, just supply a convenient bogus address. for example:
    • George Brush
      The White House
      1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
      Washington, DC 20500 email:georgebrush@whitehouse.com

    etc. should be fun from a number of different angles ;) [yes, I know it's dot gov ... ;]
    --
    "It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
  6. Re:Cry me a frickin' river... by dlelash · · Score: 3, Funny

    They have -- now they charge $18.99.

  7. Where will I buy my bongs & incense? by jacobcaz · · Score: 3, Funny
    If the local record store is dying, where will I go to pickup a bong, some incense and maybe a creepy black-light poster?

    Think of the thousands of pot-heads out there who will have no place to buy questionable detox supplements, no place to buy artistic "tobacco" paraphernalia... Where will I get gallons and gallons of patchouli oil?

    We must not let the local record stores die!

  8. WalmartTower by JCMoney · · Score: 4, Funny

    I prefer buying CDs at Walmart and Best Buy because the people working there arent the hardcore music freaks, they are the teenagers who need a quick job and got sent to the music department. It really gets me angered when I ask for a CD and the salesmen degrades my choice. An example at a Tower Records would be: Me: Do you have the new MXPX CD? Tower Guy: Ugh...MXPX totally sold out. They are not even punk anymore. Me: Well, where could I find it? Tower Guy: All of there new stuff is horrible. I dont know how anyone can like it. You should check out their old stuff. Me: I have their old stuff, I want the new one. Can you show me where it is? Tower Guy: We're sold out. That just pisses me off. At Best Buy you ask them, they check and they tell you if they have it and where to get it. So much easier.