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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.
Unfortunately for the record stores, they are nothing more than the middleman. They do not own the music they sell, they merely own the discs the music is pressed on.
This means they do not have th freedom to experiment in the manner you suggested. They need approval from the various music companies that are loathe to try anything new that does not involve legislation or lobbying. Getting all music companies to agree on any given plan is very difficult.
-- You see, there would be these conclusions that you could jump to
One of the troubled chains mentioned in the article tried to do exactly that. But they were stymied by the record companies.
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In all fairness, the report referred to had the store owner who was being focused on in an interview.
The guy mainly blamed a large 'boxes' retailer that just started down the block, and they were selling CDs below Dutch import/cost price.
He simply couldn't compete anymore.
The store patronizers also pointed out the collateral damage - though they can get the popular stuff at that large retailer, they can't find the more obscure things there.
They could at the record store.
One patron actually walked in with a bag from the large retailer (Mediamarkt.. closest equiv. would be Best Buy) and pleaded guilty to buying CDs there, but was still coming to the record store for the other things.
Basically, he realized that his buying at the large retailer helped the demise of this record store, but at the same time had a look on his face as if to say that he doesn't care enough for him to be paying extra for the same music just to keep the record store alive.
Yes, online downloads were mentioned, but they weren't largely blamed for the demise of record stores at all.
In parallel, at the ending, some other once-common, now-obsolete stores from radically different markets simply due to the fact that MegaCorps are sprouting up from the ground and nibble at their specific market-segment with a vastly lower sales price.
And when push comes to shove, people would rather save money and go along with mainstream anything, rather than go out of their way to do the right thing and basically get 'punished' due to having to pay extra.