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.

Comments

Registration? What's that?

[Anonymous Coward]

Requiem for the Record Store
Downloaders and Discounters Are Driving Out Music Retailers

By David Segal
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, February 7, 2004; Page A01

With a total stock of more than 85,000 albums, Manifest Discs & Tapes was a music lover's mecca in the North and South Carolina towns where it operated. And despite an industry-wide downturn in CD sales in recent years, all five Manifest stores were turning a decent profit right up until the end of 2003.

So there was shock all around when chain owner Carl Singmaster announced in late December that Manifest would close all locations and lay off all 100 of its employees. There were still plenty of consumers eager to browse the bins, Singmaster explained, but his company's prospects looked bleak and were getting bleaker.

"I felt like I needed to take this opportunity to exit," Singmaster said in a telephone interview. "Indies in the smaller markets face a very risky environment."

It's not just the indies, and it's not just the smaller markets. On Thursday the parent company of Tower Records, which has four stores in the Washington area and a few dozen more in major cities nationwide, was on the verge of filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, according to news reports, having failed to find a suitable buyer. In September, the bankrupt Wherehouse Entertainment chain was acquired by a company that promptly said it would close 35 under-performing stores. Mall chains such as Sam Goody are hurting, too.

As pop's superstars strut down the red carpet in Los Angeles tomorrow night for the Grammy Awards, there's something close to panic in the retail trenches of the music business. The record store is in serious trouble. Sales have been hammered by Internet piracy as well as competition from big-box retailers, such as Best Buy and Wal-Mart, which are two of the nation's leading music vendors. Online CD stores, such as Amazon.com, are gaining momentum, too -- 3 percent of the market in the most recent survey by the Recording Industry Association of America, up from zero eight years ago.

Now a new threat looms. The market for legally downloadable music is tiny today, but the success of Apple's iTunes online music store and the rush of rival services to the marketplace is expected to gobble up an ever-larger share of the pop music pie. A recent study by Forrester Research, which examines technology trends, predicts that in five years fully one-third of all music will be delivered through modems, and the CD itself will be passe, if not obsolete, in the years after. This isn't necessarily bad news for the record labels, but it could be lethal for brick-and-mortar stores.

"I tell retailers they need to get out of the plastic business," said Josh Bernoff, the Forrester analyst who wrote the report, titled "From Discs to Downloads." "Two-thirds of the people who currently download say that when it comes to music, it isn't important to them to hold a physical object. They're done with the CD. They just care about the songs."

If that's true, the album is doomed and the industry is headed back to its roots in the '40s and '50s, when the single was the most popular format. It's already moving that way. Last week, the punk trio Green Day released a cover of the rock classic "I Fought the Law" through a promotion advertised on the Super Bowl and available exclusively on iTunes. That's a peek at the future: Hear the song one minute, own it the next.

That's a transaction that doesn't require a record store, of course. As a precedent, consider the airline ticket. Thanks to online travel sites and the advent of ticketless travel, millions of flyers no longer think of tickets as physical objects that must be printed and brought to the airport. And that's been brutal for travel agencies: in the past three years, 30 percent of them have closed, according to Airlines Reporting Corp., which keeps tabs on the industry.

Plenty of stores like Manifest have surrendered, while others believe the end

Re:Registration? What's that?

[rixstep]

Well it was 'minimal' registration - whatever that means.

I have a serious suggestion: as so many people are royally pissed at these stupid harvesting zines, why don't we just wait until a decent news source publishes before coming to /. with a story?

So we don't have to hide our tails between our hind legs with unbelievable utterances such as 'minimal registration'.

And thanks, parent, for doing the gentlemanly thing and pasting in the entire article. It was a good read. Most kind of you.

Re:Registration? What's that?

[pla]

in other words, it's a demographic survey to show advertizers, who pay money so the Post doesn't have to charge online readers.

Yup... And I actually answered it honestly, when I visited their site. I don't find that too offensive.

However, one of the linked articles mentioned that in the near future, they will go to a very similar model to the NYT - Lots more than mere demographics, and requiring an actual account (though freely available).

Personally, I suspect this will decrease the quality of responses they get, but, their choice. So, I'll end up doing the same I do for the NYT... Seek an alternate source of the info first, and then use a bogus account if I can't find what I want elsewhere.

Sad, really. You'd think sites like that would have enough of a clue to realize that alienating their potential viewers does not make for good relations with them. "Resentfully lie" does not equal "appreciatively answer three simple and anonymous questions".

Don't Forget The Video Store

[tealover]

I haven't been to my local videostore in over 8 months. Netflix is where I go to get my rentals.

These types of businesses will have to get creative to stay in business. Perhaps supplement their rental business with other types of goods. There is a cool video rental place in the East Village that shares space with a pizzeria, theatre and screening room. Two Boots. Check it out.

Re:Don't Forget The Video Store

[Doc Ruby]

With the disappearance of live music venues, record stores would do well to promote live acts, and give out free samples on CD, which autoload the page that sells the band's merchandise, including recordings. Not only will their retail showrooms generate more revenue per square foot than do their boxes of inventory, but they'll attract more engaging salespeople, and more engaged customers. And there's a tiny chance that the music will improve, as it brings players, listeners and the music together in person, where the muse can play.

no Virgins worth entering in the record store biz

[Doc Ruby]

I went to the Virgin Megastore in Times Square last week, stomping through a blizzard, to browse their stacks and pick their brains, for the best collection containing an obscure Quincy Jones single. Miles of aisles, and some few and far between pimply teenagers with a 6 week "pop" memory window, and a numb touchscreen kiosk with "all the answers". By the time I navigated their catalog according to their peculiar pigeonhole system, it offered me the same unavailable compilation in two apparently different ways. They should turn the store into a theme park for their cobranded culture droppings, and drop the pretense of retailing music.

Same in the Netherlands

[johannesg]

I just watched the news and the exact same story was reported about Dutch record stores. Is this just a coincidence or some sort of global media offensive?

It surprised me to hear that piracy is considered responsible for the demise of classical music stores as well. I find it hard to believe that hardcore Bach-lovers are swapping the latest tracks on Kazaa...

Re:Same in the Netherlands

[Animaether]

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.

Physical Media

[77Punker]

I'll always be buying physical media whenever it's available, record shops or not. If I'm buying digital stuff, it's just a keystroke or bankruptcy away from being lost forever. With real stuff, it's much harder to destroy, can be easily backed up, and the format won't go out of style for quite a while.

Re:Physical Media

[Funkeriffic Toad]

Unfortunately, it seems largely recognized that the CD physical format *will* be going out style, and quite soon. While the digital collection may be almost perfectly preserved by backing up on burned discs, what protection do you have when manufacturers stop supporting CDs in favord of Music DVDs and the like? Then you are stuck ripping all your old, scratched up CDs to imperfect digital copies - a major hassle to say the least.

The only *real* benefit of physical media that remains is liner notes / album art. There just isn't a good pure-digital substitute for this, unless digital file formats increase in size enough to contain all the same material (which is a major tradeoff). Programs like Musicmatch and iTunes (and others too, I'm sure) have already begun including small .gif's of the album covers in the ID3 tags, and Musicmatch even allows you to view your mp3 collection as a grid of album art! While this is certainly progress, it's clear that we're not totally beyond the need for physical media.

That's almost a moot point, though, as the Industry has already decided that iTunes et al are the future. (Vis a vis, the recent Pepsi iTunes giveaway campaign... a certain precursor to an expanded marketing focus on legit downloads.) After all, it's been clear for some time that CDs, like every medium before them, are destined to be replaced. And if you think that delaying the switch, say, 5 years will make it any less of a pain, just ask the generations who had to switch from 8-tracks to casettes or vinyl to CD. I'm sure they also hoped that their "format [wouldn't] go out of style for quite a while."

As a last point, let me head off the notion that further switch to purely digital distribution will reduce the amount of personal contact with music experts. First of all, the vast majority (probably like 90%, although that number is made up) of buyers don't care what the guy at the counter thinks about music; they just buy what they see on MTV. Second, the remaining 10% or whatever are unable to get meaningful info at large-scale retailers like Tower, HMV, FYE, .... But this is irrelevant, because the main reasons they would need info are (a) recommendations, and (b) finding obscure albums and whatnot. The former - the essence of word-of-mouth popularity - can never really suffer, I think. The latter would be made *easier* by digitizing all CDs and distributing the tracks over searchable online databases. As for analogue media like vinyl, there is no reason why either the market for these goods or the commercial viability of the stores that sell them should be hurt.

Is this a bad thing?

[Reality Master 101]

I'm not sure what the big deal about this is. I seriously doubt that many people care about "knowledgeable" record store owners. All they want is the lowest price, which the large retailers are going to provide. People learn about music through their friends, the radio, etc.

Now, the knowledgeable people used to be more important, because we didn't have online sources of knowledge. Who wants to trek down to ask Record Story Guy about that obscure album when you can sit in front of your computer and make a post on some web site to the world? Sure, there are some people who want the record store experience, but I highly doubt that it's a significant number.

There's just no reason for them to exist anymore, unless they can somehow sell for less.

Re:Is this a bad thing?

[yintercept]

I've come across some new mixed concept shops which are geared entirely around local music. The store had a stage for bands to play, sells and promotes local musicians, helps local musicians with recording, etc.. Difficulties in the megastore record store concept might open the door for more local and independent music scene.

Good idea/Bad idea?

[Thiscatiswild]

Bitching about annoying registration requirements: Good idea
Opening slashdot to charges of copyright infringement by reposting an entire piece of copyrighted material here: Bad idea

Generic pure record stores may die

[Gogl]

But those that either appeal to specific hard-to-find genres (like places that have a lot of used stuff and let you trade in and so forth) and those that have diversified beyond recordings (like Borders) will still be around for awhile, I think. Even with the internet, I still like going to Borders and hanging out, browsing some books and previewing some cds and generally shopping around. And the used places are nice too, as you can often encounter things that you probably wouldn't find anywhere else.

interesting enough...

[MoceanWorker]

i read a similar article yesterday in Newsday about Tower Records filing for bankruptcy

The article though takes a somewhat different approach stating that competition from Wal-mart and Best Buy and their lower priced CDs is causing Tower's bankruptcy..

If they actually start lowering CD prices to, say, $6 or so for an album.. i'll buy..

Re:interesting enough...

[queen of everything]

The last time I was in a Tower Records store they wanted $16 for a cd. Back in 1988 I paid $16 for a cd because it was still a new thing. Why would I pay that much when I could pay so much less at Wal-mart? The people who work at Tower (at least by me) are not music aficiodos, they know their particular genre, that's it. Plus, they were scary, not the type of people you feel confortable going to up and asking a question. To me, the "service" is not worth the extra cost.

I'm much more comfortable sitting in front of my computer and ordering the cds that I want and waiting for my best friend to bring them to me, Mr. UPS man.

Re:Go rent/buy High Fidelity

[ebbomega]

Used Vinyl != your typical music store.

Used Vinyl stores are still meccas for purists and DJs. They will forever remain alive.

I cant say I'm suprised

[56uSquareWave]

I have downloaded music for years, but all that has done is vastly widen my musical taste. Now I want albums from labels that the monkies in virgin and hmv haven't even heard of! So places like amazon are always going to win with a wider range. All I want now is for them to stop the stupid price fixing restrictions CDwow and i will be happy.

joe

I've already seen some businesses fail

[lake2112]

I live my an independent music store that recently shut down due to a Best Buy open up right next door. While the Best Buy is able to offer cheaper prices and more variety, they lack the human interaction I found at my local recordstore. I knew many of the sales associates there and valued their opinion as to what music to buy. They always knew the newest indie rock band to recommend to me, while at Best Buy the only thing recommended to me is Britney Spears, crappy nu-metal, or some talentless mainstream musician.

Re:I've already seen some businesses fail

[shark72]

"I live my an independent music store that recently shut down due to a Best Buy open up right next door."

Incidentally, this is how the record companies got nailed for price-fixing a few years back:

1. The big box stores (Best Buy, etc.) started selling CDs at little or no profit as an incentive to bring customers into the store (where they'd presumably also buy a high-margin item at the same time).
2. Smaller vendors, as expected, freaked out and complained to the record companies.
3. The record companies starting using a mechanism (already common in many other industries) called MAPS, or Minimum Advertised Prices, or MAPs. Retailers who sold their wares had to agree to not advertise CDs below a certain price -- they could sell them for any price they want, but not advertise them. This was done to help protect the "little guys" who didn't have a metric buttload of high-margin CE devices in the back of the store and thus couldn't slash prices on CDs as a draw.
4. The big box retailers complained to the government.
5. The record companies stopped doing MAPs. Meanwhile, lots of other merchandise in your local Best Buy is sold with a MAP arrangement -- the difference is that nobody's complained to the government. Yet.
6. Smaller retailers who can't compete on price continue to go out of business, as covered in the article.
7. Some slashdotters -- those of you who'll be hurrying to mod this down -- (correctly) point out that record companies have been nailed for price fixing; thus they are corrupt evil greedy bastards, and (incorrectly) thus it is morally okay to use Kazaa for this reason. Two wrongs making a right, and all that.
8. ...Profit! No, just kidding.

Its because of the retail clerks

[thedogcow]

I know why the stores are at their demise versus online venues... The retail clerks...

I shop online because I've been to the stores and the retail clerks all seem to be essentially worthless.

The quality of knowledge is decreasing exponentially in these huge mega stores upon the retail clerks... or at least it seems more often than not.

Video Stores will be around for a while...

[Cyno01]

Video stores will stick around becuase sometimes people just need a movie to watch. I was out to dinner with friends last night and somone was talking about the evining with kevin smith special, and we were like, what the hell, lets go rent it. Thats what rental places will cater to, spur of the moment type things. Netflix is nice, but if you dont know what you want in advance it cant beat wandering the ailes trying to decide on a movie for that nite. Until VOD services get better(speed, selection and widespread) there will still be a blockbuster on the corner. Most popular movies it would be easy enough to download it p2p and output it to my tv, but even with my high speed cable connection it still takes at least 40 minutes to download a 700mb divx dvd rip, its a lot quicker to walk over to blockbuster.

Endangered, probably never extinct...

[Jin Wicked]

As someone who has gone to many conventions and been to stores of another seemingly dying art form -- comic books -- I have to say, there may be fewer of them but I doubt record stores will completely die out. There will always be enough collectors and people into obscure or older media to sustain at least one or two decent stores for cities. I've noticed the best ones are usually the stores that doen't just specialize in one thing, also. The store I used to go to for imports impossible to find almost anywhere else also carried rare and vintage t-shirts, concert posters, tapes, CDs, vinyl -- you name it. Comics in their traditional form are dying out, they've been replaced by tradepaperbacks, mostly... but there is enough of an audience to still sustain them for now.

Plus to the purist and somewhere where many customers are regulars, it's hard to beat a real person to walk you around and recommend new music based on everything else you've bought in the past. I know Amazon tries, but just like I believe ebooks will never replace real books, the atmosphere just isn't there. The only CDs I've bought in the last five or six years have all been used, from used CD/record stores. I've only started ordering everything online since I lost my car. That's my $.02.

Does this story have a pic?

[Anonymous Coward]

"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.

Why don't they do the obvious?

[Simonetta]

If the record stores really want to stay in business, then why don't they do the obvious?

Install a very high speed telecom line and a bank of DVD/CDRW burners. When someone wants the latest album by Shithead (pronounced Shee - thay - hahd; an ancient Celtic term meaning brave and worthy) then they would go to the record store and buy a CD-R or DVD that is burned from the copy that is storage in the store's hard disk RAID array. (Or they would download the album from the record company (and store it on their in-house hard disk RAID bank if it wasn't there already).

The fact is, record stores are going out of business because, they are TOO STUPID to adapt to even simple changes in the business environment.

Re:Why don't they do the obvious?

[tealover]

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.

Re:Why don't they do the obvious?

[mog007]

The fact is, record stores are going out of business because, they are TOO STUPID to adapt to even simple changes in the business environment.

Just like the recording industry that these stores buy their music from, right? The RIAA has a very conservative view, and it's understandable. They've made billions over the past few years because people paid inflated prices for music. They're still not fully aware that the future rests in iTunes, and not in the Sam Goody in the mall.

Re:Why don't they do the obvious?

[Aire Libre]

To the contrary, record stores were a lot smarter than the record companies. Long before anyone had ver heard of Napster, they were clammoring to offer EVERYTHING online, and to have the freedom to experiment on pricing, customer service, search engines, presentation, promotions, compatibility with preferred operating systems and media players. The the record companies basically said "No, that's our future space. We want to sell directly to your customers." When they did give permission, it was for a limited quantity, a limited time, and with all sorts of restrictions none of the pirate or unlicensed services had to contend with. The record companies refused to let the retailers meet consumer demand. The rest is history.

Bad business model.

[CashCarSTAR]

I feel bad for the record stores. I really do. They've been screwed by the labels.

The average, mid-sized record store has been reduced to basic meaninglessness. Forget downloading. The labels focus on less megahits as opposed to a more evenhanded approach to music has left them in a pickle.

The average listerner to music only wants the latest big hits. Because of this, the big box stores can use their size advantage and price them right out of the market. As well, they don't need to dedicate much floor space to this at all.

Locally, there is not a single store dedicated to new music. Not one. One record store closed, and the other sells more DVDs than CDs, and has more store space dedicated to it. CDs are reduced to one wall and one row.

Record stores should still work

[Peter Cooper]

I don't think the humble record should die, and I don't think it will. Many will go, but the good ones will stay. The problem, as I see it, is that most record stores have become completely homogenized. They all play crappy R&B music (the new type, not real R&B), have generic attendants, and want to sell you DVDs, computer games, and all sorts of crap.

Back in the 60's it wasn't uncommon for people to hang out at the record store, buy records, lay around on beanbags checking out the latest stuff, and walk out with a bag of records at the end of the day. It was also quite common for bands (big and small) to play at record stores. Why can't this happen more these days?

Yeah, okay, I'm yearning for the record stores in films like High Fidelity, and to a lesser extent, Empire Records :-)

Cry me a frickin' river...

[bckrispi]

Maybe if the poor, victimized record stores (e.g. Virgin, Warehouse, et.al) would stop charging $17.99 for a CD, they wouldn't have this problem.

Re:Cry me a frickin' river...

[dlelash]

They have -- now they charge $18.99.

Re:no Virgins worth entering in the record store b

[broller]

That wasn't "interesting" at all. Basically the parent poster said:

Oh boo hoo. I went to a store and had to search and search through the popular stuff that they sell everyday! I picked the brains of the employees, and *gasp* they weren't music historians, but knew quite a bit about the current offerings. How dare they!

I finally found what I was looking for, twice even, but they didn't have this obscure song by an unpopular artist in stock right away! What do they think they're in business for? To sell popular music to people who like popular music?!

As I passed the posters, t-shirts, books, magazines, and DVD's on my way out of the store, I thought, "If they're not going to sell the music I like, they should just stop pretending to sell music and focus on selling pop culture."

Hey buddy, the term is "target audience" and sorry, but you're not in it.

Apple is NOT losing money on every iTune Sale

[Nova Express]

Likewise, at 99 cents per song, Apple is actually losing money on each track it sells.

No, Apple is NOT losing money on every track they sell. Time and time again they've stated that the iTunes store itself breaks even; by now, with all the volume it's doing, it may even be turning a slight profit.

This is yet another example of why you can't trust newspapers or any "general interest" journalists (I'm a Mac owner, so I keep up with Apple very closely). As a fellow science fiction writer (I think it was S. M. Striling) said on a panel: "You know all the errors you spot when a newspaper does an article on a subject you're an expert on? Well, all the other articles are just as inacurate, you just don't know it."

It's the Wal-Mart, stupid

[Animats]

This is not about downloading. This is about record stores being crushed by Wal-Mart. The same thing happened to local appliance stores years ago. It's happening to toy stores right now. (FAO Schwartz and Toys r Us both went under in January.) Up next, grocery stores and video stores. Blockbuster is scared.

Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated.

Barriers to incorporating internet tech in stores?

[mgkimsal2]

I don't understand why more smaller stores
don't offer internet capabilities in their stores specifically for research. Talking about the 'knowledgeable record store employees' is fine in some stores, but most don't have people who know *everything*. I worked in a music store, and hated not having answers to people, especially when I knew I could find the answers at home via newsgroups. *NOW* it's even easier to find most info, but I don't see web connections in stores (big OR small). It would be *so* easy to put them in and throw up a $50/month DSL connection to wire 3-4 PCs for customer/employee research.

*SAME* idea - but why don't video stores have web connections to IMDB. If any of you reading this *have* that, you're lucky. Not one video store around here (big chain or indy) *has* that available. I certainly don't expect the 2-3 employees at a blockbuster to know the ins and outs of all my movie questions, but if I could get those questions answered, I'd likely rent more at that moment (assuming they *had* what I had researched).

Also, by having in store PCs, you could log what people are searching for, and perhaps actually *stock* what people are after. 90% of people who came into our stores were 'just looking' (and that's my line now too) but if I could do a bit of research, I'd likely buy more at the stores). Yeah, wireless web/PDA/cellphones will make that happen one day (right - sure!) but *for now* fight the decline of music and video retailing by making it easier for people to do quick research. They'll buy more.

How to Actively Fight Intrusive Registration

[Jah-Wren Ryel]

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.

More scapegoating? How unexpected.

[GabrielStrange]

This is beyond idiotic.

Personally, I've definitely been buying a heck of a lot more music in the last few years, since P2P became a big part of my life. I'm exposed to a lot more music now, so the amount of music that I end up deciding I really love is much greater, and if I really love something I want to own it. (Let's skip the list of reasons behind this, it's an argument I'm sure most of you are pretty darn familiar with.)

But it's also quite true that I've been buying stuff at record stores much less often. In fact, I remember on occasion when I was at a Tower Records and suddenly heard a familiar voice singing an unfamiliar song on the store's PA... Walked over to the section of the store that included that artist's music and found out she had a new album out... And immediately drove home to download it.

Then a few months later bought it, but not at Tower Records, at Microcenter, a computer store that also has a small section of CD's.

Why? Because Tower Records wanted almost $20 for the CD, but Microcenter wanted about $13. And because Tower Records had a scary goth kid with far too many piercings working the cash register.

Stores like Tower Records apparently base their business model on getting teenage kids with subpaar intelligence and rich parents to cough up a nice amount of daddy's money in order to get products that they could be getting for much cheaper at a regular store. Unfortunately for them, it's those same teenage kids who are also most likely to download a bunch of tracks off of KaZaA and not even notice, let alone care, that they've got a ton of skips, that they were downsampled to 32 KHz and encoded at 96 kbits/sec, that they've apparently been re-encoded several times and now have a ton of artifacts and that it's been ages since they've heard an actual album in its entirety.

It's a simple principle, really. These kids don't think and don't care, and in the past that's meant that they didn't see how the record stores were putting one over on them... But now it means that they also don't see the added value that record stores add over KaZaA downloads.

And it appears that, like the RIAA itself, these record stores would prefer to close down and blame others than to try to rethink their business model.

I used to love Tower Records. Tower and the Virgin Megastore. Because I thought of them as the two record stores that are most likely to have the sort of weirder, more eccentric music I listen to. There was a "Tower Alternative" store in a neighboring city that I used to go to a lot, which was a Tower store that specialized in weirder music.

Now that's pointless, though... Even the weirder stuff can be found online easily, and I can shop around for the best prices on it easily. If record stores want my continued business, they need to:

1. Offer competitive prices to online stores
2. Make me feel like I'm welcome despite the fact that I don't listen to Britney, Limp Bizkit, BT, Pink, or any other top-40 "artist"
3. Offer a big enough selection of records for me to feel like there's a good chance I'll find what I am looking for if I visit
4. Play up the fact that I'll get to take my purchases home immediately, rather than wait a week for them to be shipped to me.

But there isn't a chance in hell they'd be willing to make such changes, I gather. It'd be far too logical and well thought out.

RTFA

[The Wicked Priest]

One of the troubled chains mentioned in the article tried to do exactly that. But they were stymied by the record companies.

supply a bogus address

[Alien54]

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 ... ;]

Another Article With A Different Perspective

[servoled]

A few weeks back the Green Bay Press Gazette had an article about a small music store (The Exclusive Company) in Green Bay (and a few other locations throughout Wisconsin) that are still doing fairly well and have no plans of stopping now. Small music stores can survive, they just have to find their market and stick with it.

Mom and Pop stores are never going to beat Walmart and Bestbuy trying to sell the latest Britney Spears and Outkast CDs because there is no way they will be able to compete with the volume discounts those stores receive, and on the "loss leader" practice of business. However, if they can make a name for themselves in certain areas like The Exclusive Company has, then they will do just fine.

I have moved out of the hell that is Green Bay to the east coast, but I still do 80% of my music shopping there, because I know that there is a very good chance they will have what I want in stock, and I know I can ask Tom for reccomendations on new bands which I may not know and walk out of the store with a damn fine CD I have never heard of. Small record shops will live and die on the people who run them and what they stock, not by trying to beat the giants on price.

Re:This is 100% due to online piracy

[deathofcats]

Music sales were declining before music downloading took off. This situation rests on the greedy shoulders of the music industry. They had this monopoly scheme going where they could rip off music fans for $17 for medicore artists and now they think people will be sympathetic when new technology destroys their monopoly system? Like where does it say that they have a right to make billions of dollars? People have been making music for free for thousands of years. The punk movement has been distributing music cheaply for years. There are lots of quality punk CDs out there for $7.

I'm not a big music lover, but I would buy more music if it was cheaper. I had been buying CDs, but then I started wandering around Tower stores that were selling CDs for $17, which was even too expensive for a guy with a professional job. I've downloaded songs and totally support file sharing, but these days I just prefer to listening to the radio or radio stations over the Internet. I'd love to spend money on CDs, but only if they drop below $10.

The music industry just doesn't get it. And nobody sympathizes with a bully after some picked on kid fights back.

Where will I buy my bongs & incense?

[jacobcaz]

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!

Re:no Virgins worth entering in the record store b

[NineNine]

Maybe if you visited a non "Mega" store, you'd have some help. What you got is exactly what I'd expect from a big box store. If you want service, go to an independent store.

WalmartTower

[JCMoney]

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.

a clue

[chunkwhite86]

On a recent trip to Japan I noticed the huge difference in attitude towards music sale. For example, there are many music stores in Japan that rent music CD's. I don't think there's a single store in the US where you can do this. In addition, these same stores sell bulk packs of CD-R's!! It costs about US$1.00 to rent a CD album for a few days. These stores are usually frequented by young people and are very busy on a typical day. Business must be good.

Legal complications aside, the US based music stores (and us consumers) might have something to gain by taking a lesson from the Japanese.

HEY, I OWN A RECORD STORE!

[tentimestwenty]

Most record stores aren't stupid. I happen to own one and I know a lot of other people that do too. In fact, I run a whole web site devoted to finding the good ones.

The reason that record stores are going out of business is two-fold:

1. Product is too expensive and there is very poor availability. It has been like this since CDs came out.
2. People can get everything they want for free.

The result obviously is that no one except true music lovers are willing to buy anything. The blame should be shared equally between the industry for not making a good, affordable product, and the consumer for not appreciating that music is art and costs money. Neither of these has anything to do with record stores being stupid. If anything, the local independent record store has been the only reason that the whole music industry didn't implode in the 70s.

Local stores provide an invaluable "gatekeeper" service which determines what records become classics and what records become popular. All day long, I'm listening to new music and selecting the best stuff for my clients. I'm always learning their taste, and they mine, and I can pull 10 records at any time that I know a particular person will like. It's kind of sad that people don't want this kind of interaction anymore.