Requiem For The Record Store 348
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.
Registration? What's that? (Score:3, Informative)
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
Good idea/Bad idea? (Score:4, Insightful)
Opening slashdot to charges of copyright infringement by reposting an entire piece of copyrighted material here: Bad idea
Re:Registration? What's that? (Score:5, Insightful)
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
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.
supply a bogus address (Score:4, Funny)
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500 email:georgebrush@whitehouse.com
etc. should be fun from a number of different angles
Re:Registration? What's that? (Score:2)
Y'know... Registration. Like the nag-screen at the New York Times, where you have to enter "slashdot2003" twice in order to actually see the article.
Hmm, I wonder if a "slashdot2004" exists yet... These things only seem to live around a year before vanishing, so 2003 should dissapear soon...
Re:Registration? What's that? (Score:2, Informative)
But the WaPo doesn't require registration. There's no name required, no email address, no user ID, no password. It just asks for a year of birth, sex, and zip-code -- in other words, it's a demographic survey to show advertizers, who pay money so the Post doesn't have to charge online readers.
Re:Registration? What's that? (Score:4, Interesting)
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 (Score:5, Interesting)
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 (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Don't Forget The Video Store (Score:3, Interesting)
as far as record stores are concerned, i am almost shocked that people don't support their small
Video Stores will be around for a while... (Score:5, Insightful)
Why don't they do the obvious? (Score:5, Interesting)
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? (Score:5, Informative)
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.
Labels won't let them (Score:2)
RTFA (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Why don't they do the obvious? (Score:3, Insightful)
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? (Score:2)
Change 'bank of' to 'a' and that's what I do now at home. For free.
Re:Why don't they do the obvious? (Score:2)
Same with Internet cafes. What a great idea - but doomed to failure or at least a niche market, as eventually everyone had the intern
Re:Why don't they do the obvious? (Score:3, Interesting)
HEY, I OWN A RECORD STORE! (Score:3, Insightful)
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 sh
All Hail the Mighty Cockroach. (Score:3, Insightful)
Actually, people do.
Most of the big box retailers are spread too thin as far as selection goes, and pop doesn't account for the entirety of the market.
Most shops I go to usually specialize in a particular genre of music that isn't mainstream or obscure recordings (or vinyl for that matter). It's fringe, but one area where Best Buy can't compete. It also makes for a devoted customer base.
And, as you pointed out, those shops act as
Re:Don't Forget The Video Store (Score:3, Insightful)
I still rent movies, I go and pick up the movies I want, and most of the time I can get it without problems. Netflix is too much work, and you pay for months you dont use. I sometimes don't rent for 2-3 months, then its 3-4 times in a couple weeks. Depending on my work sechedule. The vide
Re:Don't Forget The Video Store (Score:2)
There's a lot of movies in my Netflix queue that I wouldn't see otherwise (not something I'd think of at Blockbuster, not stocked, etc). I just signed up a few weeks ago, and already have close to 200 movies in my queue. I figure I can justify $20 with 3 movies a month, and I'll probably turn them around faster than that.
Re:Don't Forget The Video Store (Score:2)
Re:Don't Forget The Video Store (Score:2)
Granted, my town, nor the ones around it, have yet to be infested by Blockbuster.
A theater & screening room, I'd have to wonder what would happen if the MPAA gets wind of that. They aren't so easy to deal with that a small shop can get permission to make money selling seats for movies on such a small scale.
no Virgins worth entering in the record store biz (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:no Virgins worth entering in the record store b (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:no Virgins worth entering in the record store b (Score:2)
Re:no Virgins worth entering in the record store b (Score:4, Insightful)
Boo Hoo (Score:2, Insightful)
Same in the Netherlands (Score:5, Interesting)
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 (Score:2, Funny)
They wanted to...Bach...up their collection.
Thank you. I'll be here all week. Try the veal.
Re:Same in the Netherlands (Score:5, Informative)
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.
Re:Same in the Netherlands (Score:2)
In the end I think that retail outlets (audio and video) will end up selling used stuff, independent material, and maybe reselling downloads. T
Physical Media (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Physical Media (Score:4, Interesting)
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
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,
Re:Physical Media (Score:2)
Re:Physical Media (Score:2)
Not if we don't buy it...I for one live pretty well without my daily fix from the hollywood propaganda machine. This is entertainment. It's not necessary for human survival. Find an alternative. Don't support these people.
Is this a bad thing? (Score:5, Insightful)
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? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Is this a bad thing? (Score:2)
As to storefronts, some of the major used LP dealers in L.A. already closed their shops and went to entirely online business, because it was more economically viable in light of the rising cost of rent, liability and loss insurance, etc. that are required for a brick-and-mortar presence.
If the shop owner was responsive in person, chances are he's just as responsive by email, so as a potential customer I can get nearly the sa
Re:Is this a bad thing? (Score:2)
Lowest price? Usually not. Every time I go into a big box music store, I leave wondering why I even entered the store in the first place.
In my experience, the major chains are too expensive ($17 for a domestic easy-to-find CD? Who the heck pays these prices?), rarely have anything I'm looking for (but they have 100 copies of Britany Spears and Eminem), the staff is clueless once you get out of the top-100 albums, you can't
Re:Is this a bad thing? (Score:2)
For Christmas, my wife asked for the Grease two disc soundtrack. Not exactly an obscure title. I looked at Best Buy, Borders and Virgin and found the 1-disc "Highlights from Grease" sound track for $18.99. None of them carried the two disc set. Went to my local music store and found the two disc set (new) for $20. Used two disc set was $15. New "Highlights" sin
Re:Is this a bad thing? (Score:2)
Why depend on a single employee for an answer to that question when you can query millions of people for a much better answer using collaborative filtering [shirky.com]?
When this collaborative filtering is finally embraced (much more than it is now) record stores and labels will truly be useless relics. What are they needed for again?:
Re:Is this a bad thing? (Score:2)
Except for the fact that the "millions of people" out there like music that I personaly hate.
I don't want to know what "millions of people" like. I want to know what is good, that I won't hear on the radio because it is too niche (for example solo albums by blues harp players), too local (part of my RIAA boycott includes patronizing locally produced
Generic pure record stores may die (Score:5, Insightful)
interesting enough... (Score:5, Interesting)
The article [newsday.com] 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... (Score:5, Interesting)
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:interesting enough... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:interesting enough... (Score:2)
Of course, Wal-mart's selection is pathetically small, but since 99% of music buyers have an extremely narrow range of interest, it works well for them.
Aside of the huge Tower Records about 45 minutes from me (and not even the other Towers in the area), I don't even visit music stores any more. I can rarely find anything interesting, and never what I'm
Re:interesting enough... (Score:2)
The first time I was in a Tower Records store - LP's were on the order of $4 each, pre-recorded open reel tapes were a bit more and the selection was better than any record store I had ever seen before. That was -um- a few years ago.
Tower is doing the natural thing by trying to diversify into video - however that's done at the expense of diversity in music selection - my main reason for going to Tower was the wide seection - now I might as well buy from Amazon
I cant say I'm suprised (Score:5, Interesting)
joe
I've already seen some businesses fail (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:I've already seen some businesses fail (Score:2)
I have found Best Buy's CD selection to be just short of exemplary. While I do have trouble finding some of the more obscure artists I've been recommended, it's rare that I find *nothing* I like.
I don't often buy CDs, but when I do I go to
Re:I've already seen some businesses fail (Score:2)
Re:I've already seen some businesses fail (Score:5, Insightful)
"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:
Its because of the retail clerks (Score:4, Insightful)
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.
Endangered, probably never extinct... (Score:4, Interesting)
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? (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.
Bad business model. (Score:4, Insightful)
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 (Score:5, Interesting)
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
Re:Record stores should still work (Score:2)
I see the future of retail entertainment to be in consolodation; places like Hastings that have books + movies + music + software + console game are still going to get by. Browsing through the racks at a bookstore is always going to be more interesting that just picking up something specific off Amazon.
I love Rasputin... (Score:2)
Re:I love Rasputin... - Now that I RTFA.... (Score:2)
Rasputin still rocks though.
Cry me a frickin' river... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Cry me a frickin' river... (Score:3, Funny)
Unique plastic media (Score:2)
I'm just glad it's getting easier and cheaper to support artists by getting rid of the old-economy middlemen, and without having to do it through buying a token physical CD (or doing the concert thing, which ain't my
This is 100% due to online piracy (Score:2)
The only reason I can think of for this, is you can't pirate a Futurama doll online, and Movie rips online are either too large, or of unacceptable quality to the average potential downloader.
It is not profitable for a retailer to stock/wherehouse any quantity of an item when your customer can get it online, far more conveniently, for free or at 99 cents a tune.
Granted,
Re:This is 100% due to online piracy (Score:3, Insightful)
Allow me to refine my point (Score:2)
By creating a system where there are only 20 bands getting any real airplay on the radio, with much of the play limited to 1-3 songs off of the latest album, the recording industry has made it exceedingly easy for a person to download the top 40 in any given month. Why would someone shell out 340 dollars to buy all of the albums at 17 dollars a pop, when they can just download the songs that they are he
Apple is NOT losing money on every iTune Sale (Score:5, Interesting)
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."
Re:Apple is NOT losing money on every iTune Sale (Score:2)
possible profit killer for Apple/iTMS.....? (Score:2)
in addition to bandwith, servers, humans, bla..... what about the fees taken by the people handling the credit card purchase?
Apple's iTMS also allows the 1 Click shopping as well as adding purchases to a cart and checking out. i bought 2 songs about 2 minutes apart using 1Click (not thinking about it) but the 2 charges showed up on my credit card as 2 charges... makes sense... but unless Apple has some
It's the Wal-Mart, stupid (Score:4, Insightful)
Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated.
How FAO Schwarz succumbed (Score:3, Informative)
Then the MBA Borg moved in, took the company public, opened FAO Schwarzes in shopping malls (e.g. Caesars Palace in Las Vegas), dumped the one-of-a kind toys that had distinguished the FAO Schwarz brand, and filled the stores with the same crap as Toys-R-Us. This resulted in the 150 year-old company's going i
Barriers to incorporating internet tech in stores? (Score:4, Interesting)
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.
Re:Barriers to incorporating internet tech in stor (Score:2)
It's not there anymore.
How to Actively Fight Intrusive Registration (Score:5, Funny)
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.
Singles and Technology are the answer (Score:2, Interesting)
Now apply that concept to retail music stores.
You go in to the music store, go to the Kiosk, listen to samples from every available album currently in prin, all the while selecting a song here or there that you may want to bu
More scapegoating? How unexpected. (Score:3, Insightful)
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:
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.
excellent mailorder options (Score:2, Informative)
DE:
Unisex [unisex-musicmail.de]
UK:
Penny Black Music [pennyblackmusic.com]
US:
Darla [darla.com]
Indiepages [indiepages.com]
Parasol [parasol.com]
Revolver/Midhaven [midheaven.com]
Tonevendor [tonevendor.com]
Twee Kitten [tweekitten.com] (they also have dvds and give discounts on larger orders)
For some more useful links (bands, labels etc) check here [indiepages.com] or here [morganleahrecords.com].
Also, the best records shops are Amoeba [amoebamusic.com] and Sonic Boom [sonicboomrecords.com].
Whoa there . . . (Score:2, Interesting)
Michigan (Score:2)
Another Article With A Different Perspective (Score:4, Interesting)
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:Another Article With A Different Perspective (Score:2)
True, the record store has one main advantage to me that keeps me coming back: service. The best music I've managed to get recently has come from walking into a tiny little record store and saying "what do you recommend that I can't get in Bloomington, IN."
1/3 of downloaders may still want physical object (Score:3, Interesting)
So: even among downloaders there's still a group, one third of the total, that does still find it important to "hold a physical object." I have to believe that among non-downloading music consumers the number of people still interested in the "physical object" is essentially 100 per cent.
The question then is how many non-downloaders purchase music? And among the downloaders that are interested in the physical object: is the physical object really important to them? Also, from the Forrester "Quick View" of the "Discs to Downloads" report [forrester.com]:
- Proliferating on-demand media services will overtake piracy.
- In five years, 33% of music sales will come from downloads.
Sounds to me like there still a lot of potential for sales of physical media -- even if it's not exactly the mass market it used to be.Where will I buy my bongs & incense? (Score:4, Funny)
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!
A Lesson in Perspective (Score:3)
Of course we will. But we'll also get over not having record companies between musicians and the public, filtering what gets copied and distributed and controlling what buyers (and even the musicians themselves) are allowed to do with the copies. I don't know when I last read any mainstream article suggesting that the whole recording industry should go the way of record stores. But it should.
WalmartTower (Score:4, Funny)
Not all stores are getting killed (Score:2, Informative)
Here in San Francisco, Amoeba Records [amoebamusic.com] is surviving quite well. With three store locations, they're actually turning a profit while the Best Buy in San Francisco is having problems with their CD sales. In fact, I just came back from shopping the Haight and grabbed a couple of CDs myself at Amoeba. Everytime I walk down the Haight I always stop by Amoeba and grab something new from their used section. (Recently, it's been the Drum & Bass section.)
These reviews [recordstorereview.com] pretty much sum up Amoeba records.
Maybe Be
a clue (Score:4, Interesting)
Legal complications aside, the US based music stores (and us consumers) might have something to gain by taking a lesson from the Japanese.
Bullcrap. (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Who reads the WP Anyway? (Score:2)
Re:Who reads the WP Anyway? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Go rent/buy High Fidelity (Score:4, Insightful)
Used Vinyl stores are still meccas for purists and DJs. They will forever remain alive.
cypherpunk account now a little more difficult (Score:3, Informative)
[1] Some sites got wise to the cypherpunk/cypherpunk combo a few years back and started deleting them. In such cases, ciferpunk is oftentimes there.
Re:cypherpunk account now a little more difficult (Score:2, Informative)
In these cases i find mailinator.com an invaluable resource..... Dont be lazy find out for yourelf what it is, you wont regret it.
Re:annoying registration (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Washington Post registration (Score:3, Informative)
I think they are trying to get people to read the Express in the hope people will eventually subscribe to the print edition of the WP, but no sale. The WP used to be a great newspaper (i.e. Woodward and Bernstein's fam