Record Shops - The End?

I really hope not. I think the record companies are doing a good job of killing things off and creating their own demise but I am just not sure that downloading is THE major driver here. It is more likely Tesco and Amazon that are doing the main damage diverting mass market sales away from brick and mortar. From what I have seen of downloading sales figures, they do not replace lost CD sales in volume terms and CD sales still make up the majority of music sold. Maybe youngsters are just not so interested in some of the stuff put out today.

At the moment living in Sydney (but not for much longer) I feel really lucky to have so many brick and mortar stores that are extremely well stocked with mainstream, alternative, a specialist jazz store, specialist classical store, world music etc etc. I spent a large part of this weekend visiting them all and buying a lots of stuff at very good prices. The opportunity to browse and listen to new stuff (not on the web) is something I would really miss if these places did not exist. Also, the opportunity to build relationships with the owners of these stores is priceless as well. Some of these stores only opened recently and seem to do OK.

The big labels only have themselves to blame if they cease to exist with Pop Idol type rubbish and compression. There is however a lot of excellent music out these on small labels and beautifully recorded.

I hope that as the marketplace resizes in the UK, we will be left with some excellent specialist brick and mortar stores that thrive and are supported by music enthusiasts.

It would be very sad if the only place to go and buy some music at the weekend was at the end of aisle 5 in Tesco.

This is a subject close to my heart and I buy 99% of my music from records shop and I urge fellow forumites to do the same if they can. I am extremely lucky as I live and work in and around Greater London and have access to probably 30+ record shops and I know a lot of people do not have this luxury. But I urge people to "use them or loose 'em".

For me the prices that are available on the web have skewed the market and when people who are used to these prices walk into a bricks and mortar store they are shocked by the prices, but you must take into account the overheads stores have (especially Central London) and the fact that you can sample the genuine quality of the recording which you cannot from an MP3.

I leave you with a thought someone had on another site "you don't know what you have until its gone"



Dean..

What Dean said. Except I have to rely mostly on mail order.

I've also joined Rough Trade's Album Club. Although you pay £12 for a CD which admittedly you can get cheaper from Amazon, you often get exclusive collectable extra discs included in the price.

Steeve

quote:

Originally posted by Steeve:
What Dean said. Except I have to rely mostly on mail order.

I've also joined Rough Trade's Album Club. Although you pay £12 for a CD which admittedly you can get cheaper from Amazon, you often get exclusive collectable extra discs included in the price.

Steeve

Steeve,



What do you think of the music you've had so far from the album club? 3 of the 4 albums I have received I would never have bought but like all of them so for me its a great way of receiving stuff I would not normally look at and the added excitement of getting a totally unknown Cd in the post is great as well.



Dean..

Dean,

Couldn't agree more. I've been looking for a reliable "mentor" ever since the death of John Peel really and Rough Trade seem to fit the bill for me ; we seem to have similar tastes.

I've liked them all, especially the MGMT one but also Pete and The Pirates and The Shortwave Set spring to mind.

Steeve

Steeve have to agree,


The MGMT album is fantastic but I'd like to find the person who decided on the mastering of that album and bloody strangle him/her because that's exactly what they've done with the dynamics.





Dean..

Record shops come in two varieties as far as I am concerned, major chains and independents.

I would support the independents if any of my local ones were any good, but they are not (in Leeds).

I will not buy anything from HMV and whatever Virgin has now become, they were part of a cartel that kept CD prices artificially high before the internet came along and allowed real competition.

I actually find being these shops unpleasant, as I almost always detest the music they have playing and feel that the people working there are not interested in music (there are a few exceptions I know).

If I have the option, I buy my CDs from the artist's own on-line shops, that way (hopefully) more of the money goes to the artist. I don't care if the CD costs a few pound more, it is better than filling the pockets of middle-men.

I miss browsing in the indie shops like Sister Ray in London and a lovely one that used to be in Leeds Merion Centre that I forget the name of.

I would not have discovered one of my favourite artists (Mark Kozelek/Red House Painters) had I not been browsing in that shop and asked the owner what he was playing, and then had a lovely conversation about artists we shared a love of, or thought the other might like.

Sadly I don't think those days are ever coming back. I do still visit the London indie shops on Berwick Street when I can, but it is on-line shopping for me.

I would add that Amazon's recommendations list has been a surprising source of a few discoveries, but most new artists I find now are from friends/those I swap rare recordings with (bootlegs)including a few recommendations on CD.

I do miss John Peel, I haven't found any radio show that can surprise and delight me the way he did.

Jamie

Jamie, could it have been Bostok's records in the Merrion? In Leeds there is Jumbo in the other centre (st Johns is it?) but they are expensive for vinyl IMO. Fozz

My local independent, in not the hippest burgh in the world, seems to be surviving. They are always helpful and will happily get things in.

One of their secrets of keeping their heads above water is some diversification. I don't particualrly like pubs doing food, but out here in the sticks it's the only way of surviving. In a similar way, our local independent record shop is also the local DVD rental place. But hey, it keeps open.

James

quote:

Originally posted by Fozz:
Jamie, could it have been Bostok's records in the Merrion? In Leeds there is Jumbo in the other centre (st Johns is it?) but they are expensive for vinyl IMO. Fozz

I thought Bostok's was a very old shop, back to the 80s, I might be wrong though. The one I am thinking of was on the South East corner of the outside of the Merrion Centre. I do miss that.

I became another record/CD shop for a brief while, but is now something totally unrelated to music. Sad.

Jumbo is such a disappointment, I remember it from the early 80s when it was OK, but now it is very expensive, and has the most bizarre cataloguing system (oh I didn't realise that Tool were under the 'modern dark goth' section, and not the 'American heavy metal' or the 'post apocalyptical music' sections.

Jamie

yeah I can never find anything in Jumbo either LOL. Bostocks was indeed very long time ago. I am not sure about the other one you mention, I do recall a specialist classical music shop being there though, sheereeers or something like that I think.

I feel torn on this one, because IME the internet provides more choice & is lots cheaper,
but I prefer visiting a good record shop to using the 'puter.

It's a 28 mile return journey from home to the nearest record shop.
When I last went in to this shop & told them what I wanted,
they advised me to use the internet!

I'm sure they were doing me a favour because they said "you'll be sure to get what you want & it'll be cheaper."

I still left the shop feeling .

I thought it was international day for the record shop last Saturday - went down to my local and got a load of stuff and 20% off.

Tim

I'm afraid I'm with 555 on this one - I used to make a regular monthly pilgramage up to Portabello Road to my favourite shops (Stand out/minus zero and Intoxica) but then changed jobs, got a wife, baby and house blah blah and unfortunately found I had neither the time nor spare cash for such luxuries. There was only one store locally who had a limited selection of slightly unloved vinyl and a fairly limited cross section of rock and blues, and I would always try to support them when buying something but faced with paying £14.99 for a cd locally when I can click on Amazon and get it for £4.99, I'm afraid I will shop online - it's a question of economics for me. I generally know what I want to buy anyway and with the ease of checking out new artists on Myspace etc, it's not such a risk picking up new material. Yes, I will always prefer the luxury of being let loose in a decent record store but I'm afraid it's not an option round here.

Speaking of specific record shops, does anyone remember 'Honest Johns' on Portabello Road, just near the A40 flyover?

It might still be there, but had changed from when I first remember it, it had become a jazz only shop when I last saw it quite a few years ago now.

I the late 80s when I got my first CD player, it used to sell all kinds of music, mostly second hand.

I went in and got six CDs for my first CD player, including Pink Floyd 'Wish You Were Here', Japan 'Tin Drum' and Joni Mitchell 'Hejira', for the latter the guy behind the counter said what a wonderful choice, and I said 'It was something I constantly played on vinyl'. US import copy I think as well, with the tall 12" boxes they used to have to fit the record shop racks.

Yes it is sad that the next generation will not know the delight of shopping somewhere you can hear Miles Davis in the background, and flip through racks of nicely packaged album covers, but I am sure they will find things as rewarding through MySpace etc.

I do know that with an internet music community like Dime, and also here (although I am quite a recent member), that there are web based discoveries and friendships that can be very rewarding too.

hanging around music shops may have given me Mark Kozelek/Red House Painters, but the web has reminded me of how much I love Tangerine Dream, and I am sure new discoveries are waiting out there.

Jamie

Buying direct from the muso' is great when possible.
I saw Hank Wangford & Reg Meuross on their 'No Hall Too Small' tour last summer.
In the interval Hank & Reg manned their record stall in the bar.
This was almost as much fun as the show!

Strangely Jethro Tull had no CDs on sale at their gig.

quote:

have a hell of a lot of TG on cd and vinyl but after the first 20 albums

it's just a journey through a burning brain - Atem through to Ricochet was my favourite T-Dream period.

Hi Jamie

Was it Gerol's Records in the covered market part of the Merrion Centre you're thinking of? The Bostocks was at the front of the centre to the right, not sure if this turned in to an EGS, but it may have. Then up towards the rear, opposite the back of Morrisons, Jumbo had a satellite store (or was it Crash?)

Heath

Hi Heath

It must have been Bostocks, I found it in 2002, and it closed a couple of years later, or changed to EGS which I never bought anything from, not spite, it was just not very good, chart CDs second hand.

I remember from the early 80s there was a record store just on the left as you went into the Merrion Centre, in front of the Heath Robinson sculpture (before it was moved), was that the original Bostocks? Maybe I am just mixing up the names.

I will start a separate thread for Tangerine Dream as there are some great web resources for them.

Jamie

quote:

Originally posted by Heath:
Hi Jamie

Was it Gerol's Records in the covered market part of the Merrion Centre you're thinking of? The Bostocks was at the front of the centre to the right, not sure if this turned in to an EGS, but it may have. Then up towards the rear, opposite the back of Morrisons, Jumbo had a satellite store (or was it Crash?)

Heath

It's a bit of Catch 22, I think. With simple mail order via internet the stores sell less. When one or two of them goes bust more people are buying off the internet and a couple of more stores goes away. Etc. etc.

JohanR