Are the High Street Music Shops Fighting Back?

If downloads were routinely at the price of CDs [second hand where applicable] and at similar quality, then I would never buy from a normal shop, but we are not there yet.

I visit my local HMV for DVDs, and buy one or two a months.

Last one was the 

Shawshank Redemption.

ATB from George

I hope high street shops will survive, like book shops music stores have a special place for me but, I have to admit, I buy all my music as downloads now and all my books, with a few exceptions when I want a signed hard back from favourite authors, too.  I like the idea of buying the download and getting a physical copy too, which I think Amazon does, but I want it in flac and not mp3 and even then I'd be buying on line.  If they are to survive I think they need to change their offering - if I could walk in - have a listen to a few track, purchase the disk and the download would be waiting for me when I got home I might be more tempted - likewise the same with books, let me buy a physical copy and give me the download for free and I will be there  

Since getting my UnitiServe, I rip CDs and then put them in a rack upstairs. When we have a spare wine box, I fill it with CDs and put them in the roof! never to be seen again. I'd love to be able to get all the albums as cd quality downloads, for no more than the price of a CD, and ideally significantly less.

When I was a lad in Worthing, we had two dedicated record shops, plus great music sections in Boots, Smiths and Woolworths. And if you wanted something more obscure it was off to Brighton. Then I went to Bangor to Uni, and there was Cob Records; the best record shop I'd ever seen. And - they were teeming with people. Music was all we bought. But that was all we could buy, apart from booze, drugs and concert tickets. Nowadays it's different. My sons both love music, but somehow they never seen to pay for it! I just don't think there's enough demand to support proper music shops in any number. 

Rather like proper Hifi, physical music seems to be getting ever more niche, more's the pity.

I think a good music shop, if it does it right, can survive, but they have to adapt and change to what people want to be able to do so.

Im in a bit of a music shop desert where I live, but the one shop that is in relatively close proximity (Head in Leamington Spa) seems to be doing it right.

Its always busy, has a really good vinyl, CD and DVD selection, will play a CD if you want to check it out, and has plenty of special offers on all genres of CDs.

Though I don't get there as often as I would like, I (and it seems most other people I see in there) never fail to depart the store without several purchases.

I guess that's the crux of it. I don't get there as often as I would like.

If town centres don't have enough to tempt people away from internet shopping and encourage people to go shopping there, there is less reason to go out of your way shopping to visit 1 record shop.

So I see it as not just a music store issue, but more of a wider High Street thing.

The less shops there, the less likely you are to go, self propelling.

I pop into the local HMV occasionally, some times there is something in the sale 2-4-£ 10 or whatever but the last few times I've been in for something specific no dice. Stock levels and selection seem very poor, and vinyl is only available for very few releases, no standing supply, just the new release promos.

I usually visit Fopp!, Earlham Street when in London, but have noticed the v cheap £2-3 selections have been reduced, but they usually have a good selection of stock and of course quite a lot of vinyl.

Bought a couple of CDs and SWMBO got a kids DVD last weekend.

John

If the music shop survives it will not, IMO, be in the form of the HMV shop: dismal, gloomy, staffed by people with no apparent interest or enthusiasm in music.

I can't guess your age from your pic - but if you're old enough to remember what 'real' record stores used to be like then you will make the same comparison as I.  

I believe there might be a future for small-ish specialists where one can visit and talk to people, listen to what's on offer, buy it and take it home. If such a place existed with a specialism in jazz / classical music I would certainly support it.

Except for the really big items (eg Beatles Mono vinyl box) I've largely given up buying vinyl from Amazon, they are no longer necessarily the cheapest, and some of their business practices are starting to make me feel a bit uncomfortable.

I enjoy the act of going in a shop, and here in London we are lucky enough to have a lot of them, selling both new and second hand - Rough Trade East, Sister Ray, Reckless, Juno, Sounds of the Universe, Book & Record Bar in Norwood, Rat in Camberwell, Honest Jon's, Islington's Flashback and Haggle Vinyl, Kristina in Dalston, Vinyl Pimp in Hackney, Rays at Foyles, even the first floor of HMV in Oxford Street. Just outside are The LP Cafe in Watford, Empire in St Albans and the place in Kingston whose name I can't remember.

Every time I go into a shop, especially at weekends, they seem always to be busy, populated by paunchy balding men, hot chicks, hipsters and scholars, even a few fearful and lost-looking "normal" people.

Whether or not this will continue, who knows. Personally I think a few shops will endure, especially in the big cities, because while ordering online from Amazon, What, eil, Townsend, Diverse and Recordstore is convenient, and buying from Discogs sellers and bidding on a well-known auction site is fun, none of these can really replicate the experience of browsing in a shop.

In Belfast I buy my vinyl at Head Records, Sick Records,HMV, Dragon Records & Good Vibrations for Second Hand stuff!

Last 2 cd's I bought were in HK but usually I aways get my discs online as there isn't a decent record shop within 250 miles of me.

There is of course the obvious pleasure in an outing to a record shop - as opposed to tapping away a cd order on the screen...

But, more to the point, I buy cds as I come across them in the racks in a shop, having gone in with no wish list. Harder to do this online I think.

Case in point - in Auckland for the weekend - Hala Strana, Califone, Ali Farka Toure, Jens Lekman x 2, Hawk and a Hacksaw, Tosca - brilliant couple of hours browsing for only NZ$63. Doubt if many available on quality download anyway. Straight on to the UServe, with cd hard copy backup.

A few more have gone around here this year sadly, a small shop in Stroud, Glos and the CD shop in Glastonbury. The ones that seem to be surviving have added other aspects to their business, Rise in Bristol have a cafe downstairs, clothes and books upstairs as well as vinyl and CDs. I wish Amazon would pay their taxes here too, the free MP3 version online is an attraction however, especially with a Mu-So coming. An alternative is to order online from the independents e.g. Burning Shed etc. £20 for new vinyl does put you off if you are old school. 

Nope!

I been pleased to see HMV back in the shopping centres and high streets, and delighted to see them stocking vinyl, too. I still use Amazon to get some hard-to-find CDs but they are not always cheaper and their p&p costs are too high. On the whole I prefer to buy in-store. Browsing is easier - unlike on-line, you don't need to know what you are looking for but something always catches my eye from the racks. And there's nothing like going home with the music product in your hand.  My experience of the staff is different from bluedog's in that I've found them helpful and some knowledgeable. 

I very hope the high street music shop survives.   

+1

Downloads are over, or at least peaked and declining - the future is streaming services. Hence the Apple Bih Beats deal (albeit an expensive way to get in to streaming)

I think Amazon are superb.  Ordered an album the other week, collected from my local pick up, got home home warped and covered in filth.  Printed a return label immediately delivered it back to the pick up point (they would have collected) and they immediately sent out a replacement which arrived the next day (Sunday).

Price notwithstanding - certainly was better than several other on-line providers - I think that as a service was faultless.

Maybe the future, but streaming services, feel more like music by the Kilo to me (or music by the pound for you lot). Someone (!) decides to chuck a little Hendrix in there and a bit of Joplin and then the Doors, and you have the 60s bag. etc.