Sorry if this is a bit of an essay, it would be nice to get some sensible opinion and discussion going once again…

Near where I work, Camden Town has two major record shops, and a myriad number of much smaller second-hand record emporia.
I should say it did have, because there have been major changes in the last ten days.

First of all, one of the two major shops, Fopp, closed its doors for good at the beginning of last week. Crikey, that branch can't have been open for more than eighteen months.
Then, when I made my thrice-weekly visit to the Virgin Megastore today, more than half the previously serried ranks of CDs have vanished. More than half the floor space is now just that!
As for the emporia, they remain as ever, they don’t have the overheads of aggressive buymenow fluorescent lighting and half a dozen gorillas on the front doors that the chains do, and in any case they serve a more specialist market.

Is this, as I suspect, the continuing growth in music downloads affecting sales of the CDs themselves?
I’m not a high street sentimentalist by any means, change happens, for better or worse. The less tolerant side of my nature says that music downloading’s for cheapskates who shop in Poundland™!
On a more serious note, I really think that if major record stores continue to vanish like this it will be a major blow to up and coming and less exposed music acts.

How so?
Most people on download sites don’t browse to any extent. The idea is to get in, search that fantastic song or two you heard just now on the radio, download it, in some cases pay for it, and get out again.
Contrast that to the whole record shop experience, on the way to find the artiste(s) who recorded those same songs, you’re distracted by a new name, or some eye-catching cover art. Some times you might pick it up and have a look, you might even buy it on impulse. At the very least you’re now aware of something you weren’t before you walked in there.
When all the high street record shops are gone, how will the smaller acts get a look in? Certainly not on mass entertainment tv and radio channels.
Or am I simply speaking from my own viewpoint and experience?
Any thoughts?

Smaller acts will have to get into the market somehow or we'll constantly be hearing the same bands releasing new songs. I'm sure radio stations and even download sites themselves will look out for new and upcoming bands which they'll advertise and alert their customers to.

I pretty much agree with Charlie, although, certain shops in Camden Town, do not always/only sell records, and I know there is a changing culture in the High Street.... so I'm not sure that their closures are solely on the record industry shop decline.... :yawn:

In terms of Virgin, I also know that they are struggling at the moment- in a big way and yes, both their shop floors and stockrooms are very empty and it's sad.

Having said that, being a country music fan, I get most of my CDs from the internet- direct from the USA. It's hugely cheaper and some CDs I can only get this way.

I still like to have an actual physical copy of something- where I can see artwork on a cover, listen to other tracks from the 'album', etc. Being a songwriter, I also MUST know who wrote the songs!!

I have recently discovered some songs that are not available on CD though- so although I have NEVER downloaded any music, I will have to consider this to get the odd track I can't find. (Someone suggested Limewire, but apparently that gives you a virus?!!)

Anyway, I'd like to end with saying that I miss the days when a song was released to EVERYONE, (whether the media or the public), at the same time... The days when a song would be bought over a certain period and would 'climb' the chart.

Nowadays, the internet and advanced copies to radio stations mean that as soon as the 'public' date is released, it goes straight in at Number One, or whatever and that is pretty much it.

It used to be so exciting to watch songs climb the charts!

Pierre

Oh, and just for the record, I do download music (from a legal site) myself on occasion. I do it as a final resort when I need something for my show and I've absolutely exhausted all other means of supply.
As Pierre says, I'd rather possess the artefact, with its artwork and the detail.

With regards to new acts, I would imagine that there is more chance of them getting heard on a "download only" basis as that doesn't have the overheads of processing CDs and getting it out there. As MySpace and other social networking sites have proven you can build up your own fanbase and companies will come to you.

I too like to own the CD. I have never downloaded songs that could have been otherwise paid for but, like Charles and Pierre, I'm sorely tempted by the odd song I hear.

The other advantage to owning the CD is that you have a backup. I've found that sound files can get corrupted or lost altogether. Backups need to be taken but they're not always done regularly enough.

Then again I'm far more likely to impulse buy a DVD rather than a CD.

This is a bit like what I mean about the charts, (although this is for albums)....

"Taylor Swift's self-titled debut album sits at No. 1 on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart in its 39th week of release. This is the slowest chart climb to the top since the Dixie Chicks took 51 weeks to reach No. 1 in 1999 with Wide Open Spaces, according to Billboard.

Taylor sold 34,586 albums over the week, putting her at No. 15 on Billboard's all-genre Top 200 album chart; she's the only country artist in that Top 15.

"For it to go number one after 39 weeks shows how awesome people have been about getting the album and telling other people," says Taylor, 17.

"It hasn't peaked yet. I think I'm more excited about it going number one now than it going number one the first week and then having the sales shrink."

The album, which was released in October, has sold a million copies, and only two of its singles have been released. The debut single, "Tim McGraw," reached No. 5, and the current single, "Teardrops on My Guitar," is at No. 4 and still climbing.

Five of her songs are among the best-selling songs on iTunes, and three are in the Top 20 of iTunes' top country songs. And seemingly everyone under 50 with a computer has viewed her MySpace page.

Big Machine Records President Scott Borchetta says, "It's just more rewarding in the 39th week to know that this thing has stuck around this long and has that kind of buzz and staying power. It really marks how special this album and this artist are in the environment to ring the bell this far into the project."

Taylor didn't believe it would happen. "I'm out on tour with Brad Paisley. All week long his tour manager kept saying, 'I'm looking at the numbers, and I think you might jump us.' I said, 'No way.'

"Album sales you can't control. That is whether people buy it or they don't buy it, so I have them to thank.

"I don't think it changes anything, as far as how we're going to approach this album," she says. "Every single day I go out onstage and try to do the best that I can. That is where I can control it."

She'll celebrate today with her band on the beach in Stone Harbor, N.J. "I used to spend my summers there when I was a little girl," she says. "We'll probably go out to dinner."

In other Billboard news, Reba McEntire earned her 55th Top 10 hit with the Kelly Clarkson duet "Because of You," tying her with Dolly Parton for the record of most Top 10 Hot Country Songs. "Anytime I can be tied with Dolly for anything makes me very happy," Reba says. "I have always and continue to be her biggest fan."

American Country Charts are based on more than just sales- they also base chart positions on radio airplay which is also determined by listener requests.

Pierre

Oh well, it was worth a try, anyway…

Know what you mean Charlie ;)

Little acts now get a look in in many other ways. Without wishing to further illuminate the Arctic Flamin' Monkeys lights (I like 'em but kinda have Monkey fatigue!), they built a loyal fanbases by touring their wee buttocks off. If you're going to make the effort to make the trip to Outer Northumberland rather than sticking to the same old Londoncentric circut, then the people are are going to come and see you, listen to your My Space, which if you're good will get the hype up, so when you do release an album the same people will then go out and buy it. And as Claire said, with downloads you can do it much more cheaply yourself, cut out the middleman and make more money out of the whole thing, as Mick Hucknall's now doing, as well as having a lot more artistic freedom (a good thing in Hucknell's case?;) ) And if people can home from an excellent gig and download what they've just heard rather than waiting till the next day to go to the record shop then they will.

The money is being made in live gigs nowadays, not physical product. Look how many music festivals there are this year, compared to 10 years ago when there was Glasto & Reading and that was your lot. And if the Police can get £85 for each person that goes to their gigs, and say half of them go and buy a £30 tour t-shirt, in financial terms you're effectivly selling 5 albums to each of the 20,000 people a night that go to the gigs. The high street retailers aren't going to get the average punter coming into the shops and spending £100 in a shot, so they need to rethink things little. Rough Trade has shut its shop down in Neal Street, but is opening up a record store/cafe/hang out joint in East London instead, which seems like a good way forward.

Also, people are just getting a lot savvier to being sold to. Yes Take That have made a fantastic comeback, but frankly if you throw a million pound (allegedly) marketing budget at me I would hope to sell enough albums to make #1 for weeks. Whats exciting and happening isn't what's being shoved in our faces by mainstream tv and radio. Record companies pay good money to be racked in the good spaces in the major retailers (at eye level for example), so the casual record buyer will pop into the store, see it and pick it up, or they'll pick it up in Tesco with their eggs, toilet duck, and roast chicken.

But back to the point, I think downloading will force record companies to sharpen up their acts, I can see a time when maybe the only physical product you'll be able to buy in the shops will be something special (nice packaging etc.) that you'll enjoy having rather than a bog standard 8 page booklet printed on lousy shiny paper filled with recycled old pictures.

Although, where would that leave the impulse buying of The Best Driving Rock Album In The World Ever Ever Ever when you're a bit fed up and stuck at Knutsford services I'm not quite sure :)

Essay over and out! (all my own words too, hey!)

Now that is a shame, 'cos that has always been one of my favourite haunts, but I will look forward to whatever phoenix rises from those ashes. When did that happen?

Mind you, those two always headlined the really really big Metallicas/Radioheads/Orbitals :worthy: /Coldplays of this world. While plenty of smaller acts also appeared at these, there have always been many many smaller festivals, that have exposed those same small acts, without having to wait for Metallica etc. to appear at the end. It is of course all down to that marketing budget point.

I think its in the process of happening. The new place is going to be a Musicatessen!
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/music/2007/07/...nly_hope_f.html

As an aside, from what I've heard the guy that started Fopp didn't set his company up as a limited company, so the receivers actually started taking his stuff from his house.:no:

Is that rude?

Pierre

And now after that same Virgin Megastore sold out to/morphed into Zavvi (less than six months ago) it too has gone!
So Camden now has no new record store to get any sensible range of music for us CD/Vinyl junkies! :(

Record Shops That I know of:

Music Exchange - Notting Hill Gate -
V.Good, they have 3 store which are 3 shops apart, catering for all your second hand needs

MrCD
Reckless Records
Select-a-disk = All in Berwick Street, Soho (Just off Oxford St.)
All are Good and handy - if what you are after is not there just cross the road and look in another store

Haggle Vinyl - Essex Road (You might wanna google this one)
Its a Small Store with THOUSANDS of Vinyl - 90% is in order the other 10% is in a pile on the floor, under the racks - all genre are there - Hip Hop to Classical Jazz - Euro Electro Punk to 50's Showtunes
http://www.allinlondon.co.uk/directory/1093/9875.php

Thanks, Ben,

I know most of those, but unfortunately they're not a lunch break away for me! Selectadisk are especially good.
I will check out Haggle Vinyl, though!
Is this sad, or what? :yawn:

Where did all this go wrong?

Bring back 78s

Vic

... or 8-Tracks! (Is that what they were called?)

Pierre

Wow, impressive recall! :worthy: