Indie Record Shops Learning To Adapt

from the it's-a-different-world dept

Over the past few years, we've talked about ways that musicians and record labels can (and have) adapted to the changing music marketplace, but the case of brick-and-mortar music retailers is an one. The big players: Tower, Wherehouse and Virgin Music have mostly all disappeared. Music sales in big box retailers (Wal-Mart, Best Buy, etc.) remain narrowly focused on top hits and don't get much shelf-space (Best Buy recently announced plans to cut music inventory by half). However, smaller, indie record shops have been learning to adapt. More than five years ago, we wrote about some indie shops recognizing that they needed to become more of a destination, rather than a "record store." And over the years, we've seen more and more and more stories of smaller record stores learning to adapt.

The latest, sent in by Dave W looks at a bunch of shops in the UK that appear to have realized that they need to completely change -- including one that's really focused on being a destination for people to hang out and buy coffee... while hearing music (often live music) and then selling only special physical goods: limited edition box sets and vinyl. And, apparently for some of these shops, business is better than before. Despite the disappearance of regular CD sales, they've more than made it up selling other music-related goods. It's about recognizing that people still do want physical goods, but they view it as a souvenir, to show support for the musicians, rather than buying "the music" itself. The music, to them, is free. But that doesn't mean they won't pay for goods of value. And retailers can absolutely support that new market as well.

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Record Store Owner Calls People Who Pay To Download 'Idiots'

from the well,-that-might-be-a-bit-much dept

You would think that record store owners might be the folks most upset about the changing music landscape these days. And, indeed, we've seen the "big players" like Tower Records and Warehouse Music go out of business. However, many smaller independent record shops have figured out ways to take advantage of the changing landscape to offer something different to customers. In fact, some even say the real problem was the RIAA and its failure to embrace things like file sharing. Still, it's a bit surprising to hear the owner of one NYC indie record shop, Rockit Scientist Records, slam those who buy music legally:

"Anybody who legally downloads music is an idiot! You can get it for free, why pay for it? Download it illegally, who's going to catch you? Legal or illegal, they sound the same."

While the conventional wisdom of those who insist that file sharing is "theft" would also suggest that this would mean trouble for the record store owner too -- but he seems to recognize that there's still plenty of value in the physical product: the CD or vinyl for those who want it. He figures if people are going to buy music, they might as well get something tangible out of it -- and the real problem (again) is that the record labels artificially inflated the price of CDs. If they'd kept CD prices more reasonable, perhaps things wouldn't be as bad as they are for the CD market.

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After Putting Mixtape Creators In Jail, Universal Realizes It Needs Mixtapes

from the produce-your-own-crappy-ones dept

Remember back in January, when a SWAT team, at the direction of RIAA officials, raided the studio of a well known DJ and mixtape artist in Atlanta? This seemed like quite the overreaction to a system that had been known for its successful promotion of many RIAA-backed artists. However, after the DJs were arrested, the entire market was on notice and many mixtapes stopped showing up in the marketplace. In other words, many new acts lost a valuable channel for promotions. So what's a record label like Universal Music to do? Apparently start making its own mixtapes with some DJ that no one's ever heard of. Despite throwing the competition in jail, it seems that this attempt to coopt the mixtape space isn't working very well. The first Universal-backed mixtape has sold less than 6,000 copies since being released over a month ago and many record stores have very little interest in carrying it. Next time, perhaps the RIAA folks will ask the record labels they represent before throwing one of their biggest promoters in jail.

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More Music Retailers Learn To Change With The Times

from the not-so-hard,-is-it? dept

While the recording industry continues to insist that its world is dying, the music industry continues to thrive -- even if it's not in the same way it did a decade ago. One of the more interesting things about this trend is watching how music retailers have tried to adapt to the change. Not surprisingly, it involves a lot of experimenting, and quite a bit of failure -- but record store owners seem to have realized that not adapting means certain death. One of the big trends we've seen is for record stores (usually independent ones) to recognize that it's important to become destination sites, rather than just music stores. They're also recognizing that record store employees can provide value by being trusted guides. To that end, a well-known UK music retailer is opening a new larger shop, even as many are insisting that music retailing is over. However, this isn't an ordinary record shop. Instead, it's playing up the relationship between the knowledgeable employees and shoppers, providing a lot of counterspace for visitors to talk with staff about what kind of music they might like. It's also becoming more of a destination site, with free WiFi, workshops and a stage for live performances. This certainly isn't a new idea as we've seen very similar reactions from stores for many years, but it does show how more and more of these stores are learning to adapt and change with the times, while the recording industry stubbornly goes down with its obsolete ship.

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