What happened to the music stores?
Here’s a good New York Times article about the bad moves made by record labels and the RIAA which hastened the demise of the music store: Spinning Into Oblivion
A quote:
The major labels wanted to kill the single. Instead they killed the album. The association wanted to kill Napster. Instead it killed the compact disc. And today itâs not just record stores that are in trouble, but the labels themselves, now belatedly embracing the Internet revolution without having quite figured out how to make it pay.
Fortunately we have Silver Platters here. They seem to have figured out how to be profitable in Seattle and are even expanding.
April 7th, 2007 at 1:38 pm
Yeah! – Silver Platters is “THE” place…… I visit it at least once every time I’m in Seattle…… If you’re into music or video, especially hard-to-find items, they usually have them right there just waiting for you…… It definitely beats on-line shopping cause you can check out your selection in person, look at the quality of the product, and best of all, listen or view it immediately after you buy it…… It’s GR-R-E-A-T!….. It’s “Heaven on Earth” for a hardcore music/video nut such as myself…… The “Blues” section alone usually takes all my money every time…..
April 7th, 2007 at 3:13 pm
Mr. Jek,
Interesting article. Seems like a blue print to all American business….short term interest over long term. Share holders profit comes first.
I needed some music last week, so I took my play list of possibles up to Silver Platters. I don’t buy CDs blind anymore after being burnt too often. All but three of the kiosks were out of order. Of the three left, one was in the sun and you couldn’t read it, one didn’t work, the headphones on the last were in halves. I tried to listen with one ear while music played in the background . I left without buying anything. Things are looking funky and the blues section looked depleted. I hope they aren’t going under.
April 8th, 2007 at 11:49 am
You know I was thinking the same way a while back, I have been a little lacking in my new musical catalogue lately. I really did not realise that we don’t have anything left here anymore, Anyone remember “Peaches” There is a couple of small places if you are looking for older stuff but even as bad as they were I could not even find a Sound Warehouse (Although I did see one in Phoenix last month) Now all we have here is Best Buy or Walmart with their versions of what they feel that we need (A lot of what they carry is the Tipper Gore versions with out the warning labels) I ended up going to Barnes and Noble and ordering from their in store service and having it shipped direct to home.
April 9th, 2007 at 4:32 pm
I shop at Easy Street — an outstanding independent store (2 locations in Seattle). I’ve shopped there since it was a hole-in-the-wall in West Seattle and highly recommend it. And their West Seattle location has a cafe with kick-ass breakfast. They also frequently have in-store performances — a couple weeks ago I saw The Shins there (Queen Anne location) on my lunch break.