Walk into Amoeba Records, and there's no question: this is a record store, and it's about buying music. It's rows and rows of used CDs and vinyl, with serious music lovers thumbing through the racks. But that's not reality anymore, and for the rest of us, the 'record store' is quickly morphing into the 'entertainment
store,' or some variation thereof.
And that's for the ones that manage to survive. "All of you have noticed our not-so-subtle shift in emphasis from pure music, to music and DVD, to now at times an odd mixture of new and used CDs + DVDs, combined with an increasing amount of pop culture and fashion items," Newbury Comics cofounder and CEO Mike Dreese recently told his Facebook followers.
Others are increasingly scraping by with a mixture of non-musical items. The new 'hybrid' record store includes lots of 'lifestyle' products like incense, toys, books, and novelty items, a collection that can sometimes clutter the pathways to actual music. According to data recently shared by StreetPulse, lifestyle items are approaching 30 percent of revenues at some record shops. "Music is selling way under list and the markup on lifestyle is huge," StreetPulse CEO John Weston told Digital Music News last month.
So are these really record stores anymore? Actually, Newbury is now opening mall-based 'hybrid' retailers, and Dreese very candidly wondered whether that's enough to keep his brick-n-mortar model afloat. "There simply isn't enough remaining customer demand to support more than a handful of our stores in a few years if we don't change our mixture of goods."
But this is happening all over, even at the 'uncool' spots. Take Hastings, which has been dialing away from music for years - and surviving in the process. As of its latest fiscal year, this is what the breakdown among products looked like.
Then of course, there's vinyl, enough of a niche for some smaller shops to survive. Unsurprisingly, a huge chunk of vinyl sales are happening at indie outlets, and LPs need floorspace to survive. The question is whether this little boom becomes a bigger boom, and puts some of the 'record' back in 'record stores' over the next few years.
Comments Closed
Jesse Douglas-Tesch Sunday, November 27, 2011
Did they ever give any examples of "other" in the breakdown? I'm just curious because 22% can easily be the difference between success and failure. It would be very valuable to other "record store" owners trying to stay afloat to find out what some of these items or types of items are.
Paul Sunday, November 27, 2011
Jesse,
This doesn't answer the question directly for Hastings, but is a breakdown of lifestyle products at indie record stores (as tracked by StreetPulse).
Jeff Monday, November 28, 2011
Books is light green, accounting for the 22%. The "other" is dark green, just 2%.
balbers Sunday, November 27, 2011
Have we not already been through this with Tower Records and Virgin Megastores? Both of which started out as music stores, eventually incorporating books and magazines, electronics, blank media, clothes, video games, ect. etc.? Overdiversificationalism. Trying to be everything to everybody and ending up being nothing special to anybody and going belly up because of it. And this was in the 90s and 00s before all the economic turmoil and before the internet turned the word upside down.
Some will last longer than others, but the writing is on the wall, and sadly the same fate awaits Newbury and Amoeba and the rest of 'em.
balbers Sunday, November 27, 2011
sidenote-
Obviously, Amoeba Records is the defacto record store to go to in LA, especially now that Aron's and Rhino Records are no more. But nobody ever bothers to mention Canterbury Records in Pasadena, which has equal if not better classical and jazz sections than Amoeba. Definitely pricier than Amoeba, but a lot of imports (and domestics too) yer not gonna find anywhere else.
I don't work there or know anybody there or anything. I'm just a big classical music lover and every time I stop in there I end up drooling over all sorts of titles.
effin Monday, November 28, 2011
my record store is spotify, and so is the world's. deal with it. force spotify and streaming services to pay more to rightsholders. that should be the focus. traditional itunes will be dead soon, traditional amazon will be dead soon. it's in the cloud, and unless we all focus on getting these bastards to pay more per stream, all of us will be losing money and complaining about it instead of fixing it.
steveh Monday, November 28, 2011
pray tell kind sir - how exactly do we "force spotify and streaming services to pay more to rightsholders" and "get these bastards to pay more per stream"?
According to Spotify's propaganda department we are all "thrilled" by the massive income we are getting from Spotify - doesn't sound like they think we "deserve" any more does it?
Me Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Class action suit?
Oh Reeeelllly? Monday, November 28, 2011
I challenge you to prove that your record store is...Spotify. With actual numbers. Enough with this mumbled bottish noise already.
effin Monday, November 28, 2011
I have no clue how to get them to pay more - that's not my job, but it's certainly my interest. But I do know whatever idea that works will have to include both government and money (in the form of labels leaving services that pay little and moving to those that pay better which inevitably will end up launching in the coming years because there is a business opportunity here - pay a little better and get a larger catalogue). And in regards to streaming services taking over, I'm calling it as I see it as a producer and as a consumer. You can disagree, but at your own detriment.
steveh Monday, November 28, 2011
You are busted!
If you were a "producer" then it would certainly be part of your "job" to investigate your income sources - or in the case of Spotify your lack of income sources.
So in the end you are just exposed as an opinionated idiot - making nasty threats about our "detriment".
effin Monday, November 28, 2011
you're an idiot. go back to mom's basement.
Versus Tuesday, November 29, 2011
It's a serious mistake to make any one company our one and only record store. That generates a monopoly, which allows said company to dictate terms favorable only to itself.
- Versus
Visitor Tuesday, November 29, 2011
sure, Itunes will be dead..Uh hu.....sure it will.
Pat Monday, November 28, 2011
effin Monday, November 28, 2011
no doubt, but this is going to be a really small niche, and services like bandcamp already provide the same convenience and sound quality. also, as internet providers upgrade to japan-like speeds, streaming services will begin to offer lossless. that is probably scary to most people on here, but hey i'm excited just cause i love music.
gaetano Monday, November 28, 2011
I'm happy to hear that you love music.
I'm interested to see how many artists are happy at the revenues that their streaming services provide, or do not provide them. I think in time this will dictate if the cloud and said services will prevail.
No content creators=no new content=you not happy.
Though, perhaps most people are happy listening to back catalogs.
I guess we'll see.
Visitor Tuesday, November 29, 2011
I don't have a car. However, I have a recording studio with a serious monitoring system, and a fairly high-end audiophile stereo system, as well as several sets of very expensive headphones.
If I compare audio extracted from CDs in lossless format (NOT MP3 or other lossy format) with the CDs themselves, I can hear no difference. As a music producer, I hope I am not tone-deaf, but one never knows.
Of course, the comparison must be done using the same digital audio conversion and output path! If you are using the converters on the CD player, these will invariably sound different than those on a computer soundcard or iPod.
Cheers,
- Versus
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