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After the fall of Tower Records, smaller music retailers like Santa Cruz's Streetlight and Metamusic |
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Written by Administrator
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Tuesday, 27 February 2007 |
http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/archive/2007/February/24/style/stories/07style.htm
After the fall of Tower Records, smaller music retailers like Santa Cruz's Streetlight and Metamusic are finding hope appealing to the audiophile.
by graham haworth
Sentinel music writer
There was a time when you actually had to leave your home to buy music. You'd drive to the local record store, wander the aisles, flip through a few CDs, ask the clerk for any recommendations, pay in cash and listen to your new album as you drove home.
One such place to buy music was Tower Records. With its familiar red logo on a yellow background, millions of people went to one of the roughly 90 Tower stores nationwide each week to buy music or even just to talk about music with fellow music nuts.
Late last year, Tower crumbled to the ground. The company, which opened its first store on the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles in 1969, was crippled by a debt of about $200 million. It was liquidated in October 2006, with Trans World buying up the bulk of the company — just as it did previously with Sam Goody and the Wherehouse.
With the demise of Tower Records, the debate over the future of record stores — both corporate and independent — reached a fevered pitch. In this age of the iPod, MP3s and digital downloads, does the record store still have a leg to stand on?
An industry in transition
To understand why and how all this is happening, consider the following numbers from the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry IFPI, which represents the interests of the recording industry worldwide.
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In 2006, the IFPI estimates that digital music sales doubled, from around $1.1 billion to about $2 billion. The percentage of digital sales also doubled, accounting for about 10 percent of all music sales in 2006. Single song downloads totaled about 795 million in 2006, up 89 percent from 2005. Portable music players like Apple's iPod and Microsoft's Zune sold a total of 120 million units, up 43 percent from 2005.
Obviously, digital music is becoming more popular at an ever increasing rate, but CDs still make up 90 percent of music sold. The problem now is that people view CDs as too expensive; you can pay $9.99 for an album on iTunes that might cost you nearly twice as much at a record store. CD sales have been declining at a rate of about 5 percent a year, according to the Recording Industry Association of America.
"Business is definitely down, more than I ever thought I'd see in my lifetime," said Jeff Moss, the co-owner and general manager of Streetlight Records in Santa Cruz. "The questions we're asking ourselves here are, 'Are we still viable?' and 'Do we still have something to offer?' I say yes to both questions"
Moss has been with Streetlight Records since 1977, when he started out as a clerk at the original San Francisco Streetlight on 24th Street. He said he remembers a time when, if they made 60 bucks in a day, that was a good thing.
Streetlight Records prides itself on a knowledgeable staff and a wide selection of CDs across all genres. They also sell DVDs and used CDs, something they've been doing for years.
"Fewer and fewer people are doing what we do," Moss said. "The CD is becoming more of a specialty item; some people are collectors and completists. If there's a new release by their favorite artists, many people still want the CD. There is still a market out there"
Moss said that rather than shifting their entire business plan, they've instead made adjustments to the staff and budgeting issues. Streetlight Records, with two locations in San Francisco and one each in San Jose and Santa Cruz, has a loyal customer base, so altering their business plan would drive away some customers, Moss said.
"If you look at what Tower Records did and what some other stores are doing, they've been adding toys, games and gifts," Moss said. "We're avoiding that avenue because we don't want to alienate our core audience"
The main concern, rather than trying to offer digital downloads in stores "Downloads are not the kind of thing a smaller independent store can do," Moss said, is trying to persuade record labels to lower the price of CDs. When CDs were first introduced, they were costly to produce. Now the cost has dropped to pennies a CD, but the prices have remained the same.
"One major label — Universal — reduced their price on most CDs," said Moss. "The other labels didn't follow suit and are seeing their sales plummet as a result. I do feel that if the price of CDs is right, if we can get the price to 10 bucks or less, people will come back. But we can't control what the labels charge us, and there's not much of a markup on new CDs"
One scenario Moss hopes comes to pass: people begin to realize their CDs sound better than their overly compressed MP3 counterparts.
"I have a feeling the tide may turn," Moss prophesied. "How people spend their money is dictated as much by fashion as technology. MP3 players are the in gadget right now, but people may start to realize their music doesn't quite sound the same"
That loss of fidelity could drive people back to CDs, just as people regularly turn to vinyl records because they like the way they sound over CDs.
Spin the black circle
One such vinyl connoisseur is Jonathan Schneiderman. Not only is he an audiophile and music lover, he's also a record store owner with a niche — his store, Metamusic Records, in downtown Santa Cruz stocks those large, shiny black discs known as vinyl records.
That niche has proven successful. He started out three years ago as an online business, but quickly realized he was selling enough records to open a physical location.
"Vinyl just sounds the best, and it's more of an experience," said Schneiderman while admiring the huge album artwork of a particular record at his store recently.
Don't think that Metamusic Records is full of dusty old 45s that used to belong to Grandma and Grandpa, though. Fully stocked with new and used records, Metamusic offers jazz, rock, metal, indie, folk, electronica — whatever you would find in a regular music store.
Just because some bands release vinyl versions of their albums doesn't mean they aren't embracing technology. According to Schneiderman, many bands offer free downloads with the purchase of their vinyl record, and some even include a CD version of the album along with the vinyl version.
And there's something to be said of entering a store and getting a whiff of that distinctive vinyl smell.
"I like the vibe in a shop like this. I'd rather come here than search online by myself," said William Nichols, a 20-something who left Metamusic Records with three new vinyl purchases under his arm. "Also, Jonathan is knowledgeable and easy to talk to"
This shifting of the way people listen to music is not new. From vinyl records, to eight-track players to cassette tapes and mini discs, new formats will continue to emerge. But the ease of purchasing digital music makes this shift more dramatic because it's fundamentally altering how people buy and receive their music.
It's not that the wheels are coming off the music and record store industry, it's just the mode of transportation has changed.
Contact Graham Haworth at
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Support your local record store
Streetlight Records: 939 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz, (888) 648-9201 or www.streetlightrecords.com.
Metamusic Records: 320 Cedar St., Santa Cruz, 466-9027 or www.metamusiconline.com.
Music Madness: 1459 Freedom Blvd., Watsonville, 761-3278.
Amoeba Music: 1855 Haight St., San Francisco, (415) 831-1200 or 2455 Telegraph Ave., Berkeley, (510) 549-1125 or
www.amoeba.com.
Rasputin Records: with locations in Berkeley, Campbell, Newark, Pleasant Hill, San Lorenzo, San Francisco and Vallejo, (800) 350-8700 or www.rasputinmusic.com
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