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MP3's killed the record store star |
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Written by Administrator
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Tuesday, 27 February 2007 |
http://www.athensnews.com/issue/article.php3?story_id=27475MP3's killed the record store star
2007-02-26
By Sara Smith
The Other Paper, Columbus
They're the guys who can tell you which Bob Dylan album influenced Thom Yorke's new EP and explain why you need to like Arcade Fire's first disc. They are the gurus of independent campus record stores, and they have made music snobbery a career. It's hard to picture them doing anything other than leaning knowingly against a rack of CDs and pontificating on the latest Earwig release.
Any short list of Columbus music sages would include Bela Koe-Krompecher of Used Kids Records. But after 17 years of steering 19-year-olds toward respectable music collections, Bela has been laid off.
His departure came as the kinds of kids who used to loiter and spend a few bucks in his store walked by outside, earbudded to the thousands of downloaded songs in their iPods.
"New technology has hurt record stores, with downloading and MP3s," said Koe-Krompecher, who left his Used Kids job earlier this month but remains a part owner. "There's certainly this generation that's not going to be there in 10 years to buy records and hang out."
While some of Koe-Krompecher's colleagues and competitors along the University District's North High Street strip put on a brave face, they all concede that, at the very least, their business is being redefined.
With the flood of new technology, many music lovers have abandoned the semi-alphabetized racks of CDs at the local independent record store, opting instead for iPods and music-ready cell phones. Long chats with record-store guys are being replaced by a few 99-cent clicks on the web.
Koe-Krompecher said he noticed Used Kids' sales starting to drop in 2001. There are several reasons for the decline, he said, but the convenience of downloading 4-megabyte songs and burning CDs on home computers are the two biggest.
"Record stores are becoming a place for collectors and music fanatics who still like to browse," he said. "The sales aren't there like they were 10 years ago. Record stores may turn into, like, comic-book shops."
Dan Dow, Used Kids co-owner and the man who let Koe-Krompecher go, said he expects one day CDs will be artifacts, but that doesn't mean he's preparing to close up shop.
"We'll be selling nostalgia someday," Dow said. "I mean, it's already happening. That's why vinyl is so big, and it's big with kids."
In Athens, Eric Gunn, owner of Haffa's record store on West Union Street, said he, too, has seen the effects from all the music downloading, though he also feels that record stores will always fill a niche.
"Obviously there's been an effect. Three or four years ago, there were three record stores in town; now there's not," he said. "But I think any kind of new technology takes a little while before it gets to the tipping point." He said people shouldn't write off record stores just yet.
Like Dow, Gunn said that vinyl is helping to keep the indie record stores alive. "Oh, yeah. We've always done the vinyl, and I think more people are getting into it," he said. "It's more than just music. It's as much artwork as it is something to listen to."
Yes, vinyl. With sales of CDs lagging, those unwieldy old 12-inch platters are helping to make up the difference. Twentysomethings are finding something to love about vinyl LPs, even if -- or maybe because -- they're too young to have grown up with record players.
"Used Kids has been here 20 years. We supplied the CD revolution," Dow said as he rang up two LPs and handed them to a guy in his early 20s. "Bring it on."
Ron House, manager of Used Kids and another long-time Columbus music authority, said he respects this new batch of fashionable vinyl-buying kids a lot more than the CD-buying crowd anyway.
"They're hipper," House said. "We have a lot less of them now, but they're better."
Koe-Krompecher said he doesn't think Used Kids will go out of business, but he also doubts it's going to be the same business 10 years from now.
"The biggest thing I can see is kids aren't coming to the record stores anymore," he said. "That community is morphing into MySpace; that's where kids are linking up. I don't know if the tastemakers are going to come from the record stores anymore."
"I guess things just change," he continued. "I didn't want to be laid off, but I understand the reasons for it. Dan and I discussed having to lay people off. I just didn't know it was going to be me."
Koe-Krompecher and the folks at Used Kids aren't the only ones swimming against the tides of change. Some indie stores are touting the virtues of vinyl and their knowledgeable staffs, while others are hoping music buyers eventually conclude that collecting downloaded music is ultimately an empty experience.
"There's something about holding the product in your hand that you're not going to get from an iPod," said Kenny Honaker, manager of Singing Dog Records. "Certainly trends have changed. You just have to adapt. We have a very loyal customer base, and they're going to support us."
People are starting to get hip to the fact that you can buy a used CD cheaper than downloading it sometimes, Honaker said, and the sound quality doesn't compare.
"Any time you get anything off the Internet, it's compressed. And any time you compress, you lose a lot of quality," he said. "Downloads lack a lot of the intricacies you'll get on a CD -- or especially vinyl."
"Hardcore music fans," he declared, "aren't into downloading."
But are there enough hardcore music fans to keep professional music connoisseurs from having to take different, less cool day jobs?
"'Record store gurus,'" said Chuck Kubat, owner of Magnolia Thunderpussy Records in the Short North. "You mean the unemployables."
Gunn, in Athens, agrees with the value of people in a record store being gurus who can give you background and context compared to a download site, though he doesn't discount the value of Internet research. "At the same time, there's a lot to be learned via the Internet as a source of information," he said.
While Kubat dubbed himself and his peers "the unemployables," he was quick to point out that they weren't yet unemployed, most of them anyway. He said his store and the other independently owned record stores in the city have plenty of faithful customers and predicted it'll be these aficionados who keep his business afloat.
"If you're a music enthusiast, you're going to end up here," he said. "We don't rely on those people who get music at Wal-Mart. I've got a few more years of work here. I'm not ready to go to Florida yet."
Kubat said he doesn't think downloading or chain stores will close his doors -- and besides, Magnolia is adapting to the new age by adding an online catalog for customers to browse.
Koe-Krompecher, however, isn't able to muster Kubat's optimism. He's moving into a new career. Since being laid off from Used Kids, he's been doing part-time contract work for the House of Hope for Alcoholics Inc. while finishing his degree in counseling.
"That's the field I want to go into," he said, "because there may not always be CDs, but there will always be alcoholics."
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