Music Retail Stores: The Last of a Dying Breed??

Tower Records has liquidated its assets and is closing its stores nation-wide. In my city, Boston, the only Virgin Megastore is also closing. About 3 years ago, the Boston store with the best selection of jazz, and a pretty good selection of salsa, merengue and new Latin music, HMV, a U.K. retailer, also closed for good.

Looks like iPods, 99cent single downloads, and online music stores and players will spell the end of the deep-catalog CD library music store. Note however that used records stores are still around so used CD stores will probably survive - for a while. But this will drasticaly change the way we shop for music, and market OUR music, and of course already has.

The question becomes, is this the beginning of the end of physical music stores w/ new cd's?

That would be sad to me, and it looks like the enjoyable experience of shopping for books in a bookstore may also be doomed. Many bookstores, esp. indie or non-mega chain stores, have been closing too. (Barnes & Noble only?? NOOOOOOO)

WE ENTERING THE CYBER STORE AGE??? WHAT Y'ALL THINK?

The album better never die. The only reason it is dying is cause music **** sucks these days with no cohisiveness (sp). Just a bunch of thrown together bullshit.

lets hope this doesnt happen. but hell i dont buy anything new anyway. i go to used cd stores

I modified my 1st post and title of the thread b/c it looks like this is the more pressing issue: the end of physical retail stores for things like books and cd's. The full triumph of the internet store age.

But wouldn't it suck to not be able to PHYSICALLY BROWSE and engage in a real environment, polly, meet ppl, research, aks questions, etc.

Part of the fun of buying a book for example is walking through random aisles and browsing through the shevles, looking at chit you didn't even know existed, reading pages here and there = getting the full experience. Online you can only 'search' for what you want and a drone mathematically recommends other items based on your "search history." (and most sites don't even have this feature). Thank God there are still USED VINYL joints, THE DIG IS AN ARTFORM/ way of life so I hope those grimey spots live on...

I just can't imagine doing all my shopping only online, esp. for something i am passionate about, music. but then the pioneer Brazilian aviator Alberto Santos-Dumont never thought his inventions (single manned aircraft) would be used as war machines in WW1.

instead of bringing ppl together like first proposed, could we be actually alienating ourselves with our own technology?

how should we alter the marketing/promotions of our labels, artists, and music accordingly?

instead of bringing ppl together like first proposed, could we be actually alienating ourselves with our own technology?

i think this is definitely the case. it seems like as we invent more and more technology, we keep making living more and more impersonal. nowadays sh!t, if you dont want to go to the store to get groceries order em online. shop for clothes online. need money? why talk to a bank teller, just hit up an atm machine. want music? its only a download away. need to talk someone? send em a text message. its weird man. we're supposedly "progressing" as a society but if you ask me, i think we're actually degressing. what the hell is life gonna be like for our children? living in a box with no social interaction whatsoever? that sounds creepy... i knew this girl victoria that lived by me at my old apartment. she'd come over, say hi, and then grab my laptop and start myspacing. it was weird man! i'd have a whole room full of people and instead of interacting she'd just myspace. i think its becoming more and more common..we need to remind ourselves to get out there and live.

fuked up thing is theres song's that i havent heard for years and been looking for but i cant even find them anywhere to download them. thats some scary sh!t.

hopefully the small used places will remain and not start to go under. the record companys are not making any money off of the used cds,records,dvd,video game market....sony is already looking into doing something about it.

"Last times and days,Jonny F$%^in' Blaze" - Mef

target, best buy , fry's electronics, walmart still sell cd's. department and retail stores will just add a music section to their stores.

^^^ true... but the selection will be cr@p... Record Stores will only stay alive if this jump on the used video game band wagon... Selling used CD for a fraction of the price... like a thrify store or some ish... Mom and pop stores have a ambiance you won't see in wal-mart... doesn't make them better... but aleast the person behind the counter should know something about the products they sell...2cents

companies will find a way to corner the market on used product while new product will be found almost exclusively online




IN THE YEAR 3000. .... ...


... .

Ebay is where I pickup my cd's but tbh there are some serious websites that have a stupendous amount of music available in flac format for free!! & thats just too tempting for most people these days.

I can't even remember the last time I purchased from a high st. store.