As the unmistakable scent of Nag Champa incense fills your nostrils, you notice the smoke and dust particles floating in and out of the gleaming light from the front window of The Mad Platter record store in downtown West Chester.
KRU Records owner Justin Gilmore, models the “old school” (vinyl records) and the “new school” (iPod) methods of music enjoyment. (Photo provided by Shawn Kotzen) The posters on the wall, displaying images of Bob Marley, Jim Morrison and other musical virtuosos, watch as you quickly transform into the adult version of “the kid in the candy store.”
Dozens of T-shirts and other various forms of rock ‘n’ roll memorabilia, adorned with band names and pop culture references, are strewn about the room and hanging like preschool art on a proud grandparent’s refrigerator.
While your brain struggles to catch up from the sensory overload, manager Debbie Rich stands behind the counter and grins, having already undergone the audio awakening you are presently experiencing. It’s almost as if she knows exactly what you’re thinking.
This is what a record store is supposed to feel like.
Elsewhere, three men, in their late-twenties/early-thirties, sit around a similar, Chicago-based, record store, bickering about relationships, films and mostly music.
Every conversation they partake in is neatly packaged in a “top five of all-time” format. For example, if someone dies, they discuss the top five songs about death.
These three men, played by John Cusack (Rob), Jack Black (Barry) and Todd Louiso (Dick), are fictional characters in an equally fictional store, called Championship Vinyl, from the 2000 film, “High Fidelity.
If a sequel to “High Fidelity” was ever written or filmed and set in the present day, one of the discussions they might have would be about the digital makeover given to the music business.
Eventually, this discussion might lead to a list of the top five reasons for the fall of the independent record shop.
Reason number five – It’s easy.
In High Fidelity, record store owner Rob says, “I get by because people make a special effort to shop here.”
In 2009, not as many people are making that effort.
Most of the blame can be directly attributed to a plastic piece of technology no bigger than a credit card.
The first portable MP3 player appeared in 1999. This allowed music listeners to move songs from a CD onto their computer, all the while significantly shrinking the file size onto a portable device designed to store the now-smaller files.
In 2001, Apple Computers, sensing a golden opportunity, commissioned independent inventor Tony Fadell and a team of 30 to invent the iPod.
This was the first MP3 player to be attached to a specific site (iTunes), built for collecting music.
The age of the digital download had officially begun.
According to Nielsen SoundScan, the record industry peaked in 2000, with 785 million records sold. From that point until the end of 2008, record sales have fallen 45 percent to 428 million sold.
Since 2003, 1,300 independent (indie) record stores have closed and only around 2,000 still remain, according to the Almighty Institute of Music Retail.
The annual Record Store Day, which first occurred on April 18, 2008, is the day that indie music retailers celebrate the culture of buying and selling albums.
The Mad Platter, which was opened in 1976 by John Harton and managed by Rich, carries vinyl, CDs and even some cassette tapes – nary an iPod is in sight.
“We have our loyal clientele, but our customers are always changing,” Rich said.
Rich claims that one of the reasons that so many of her fellow indie stores are going out of business is the monopoly that the bigger “chain stores” have in the industry.
Reason number four – Chain stores.
In “High Fidelity,” Barry abrasively, tells an unhip father looking for a certain, sappy Stevie Wonder record to give to his daughter, “Do we look like the type of store that carries [that]? Go to the mall.”
One out of every five CDs is purchased at Wal-Mart, according to Andrea Shea of 90.9 FM/WBUR.org.
In fact, according to industry estimates, as many as two out of every three albums are purchased at a chain store, such as FYE, Wal-Mart or Best Buy.
In “High Fidelity,” an angry Rob says, “Sometimes I feel like I’ll go beserk, go work at a Virgin Megastore and never come back.”
In the spring of 2009, media darling and billionaire Richard Branson closed the doors of the last, and biggest Virgin Megastore in the United States, the New York City branch, although a few stores still exist in Europe and the Middle East.
Tower Records, which started in 1960, closed all 89 of its stores in 2006, laying off 3,000 people in the process.
Musicland, which owned Sam Goody, went bankrupt and closed their doors in 2006, while HMV pulled all of its American stores in 2004.
FYE, a record store usually found in shopping malls, closed 280 of its stores in the last two years, leaving only 700 stores nationwide.
In 2007, “big box stores” such as Wal-Mart and/or Best Buy reduced their shelf space significantly, thereby dropping the amount of CDs carried in store.
According to Steve Knopper, the author of “Appetite for Self-Destruction,” consumer-filled powerhouses like Wal-Mart and Best Buy have experienced cutbacks.
Even Circuit City closed its doors earlier this year.
Reason number three – Digital music is cheap and sometimes free.
In “High Fidelity,” Barry abrasively, tells an unhip father looking for a certain, sappy Stevie Wonder record to give to his daughter, “Do we look like the type of store that carries [that]? Go to the mall.”
One out of every five CDs is purchased at Wal-Mart, according to Andrea Shea of 90.9 FM/WBUR.org.
In fact, according to industry estimates, as many as two out of every three albums are purchased at a chain store, such as FYE, Wal-Mart or Best Buy.
In “High Fidelity,” an angry Rob says, “Sometimes I feel like I’ll go beserk, go work at a Virgin Megastore and never come back.”
In the spring of 2009, media darling and billionaire Richard Branson closed the doors of the last, and biggest Virgin Megastore in the United States, the New York City branch, although a few stores still exist in Europe and the Middle East.
Tower Records, which started in 1960, closed all 89 of its stores in 2006, laying off 3,000 people in the process. Musicland, which owned Sam Goody, went bankrupt and closed their doors in 2006, while HMV pulled all of its American stores in 2004.
FYE, a record store usually found in shopping malls, closed 280 of its stores in the last two years, leaving only 700 stores nationwide. In 2007, “big box stores” such as Wal-Mart and/or Best Buy reduced their shelf space significantly, thereby dropping the amount of CDs carried in store.
According to Steve Knopper, the author of “Appetite for Self-Destruction,” consumer-filled powerhouses like Wal-Mart and Best Buy have experienced cutbacks.
Even Circuit City closed its doors earlier this year.
Reason number three – Digital music is cheap and sometimes free.
Starting with Napster in 1999, digital music piracy has been a major problem plaguing music today and has not helped indie record store sales in the process.
According to Almighty Institute of Music Retail, a CD costs $6.40 to manufacture, distribute and sell in a store.
Costs disappear when distributed online; therefore, an album selling for $16 in a retail store is as profitable as the same album selling for $10 online.
Justin Gilmore, 32, owner of independent hip-hop label, Karma Response Unit Records (KRU), has switched the focus of his label, started in 2000, to digital downloading, though he still plans on distributing a limited amount of products to stores and various Web sites.
“Although it was a hard decision, it was the only decision,” Gilmore said. “In fact it wasn’t even a decision at all; it was kind of made for me.”
Financially speaking, it doesn’t make sense to do all the legwork just to get five or six records in a store that will most likely close anyway, when he can digitally produce a dozen more albums in the same time span, Gilmore said.
Reason number two – Too many cooks …
In “High Fidelity,” Barry starts a band; and because Rob is so convinced the band is terrible, he offers Barry money not to play at a record release party.
The record release party itself is for a band called the Kinky Wizards, two shoplifting, skater punks (with no musical experience) that Rob has agreed to help release their record.
Just on MySpace alone, there are over 30 million individual artist profiles.
Everybody and their mothers are musicians.
Gilmore believes that the increase in the ability to digitally distribute products might result in a decrease in a product’s legitimacy.
Rich believes that it’s not just new artists putting out bad product, and cites the fact that many artists prematurely release albums because of their music leaking onto the Internet, which leads to record labels rushing and ultimately releasing unfinished and inferior products.
“There are a lot of mediocre albums out there,” Rich said. “Only about one in 15 is any good.”
Reason number one — Only the collectors care
The word “audiophile” is defined as someone who has an enthusiasm for sound reproduction, especially high-fidelity music recordings. In other words, a hi-fi enthusiast.
The audiophiles have been buying records for years, Rich said, but the younger clientele is suddenly appreciating the sound quality of vinyl.
“Even though digital downloading is convenient, the sound quality of a digital file is much less than that of a vinyl pressing or even a CD, due to heavy compression,” Gilmore said.
Vinyl sales are finally making a comeback, and in 2008 have increased by 89 percent in new album sales, according to Nelsen SoundScan. And not only indie record stores are carrying vinyl anymore.
Chain Stores, such as Best Buy, now stock vinyl re-releases of popular albums.
Gilmore believes “mom and pop” stores that have catered to the collector in the past and may survive due to the major upswing in vinyl sales.
“A collection of records is a collection of physical history, on two levels,” Gilmore said. “One is the history of the actual artist on the album, and two is the personal history of yourself as a collector.”
The character of Rob in High Fidelity, rearranged his entire record collection in “auto-biographical order” after breaking up with his girlfriend because it was comforting to him.
Platinum mouthed and platinum-selling rapper Paul Wall said he uses record stores as an escape from his everyday problems.
“If I’m struggling with something in my life, then the right song will help me through it,” he said. “The record store is like a giant medicine cabinet.”
Cameron Crowe, the writer/director of the 2000 cinematic love letter to classic rock ‘n’ roll, “Almost Famous,” once reminisced about his early musical memories:
“The record store. Where fandom begins. It’s the soul of discovery, and the place where you can always return… Long live that first step inside, when the music envelops you… Long live the record store, and the guys and girls who turn the key, and unlock those dreams every day.”
Contact Shawn Kotzen at
communitarian@mail.dccc.edu
