The demise of the record store . . .

This was a pretty thought-provoking and interesting article. HMV HAS gone to rack and ruin though over the course of the last few years. Every time I go into a record store these days, there seems to be less and less music, and more and more other stuff, be it games, DVD’s, phones, posters, etc. In many ways, they are now the complete opposite of everything a record shop ever was back in the day. I remember that I used to go into my local Virgin Megastore (living in the sticks meant that we didn’t have a HMV store at that point) and it was a mecca for all things music. I could pick up absolutely anything, and there was so much to choose from, so much to pick from, and I could have literally spent days in there looking through the racks inch by inch.

When I went to New York, I went in to the Virgin Megastore on Times Square, and thought that I had found my heaven. More music to sift through than I had ever seen in my life, and over the course of my few days in the city, I must have gone in that shop at least 3 or 4 times. It was incredible.

Nowadays though, there just isn’t really much point in going into music stores. It is such a redundant experience. They have such a limited choice, and for fans of alternative music, sometimes they can’t even get what they are after anymore. Even specialist music stores and independent shops are no longer able to draw in the punters, and they are closing in their droves too. Smaller shops, much like the one in Crewe (where I am from) barely even have any music in them at all anymore, choosing to focus on the other products which clearly make them more money. You might be ok in the bigger stores for now, but for how long is really the question.

Is it the X Factor’s fault that music shops are going downhill? I don’t think so.

It probably has more to do with the fact that music is so readily available these days online, and digitally, that there is no call anymore for CDs amongst the masses, which is a real shame. I may be part of the minority, but if I am going to pay for an album, I want something to show for my money, i.e. the physical CD, rather than just an mp3 file (or mp4?) sent to me by Itunes and the like. That might be archaic, but to spend pretty much the same amount on a digital file of the songs just seems stupid. However, it is a massive industry, and has led to the demise of the record store.

It is a real shame, and one day, much like vinyl, CDs will come back into fashion again.