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Maybe it's an age thing, but I can't see any reason for physical stores for music since Amazon took off. I haven't bought a book or CD from a physical store in probably a decade now. And downloads trump even that because not only are they convenient, they are near-instant gratification. Now if only full 44.1/16-bit downloads would go down to 99 cents or less per song and be commonplace, we'd finally be at a reasonable "new paradigm." As it is now, the only places not selling lossy-compressed audio downloads are places like HDTracks (Chesky) and Linn, and they charge a big premium for them compared to lossy album prices. The last really good music retail store I was in was J&R Music World back in the 1980's, when they had a huge rock/pop store that had tons of imports, DIY punk albums and other interesting stuff and separate classical and jazz stores, all staffed by people who knew music. If I had been 10 years older back then, I'd have had more serious cash to drop there and now have a few thousand more LPs in the house. Tower in the village never held a candle, in my opinion, although at least their prices were competitive and they had at least one copy of most mainstream stuff. Virgin and HMV were jokes, overpriced poser stores in midtown. -- Tom Fine ----- Original Message ----- From: "Dave Lewis" <[log in to unmask]> To: <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Tuesday, June 16, 2009 3:47 PM Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Virgin Sacrifice I was employed at the Virgin Megastore on Sunset Blvd. as their classical buyer from 1995 to 1997, and I can wholly concur with what Mike says below. People would duck into my classical room just to find relief from the incessant throbbing, thumping, bumping of the main sales floor; I once commented that it was like a war to the death between squads of cybernetic robots. Thanks for the link, Mike. This is a sad day for me, and for music retail. I, at least, was older than 23 and I often trained staff to be more respectful and knowledgeable on the floor, but there was such a high turnover me and my older colleagues at Virgin could only do so much. David N. "Uncle Dave" Lewis Assistant Editor, Classical Macrovision Solutions Corporation -----Original Message----- From: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Michael Biel Sent: Tuesday, June 16, 2009 10:27 AM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: [ARSCLIST] Virgin Sacrifice Here is the link to the New York Times story with photos about the closing of the last Virgin Megastores in the U.S. -- the last large record store in NYC. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/15/arts/music/15virgin.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq =virigin%20megasotre&st=cse (stitch these two lines together if necessary) Leah and I were in the Union Square neighborhood a couple of weeks ago and stopped in to see the ruins. Even then there was nothing much worthwhile left to buy. The article mentions the shocking statistic that album sales dropped 45% between 2000 and 2008, but that the Times Square store's sales were still over $50 million annually, but that when the Virgin chain was sold in 2007 to two real estate companies, the stores were more valuable to their buyers for their real estate value. The article doesn't mention it, but that the Tower chain had also been bought for its liquidation value, and they would not consider allowing a few of the stores to be bought by a group intending to keep them operating. The article states about Virgin: "Its first American store was opened in 1992 in Los Angeles, and it set itself apart from rivals by developing a clublike atmosphere with booming sound systems and by offering steep discounts." I have often said that the too-loud playing of really offensive "music" was literally scaring away more paying customers than it was attracting, especially in tourist heavy Times Square Broadway. By 2005 even the industry gurus were noting that while the kids had stopped buying physical media, old fogies like me were still buying the actual artifacts. But by blasting obscenity-laden crap, er, rap, it would repel those who might have come in and bought a ton of classical, easy listening, jazz, classic rock, DVDs, and especial Broadway Show Music. I watched tourists move away from the open front of the store as they walked by. Occasionally even I decided not to venture in to run the gauntlet to get downstairs to the lower floors where the Broadway, classic rock, nostalgia, jazz, and classical sections were. The Broadway Show section should have been in the upper front level, and they should have been blaring out the South Pacific revival, or whatever show was playing in the Marquee theatre across the street. Certainly a high percentage of the heavy foot traffic past that store were tourists, and a large percentage of them were there to attend a show. These people still buy CDs. Kids don't. As for discounts, I noticed that the prices there at Tower and Virgin were no longer bargains in recent years, but as the article said, they originally had been. For example, a few years ago I just happened to be in the Colony store a few blocks Northwest on Broadway when the new CD of the just-opened "The Producers" was hand-delivered by the distributor salesman. They immediately put it up on the front counter at a high price like $21.95. (The Colony is famous for its high prices.) A little while later I stuffed some tissues in my ears and ventured into Virgin and saw a display near the down escalator selling "The Producers" at something like $14.95. But going into that store for a bargain was like the challenges in that worthless TV show "I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here!" But cost-cutting and mistaken emphasis in the youth culture resulted in a staff that was never older than 23 with a resultant misunderstanding of potential paying customers and under-stocking of the departments these customers would be interested in. Mike (I've bought 18 CDs in the past 3 weeks--none at retail) Biel [log in to unmask]