response 26 of 36:

Apr 27 17:33 UTC 2007

Scrooges can pay for climate controlled safes for preservation. :-)

response 28 of 36:

Apr 27 20:37 UTC 2007

Digression back to music retail:

The Wall Street Journal covers the stranglehold of Wal-Mart, Best Buy
and Target on what is left of CD retailing -- and the news that those
chains are looking to shrink their commitment to slow-selling CDs.
The chains are also difficult to impossible for specialty music
labels to deal with.

The big-box stores now control 65% of music sales, up from 20%
a decade earlier.

"Music Inside The Big Box"
http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB117763890447584360-FIW3Xw8b3Xl0UYdG3
Jvx60dlqeg_20080426.html?mod=rss_free

The WSJ article will likely only stay available for a short time.
Here is a bloggy summary which should have more persistence:

"Big Box Retailers Not Doing As Crappily As The Rest of the
 Industry -- But They're Getting There"

http://idolator.com/tunes/wal_mart/big-box-retailers-doing-not-quite-as-crappily-as-the-rest-of-the-industry++but-theyre-getting-there-255767.php

-----

And, a recent item which I have now lost reported that many Wal-Mart
stores are going to remove about 20 feet of CD bin space to make room
for iPod accessories.

response 30 of 36:

Apr 27 21:00 UTC 2007

I guess I am a little less knowledgeable than I thought.  I never really looked
into what the difference was between a CD and a CD-R and why it is able to
write on  a DVD-R.

So a CD or DVD is a longer storage medium because the reflective bumps are 
imprinted in a reflective layer rather than a dye.

response 32 of 36:

May 6 01:50 UTC 2007

iirc, the re is someting organic in the cd/dvd buring process which
does make a deterioratoin possible/probable but the details are fuzzy.

response 34 of 36:

Jul 1 17:25 UTC 2007

There it is in black-and-white, full page ad on Page 1 of the July
issue of Current magazine:  last day for Schoolkids-in-Exile, July 31.

I was in the store for a bit yesterday; bought a copy of the
Archie Shepp jazz album that was playing, and also a recent Hoven
Droven live album.   It may be in jazz that I will miss Schoolkids
the most; much of my jazz collection consists of things I heard
in the store.   In all other fields I have lots of other good 
sources for information.

Steve the owner said he didn't plan to raise
the discount beyond 20%, because then he was losing money on each CD.
He's planning to run a web store with what's left of the stock
after the physical store closes, for a limited time.

My somewhat snarky opinion is that it's about 5-8 years too late
for Schoolkids to be talking about selling CDs via an internet store.
And, if much of the old stock hasn't sold after six months of being
offered in-store at a 20% discount, what is going to make it more
appealing on the web?

New-release CDs are still arriving -- only a 5% discount on those, 
though.  I imagine all the unsold ones can be returned to the wholesaler
after the store closes.

Well, I hope the store has a good blowout during Art Fair.  I'll
probably try to get there every Saturday this month just for nostalgia.

response 36 of 36:

Jul 2 01:09 UTC 2007

 I'm going to have to agree with Ken on this one -- I don't see any
 likelihood of selling these discs at full price or 20% off through
 an on-line store.  50% off *might* move a lot of them, but shipping
 costs will mean that customers will still be paying something like
 75% of retail costs for a disc priced at 50% off.  
 
 Given that, why not steepen the discount to 33% or some such and
 try to move them locally while there's still a storefront?  It's a
 *lot* of work to list, sell, and ship individual discs.  Unless 
 there's a wholesale operation to take them off his hands or a 
 distributor willing to take them back, I think the Schoolkids in
 Exile owner is crazy if he's going to try selling them individually
 on the web..