54 new of 194 responses total.
Yes, there is a reason why a mall store would have a bigger and better selection than the flagship store. Obviously they have found that Celtic /British music sells better at Arborland.
hahahahaha....DUH!!!
:P~~~
Also, regardless of why it happens, it's nice to have different locations with different emphases. One of the Standard Complaints against corporate bookshops is that you see the exact same selection everywhere.
I am split. I don't consider the downtown sstore to be the first anymore, becuase while they increased in size, I think it lost some of the charm it had in the old location. But the reason I'll check out Arborland now, rather than going downtown, parking. period.
Actually parking isnt so bad at the downtown store because one can park in the garage on Maynard and have the parking validated. I usually end up going to the Arborland store or Waldenbooks in Briarwood although for different reasons. I like Arborland because it is closer to Ypsi. Briarwood is close to work and I can have them special order a book for me if I dont need it right away and because I have access to the Waldenbooks SPO system at work, I can track it too. I suppose I could even just order the book myself but I dont want to mess up whatever system they have. heh.
I like the downtown store because I don't have to park (or drive) to get there when I'm in Ann Arbor.
I like them because they are open after the public library closes.
It seems kind of odd to me to complain about the effect of the acquisition upon Borders and about the music selection in the same response, as I can't remember the old-school style Borders even having a CD department.
re 145: You SPOoged a book?
148: They didn't. That's part of the corp idea for the "new" stores.
That's what I thought..
haha. I am going to start calling WaldenSpo WaldenSPOoge.
If i'm looking for a nice non-big-chain really-know-their-stuff music store to buy occasional classical, jazz, etc. CD's in within half an hour of Ann Arbor, then i'm out of luck, right?
Yep. It's appalling.
What do you expect of a town where the nearest classical radio station is 60 miles away?
It's simple: work up a plan, submit it to the SBA, get a nice fat loan, open up your own non-big-chain really-know-their-stuff music store right there in the middle of fabulous downtown Ann Arbor, and watch the money roll in. You'd the the only one within 60 miles, how could you fail?
resp:153 :: for occasional jazz purchases from an independent store, there is still Schoolkids-in-Exile, in the basement under Bivouac on State Street. For an independent store with a decent selection of classical music? It's not just that I can't think of one close to Ann Arbor: I can't think of one period. There must be a couple left in North America somewhere. It's not just in Ann Arbor where the independent CD sellers are being crushed. Somewhat outside your 30-minute radius is the Harmony House Classical store in Royal Oak. Harmony House is a local chain, and that's the best I can suggest. Your only other choices: buy used classical discs at Encore Music, or else make your peace with the Borders chain or one of the online retailers. I don't have the article immediately available to me, but there was a statistic (I think I quoted it in earlier responses) that classical and jazz sales make up about a third of online CD sales, as against perhaps 5-7% of instore sales.
Might this be because classical listeners have already heard the piece and don't have to go to some local store to find out what they are buying? (Or because they are more familiar with online buying?).
While at Borders Downtown, I overheard a customer say to one
of our employees he was pleased to see the employee got work after
SKR classical. Some of the knowledge base may have gone across the
street.
Of course, it is so easy to buy Britney Spears at K-Mart or
Wall Mart, and very difficult to get classical or jazz at those 2.
K-Mart had two or three CDs in the section labelled classical, I think they were collections of excerpts.
md in resp:156 :: being the only classical music store within 60 miles doesn't work any more. In the Observer, Jim Leonard said that he used to have a large base of distant customers who made approximately monthly pilgrimages to SKR Classical, and weekends were the store's busiest times. But in the last couple of years, most of those far-away customers switched over to the online retailers so they could avoid the drive, and weekends became SKR Classical's quietest times. sindi in resp:158 :: I believe that what's left of the classical and jazz business is moving to the online stores because of inventory issues. Unlike pop music which is mostly economically driven by large quantities of a small number of discs, a good classical or jazz store has to stock small quantities of large numbers of discs. This sort of an inventory problem is best handled by a large national online store because the online store has many more customers and thus has less of a problem trying match obscure discs with buyers. (I'm not explaining this well, oh well.) There was a recent online essay somewhere discussing how amazon.com had a minor hit with the Ken Burns Jazz series, and how everyone had been forgetting that Internet e-commerce was supposed to be all about niche marketing, and not selling more N*Sync discs.
Re resp:161 2nd paragraph: That makes a lot of sense, and I think you explained it quite well. My current musical interest is ragtime, which is about as nichey as you can get. Traditional retail music stores tend to carry almost none of it - maybe a couple of Scott Joplin CD's and that's it. But there are a number of ragtime performers, and they put out CD's, which are easy to find and purchase online.
make pilgrimage to elderly music, k?
I did that last week, hap. But it's not really a "pilgrimage" for me, since I work just across town from Elderly. Elderly Instruments, the folk music specialist in Lansing, is an interesting case. They've had a sizable mail order operation for maybe 25 years, and in the last couple of years they have moved onto the web in a very classy way -- see http://www.elderly.com. As far as I can tell, they are the largest folk music discounters in the country, with many labels priced at $12.50 and almost nothing priced over $15. So essentially they are a national retailer who, through the accidents of history and geography, just happen to have their one storefront outlet in Michigan.
Maybe a springtime Grexpedition to Elderly is in order some late April weekend maybe?
grexers are not allowed there.
Neither are Jews, Barry.
quit jewing me you dirdee wop.
Eh Gianni Schichi shutta you face. Lees I dona preten I'ma notta woppa.
Re resp:163 - Does Elderly carry ragtime CD's? I must admit that on my one visit to Elderly -- five or six years ago -- I did find a ragtime folio that I hadn't seen elsewhere.
I'd be very, very, very surprised if they didn't carry ragtime. At a guess, with a far better selection than most stores - but possibly not much that you wouldn't already have access to, John. I think I have a fairly recent recordings catalog, & will check if I can remember when I'm at home, & email you. But you might well want to try their web site. I haven't used it (lynx being my sole web browser), but I've heard it's very good (as krj just said).
I'm not finding any ragtime CDs on the Elderly web site listings.
i don't pretend that i'm not a jew, mike. THAT WAS VERY MEAN.
[hangs head in shame]
you should be 'shamed. :P~~~
[Just kidding. Barry.]
it's to late, deliza, my heart is broked.
A search of Elderly's web site brought up some CD's, but not very many. I found the classic "Red Back Book" album of orchestral arrangements of Scott Joplin Rags; "Grace and Beauty" with the New Orleans Ragtime Orchesta; Butch Thompson performing Scott Joplin; some Jelly Roll Morton recordings; Joshua Rifkin's classic Joplin recordings from the 70's; a small handful of other CD's of possible interest. I found nothing at all by the many excellent artists that I hear at the ragtime festivals I attend, even though they produce CD's. Nothing by Scott Kirby (possibly the foremost interpreter of Scott Joplin now active), Jeff Barnhart, Bob Milne, Sue Keller, John Arpin, Terry Waldo, Mimi Blais, Dick Zimmerman, The Etcetera String Band, Tony Caramia, Frank French, David Thomas Roberts, etc. etc. etc. I have CD's by all of these folks, purchased at ragtime festivals. I never see them in record stores. Ragtime performing and recording is alive and well, but is largely invisible to all but the most dedicated fans.
The same is generally true of the musical ghettos I move in these days.
You might have better luck looking for personal websites for those performers. Those will probably have CD order forms if they've got CDs out.
Yes indeed, most of them do have websites, and there are other websites from which one can order the CD's. My point was that their material is virtually unavailable from traditional retail outlets.
Oh yeah? Well ... um ... uh ... then you're right.
Same with the funny music artists. Mostly self produced and distributed. Some CDs are burnt 10 at a time. Better than home duped cassettes. Most have web-sites of their own, some use co-operative web distribution also.
---(( this item is now only active in the classical music conference ))--- In the restarted music conference, I put a pointer to the following New York Times article: "Classical Music, Spinning Into Oblivion?" http://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/21/arts/music/21TOMM.html
((Oops, miswrote the headline. The article is about the collapse of the classical CD business.))
At least this article addresses 1) the difficulty of browsing online, and 2) the inadequacy of MP3 and any other current downloadable format for classical listeners. I was saying long ago that MP3 may be convenient for some purposes but isn't going to take over, because it provides lousy sound quality, and now I finally find a real article saying the same thing.
I'm duplicating things because there is no linked retail item between the Classical and current Music conferences. Gramophone's web site reports that Nimbus Records has gone into receivership. Their spokesman said they could not operate further after the collapse of US consumer confidence following the September 11 attacks. Nimbus' UK business included providing distribution for several small independent labels. Another UK distributor has closed recently and yet another one is expected to fold.
I'll utilize this item again to distribute some news to the classical music conference. WWJ-AM reported this morning that the Harmony House retail chain is shutting down. Some stores will close next week, others will close in the fall. Someone with more time and initiative than I have at the moment might wish to contact the Royal Oak classical store and find out details about the going-out-of-business sale; it's likely to be the last great classical going-out-of-business sale ever to be seen around Michigan.
Today's Free Press web site reports that Harmony House has raised the discount at their remaining stores, including the Royal Oak classical store, to 40%. They'd like to get rid of all the merchandise by the end of September.
Excuse me, but I am feeling slightly dazed at the moment. I have seen the past of classical music retailing. It still exists somewhere, and the where is Portland, Oregon. On East Burnside Street is a store called Classical Millennium. Those of you with long memories, which I'd guess is everyone here, will remember the great specialty classical stores of the later LP era, with hundreds or thousands of selections, separated by white plastic cards into tiny distinct categories, one for each minor composer (no "L miscellaneous"), a dozen or more for major composers, divided by genre and even individual work. I hadn't seen a store with that kind of selection, and that kind of care in laying it out, since before the end of the LP era. I have now. Wow. And several customers around on a quiet Sunday afternoon last week. I left with 6 items, several of which I'd never actually seen before, and did I ever have to prune to get down that low.
wow... <trying not to salivate> too bad I don't have any plans in the foreseeable future to head to portland...
(classical conference only) Harmony House had a rally, but it looks like it's over. I have a hot rumor that what's left of Harmony House has been sold to Trans World, whoever they are. Harmony House's web page is gone, and the Google cache version says that the Classical store on Woodward is to close. That google cache page has a Sept. 27 date on it.
Yeah, it's gone. The few remaining CDs have been moved to the Harmony House down the street. Don't know how much longer that one will last.
"what's left ... has been sold to Trans World, whoever they are." Didn't they use to be an airline? <g> I wish someone would invent a way to browse online stores' inventory that was as easy as flicking through the CDs in a rack - or, better yet, the LPs, because those you could turn over and read the liner notes. If that could be done, I wouldn't miss the death of retail stores so much. But every system I've seen online is hideously clumsy and awkward.
You have several choices: