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Grex > Music2 > #154: Schoolkids II, and Music Retailing |  |
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| 25 new of 247 responses total. |
carla
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response 168 of 247:
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Apr 20 20:09 UTC 2000 |
Maybe so, but since I did in fact work with him at Schoolkids, you can see
from whence my confusion derived...
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gnat
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response 169 of 247:
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Apr 21 07:06 UTC 2000 |
Well yeah, you could hardly be expected to know the incredibly
elaborate and baroque power structure at WCBN... :)
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carla
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response 170 of 247:
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Apr 21 07:51 UTC 2000 |
Well, I also have a friend that used to be the receptionist there, but theres
no way that you would know that either. Heh.
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gnat
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response 171 of 247:
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Apr 21 18:45 UTC 2000 |
There's a receptionist at WCBN?
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carla
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response 172 of 247:
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Apr 21 21:08 UTC 2000 |
Maybe it was U of M
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mcnally
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response 173 of 247:
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Apr 22 17:19 UTC 2000 |
perhaps there *is* someone with the title "receptionist", but under the
incredibly elaborate and baroque power structure perhaps their duties are
something else entirely..
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orinoco
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response 174 of 247:
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Apr 22 18:15 UTC 2000 |
I would have thought WCBN would have more of a psychedelic power structure.
Or indie, perhaps. Certainly not baroque.
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jules
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response 175 of 247:
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Apr 22 20:20 UTC 2000 |
i adore mike perini
i cant believe you know him carla!
i was in the fantastiks witgh him
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gnat
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response 176 of 247:
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Apr 24 01:14 UTC 2000 |
WCBN is like Gormenghast, vast, gloomy, mysterious, full of those
who lust for power, and those who covet what they cannot possess,
which may explain what happened to the Richard Thompson box set.
Mike Perini is a nice guy, yes.
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krj
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response 177 of 247:
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Apr 29 01:59 UTC 2000 |
Time to write another record store obituary. Where House Records
in East Lansing is closing on May 6, as the students depart.
The month-long 30% off sale should have tipped me off. What's left
in the store is 40% off, but the pop/rock stuff has been pretty well
combed over. There's a lot left in the classical bins, though, and
some in the world music bins.
Where House's MSU store opened around 1978 in the University Mall on
MAC Avenue, and it moved twice over the years until
it settled into the Jocundry's Books building about five? years
ago. Where House was originally the cooler record store in town after
the demise of The Disc Shop; one of my memories from the 70s is making
a distinct pest of myself returning about every third LP that I bought
in the oil-shock era of blighted vinyl quality.
In the mid-80s the Discount Records chain pulled out of East Lansing, and
this left Where House with a near-monopoly on the Michigan State campus
CD trade. They didn't do well with this, however, as the selection
got less and less interesting. I lived in East Lansing through
this period, and I would generally resort to mail order, or to shopping
on trips, for anything I wanted which was at all obscure.
A MSU acquaintance who was on the
Bitnet ALLMUSIC mailing list would regularly write entertaining rants
about the cluelessness of the staff and the insufficiency of the stock.
They rallied a little bit in the early 1990s, opening a classical
shop (later folded back into the main store)
and getting a little better about stocking obscure stuff.
But their monopoly ended around 1996 when Tower Records opened a
store three blocks away, the largest music shop which East Lansing
had ever seen. Where House did a valiant job of trying to compete
against Tower: they consistently undercut Tower's price by a buck and
they bulked up the classical and world music sections. And they
stocked & promoted alt.country music in conjunction with the
popular "Progressive Torch & Twang" show on MSU's student radio
station. I made an effort to support them by shopping there first for
popular items which it was likely they would carry; I was fond of
their Tuesday $2 discount sale.
Now it will be Tower which has the monopoly on new CD sales in
East Lansing.
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carla
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response 178 of 247:
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Apr 29 05:29 UTC 2000 |
I loved progressive torch and twang so much that a friend of mine used to
record it for me on a regular basis.
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mcnally
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response 179 of 247:
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Apr 29 17:35 UTC 2000 |
I quite liked the Michigan Wherehouse Records in Ann Arbor, though that
may have been largely because they had at least one buyer whose tastes
overlapped significantly with mine.
Tower's post-Wherehouse behavior in Ann Arbor was not encouraging.
Record buyers in East Lansing should prepare themselves for sticker shock.
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brighn
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response 180 of 247:
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Apr 29 17:42 UTC 2000 |
I could tell when Tower moved in to East Lansing, in its strategy, that it
was trying to run all the other companies out of business by undercutting
them, and then was planning to up the prices once it had a monopoly.
I was also of the impression that we had laws in this country about that sort
of thing, but Reno's busy with M$ and Elian.
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krj
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response 181 of 247:
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Apr 29 19:23 UTC 2000 |
When did Tower undercut anyone on price in East Lansing? (Or Ann Arbor.)
I never saw it. Tower is at $17.99 for most discs, maybe $16.99 in
more obscure titles. Where House was almost always a dollar
cheaper.
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mcnally
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response 182 of 247:
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Apr 29 21:13 UTC 2000 |
Tower was never a good place to shop for discs unless they were on sale
or you had one of their $3.00 coupons, but it seemed to me that the Ann
Arbor Tower's prices got even worse and the frequency of their "good"
sales decreased once their competition fell apart. I could easily be
wrong, or the timing could be completely coincidental..
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brighn
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response 183 of 247:
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Apr 29 21:37 UTC 2000 |
Tower undercut in East Lansing for a good year or so after it opened in E
Lansing. Price differences between the Tower in E Lansing and the Tower in
A2 for the same disc were around $2-3.
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mcnally
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response 184 of 247:
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May 11 21:43 UTC 2000 |
In the latest high-profile headline in the music industry, the FTC has
apparently reached a settlement with the Big 5 record conglomerates
regarding allegedly anti-competitive advertising practices.
The settlement forbids the now common practice of subsidizing retailers'
advertising costs in exchange for an agreement that retailers will not
advertise reduced prices on most discs. According to reports, the
expected result of the settlement is increased competition among music
retailers and reduced music costs, by as much as $1/disc or more.
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krj
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response 185 of 247:
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May 13 19:11 UTC 2000 |
What few reports have covered is that the resulting reductions in price
are expected to put further downward pressure on the profitability
of small independent CD shops. But most of them are probably doomed
anyway.
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krj
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response 186 of 247:
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May 18 04:16 UTC 2000 |
A two-page letter from owner Jim Leonard announces cutbacks and
reorganization in the SKR empire; this is described as a
"partial liquidation." This letter is posted in the
Liberty Street storefronts. The former SKR Classical storefront
will become "Uptown Music," and will incorporate jazz and world music
as well as classical. Half of today's SKR store, the side which had
the jazz cds, will become "Downtown Music" with the rock, pop, blues,
and everything else. My reading of the message is that the "SKR"
name is going to be discarded, but I'm not sure about that.
The original Schoolkids storefront is going to be let go; right now
it is a clearance outlet for unwanted stock marked down 45%.
The letter also names the five (of eleven) staffers who are going to be
laid off. It mentions that the owners of the "Dubplate Pressure"
store are going to revive that operation in Ypsilanti.
Jim Leonard seems to be complaining that (1) his stores should be seen
as the true heir to Schoolkids, since they kept almost all of the
old wonderful Schoolkids staff;
(2) if customers don't shop at his locally owned store,
it will go away and everyone will have to shop at Borders.
My rude comments later...
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katie
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response 187 of 247:
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May 18 05:20 UTC 2000 |
I always get creeped out when I go in there...it has looked "under
construction" since it changed from Schoolkids to SKR, and they keep
moving the genres around so I can't find anything the next time I go in.
Not a welcoming environment at all.
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carla
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response 188 of 247:
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May 18 06:17 UTC 2000 |
Katie I agree. But even when it *was* under construction, it was still more
inviting than it is now.
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otaking
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response 189 of 247:
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May 18 13:15 UTC 2000 |
Yeah, I used to spend hours in Schoolkids. Now, I cant stay in that place for
5 minutes.
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carla
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response 190 of 247:
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May 18 17:22 UTC 2000 |
Hey Ken, was Mike Perrini on that list of people getting laid off?
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krj
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response 191 of 247:
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May 18 19:43 UTC 2000 |
Carla: I don't know, I did not note down all the staff names.
Katie in resp:187 :: Jim Leonard had some rather exotic plans for
store decor which were never brought to fulfillment. One side of the
store was supposed to be done up in "Neuromancer"-style high-tech
garishness, and the other side was supposed to be done up as a tropical
jungle. I do not know how far along they may have gotten before realizing
the money wasn't there to support these dreams; I was under the vague
impression that they had gotten the construction work underway.
I went to check the SKR stores out this morning. I fished 8 discs
out of the clearance center, mostly pretty good stuff: Den Fule,
John Renbourn & Doris Hederson, Dave Schramm, Original Harmony Creek
Dippers, Planxty, Mary McCaslin, Sonya Hunter, and Odetta. It's
sad if this is the stuff they can't sell.
I ran out of time and brainpower to make sense of the piles of classical
discs which were 45% off. It did seem like the classical bins were
dominated by lesser known performers and composers. Besides the cds
at the "Clearance Outlet," there are more closeouts at SKR Classical.
In the SKR Pop-Rock/Downtown Music store, there was a big 99 cent bin
with some promising items in it. There were also a lot of used discs.
I think the store may be going for a close to 50% new/used mix.
Over at SKR Classical/Uptown Music, I found that well over 1/2 of the
opera stock has been removed. Maybe they're in a box just being moved
from one spot to another. There are more discs marked down 45%
at SKR Classical.
It looks to me like the folk and classical genres are
making up the bulk of the stock being liquidated -- possibly 1/3 to
1/2 of SKR's stock in those fields is being swept out. The rock CD stock
is being given a haircut, and very little jazz is being liquidated.
It does have the feel of a going out of business sale.
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katie
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response 192 of 247:
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May 19 06:12 UTC 2000 |
(Which Mary McCaslin album?) Mary is playing at Green Wood in Oct.
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