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| Author |
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| 25 new of 106 responses total. |
krj
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response 2 of 106:
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Feb 21 04:36 UTC 2001 |
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A32294-2001Feb20.html
The Post has a grim article on the consolidation of music retail power
in the hands of Wal-Mart, KMart and Best Buy, and similar operations.
Or, more specifically, in the hands of the buyers for those stores.
The people who run one such buying service don't actually listen
to the music. They don't care.
The article says that a typical Wal-Mart carries around 4,000 titles.
A Tower outlet would typically carry 20 times that many, but the
increased selection is not helping to protect Tower's market share.
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mcnally
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response 3 of 106:
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Feb 21 21:16 UTC 2001 |
A Tower outlet carries 80,000 different selections? That's way higher
than I would have guessed..
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dbratman
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response 4 of 106:
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Feb 22 17:43 UTC 2001 |
Counting all the old price stickers still on the items, yeah, that
sounds about right ...
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kaluzny
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response 5 of 106:
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Feb 22 19:57 UTC 2001 |
It's probably the Internet that's killing off local (recorded) music
stores. These days I listen to mostly Cajun and Zydeco music, and trying
to find much of that stuff in local stores is tough (although Borders
probably had the best selection for the locals). But that's no problem--I
can just order anything Cajun or Zydeco from Floyd's Records down in
Ville Platte, Louisiana! I would have liked to support the local stores,
but I wouldn't waste my money on most modern 'pop' music.
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krj
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response 6 of 106:
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Apr 15 05:11 UTC 2001 |
Damn, damn, damn. I thought I saw this coming when I saw the sales:
electronics 30% off, used CDs 50% off. No, I wasn't going to be paranoid,
they're just thinning the stock before the students go home.
Wendy/hematite just told me: the East Lansing Tower is closing up shop.
I'm not sure what this means; I think this means that CD in-store retailing
is collapsing. This leaves NO "conventional" CD store in the immediate
neighborhood of Michigan State, a university with 45,000 students;
just three used CD stores.
I'm really going to miss having access to a Tower Records. Even the
small store in East Lansing had considerable value for me.
The new mega-Barnes & Noble opening November 2001 in East Lansing
is supposed to have a CD department.
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anderyn
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response 7 of 106:
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Apr 15 14:42 UTC 2001 |
That's totally weird.
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sspan
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response 8 of 106:
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Apr 15 17:55 UTC 2001 |
how many stores does that make that have closed in that area now? Don't
worry.. you can just get all of your music from Napster.. <eitysg>
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tpryan
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response 9 of 106:
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Apr 15 18:46 UTC 2001 |
Betcha someone could have success selling CDs in that area
near MSU if they where only going for 'current music college students
are buying' in much less square footage.
Tower probably had the stock it thought would satisfy the
*entire* Lansing area market, as normalized by a large corporate
view. It, of course takes much more square footage in probably
costly rental district.
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mcnally
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response 10 of 106:
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Apr 16 00:26 UTC 2001 |
Ann Arbor's music retail history doesn't seem to agree with Tim's
theory from #9. Ann Arbor has seen not only giant mega-stores like
Tower fold, but has also lost nearly every other size and shape of
CD retailer -- mid-sized record stores like Wherehouse, local
independents like Schoolkids' and SKR, small specialty retailers aiming
at college listeners (I can't even remember the names, but several have
attempted to establish ongoing concerns in Ann Arbor and almost all
have failed -- the only one left at present (that I know of, at least)
is the Grooveyard..)
I can't believe that the only stores that can make money selling
records in a college town are Best Buy and Wal-Mart. A year ago
everyone was blaming the internet retailers but none of them are doing
particularly well, either. Where's all the money going? CD prices are
at a record high and every year sets a new record for the amount of
money Americans are spending on recorded music. How can that be
possible when the retail outlets are withering up and dying?
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carson
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response 11 of 106:
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Apr 16 02:41 UTC 2001 |
(I'd thought that Best Buy [and possibly others] were selling CDs as
loss-leaders, meaning that they *aren't* making money on music. that
might account for why more money is spent on music without profits
being generated directly by it.)
(also, I imagine the used record stores are doing just fine making
money in Ann Arbor, and maybe in other college towns, too.)
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dbratman
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response 12 of 106:
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Apr 16 16:51 UTC 2001 |
And I know people who still insist that Napster is not affecting CD
sales. CD sales are still going up, they say. But not in the vicinity
of colleage campuses, where they've plunged, I observe. But CD sales
are still going up, they say.
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mcnally
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response 13 of 106:
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Apr 16 20:18 UTC 2001 |
re #11: OK, I've heard that too.. If it's true, then seemingly
*nobody* (or damn close..) is making money in music retail. How
can that possibly be true? Put a different way, all of that money
has to be going somewhere. Conventional wisdom has it that it's
not going to the artists, record stores are dropping like flies,
etc.. The traditional bogeyman in this scenario is the big, bad
record company, but I'm not sure I buy that.. Do they really
monopolize (or oligopolize, I suppose..) the production, distribution,
and sale of recorded music to such an extent that they're the only
ones in the whole chain who are able to make money? How is this
supposed to be sustainable in the long term?
re #12: Ann Arbor's music retail woes began long before anyone had
ever heard of Napster, and evidence that this is true elsewhere has
been widely trumpeted by Napster supporters, if not by the record
companies. It's probably fair to assume Napster is a factor of some
sort in college-area record sales, but it's by no means safe to assume
that it's as important as you suggest.
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krj
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response 14 of 106:
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Apr 18 17:40 UTC 2001 |
To answer Dave in resp:8 :: I count seven big CD stores gone from my usual
circuit, but my circuit is unusual because I am bimunicipal -- my daily life
includes both Ann Arbor and East Lansing. The casualty list is: 2 Michigan
Wherehouse Records, 2 Tower Records, and then in Ann Arbor, the original
Schoolkids, and the spinoff/successor stores SKR Classical and
SKR Rock/Pop/Jazz/Blues.
I started an item on Cafe Utne to ask if this sort of a wipeout was being
seen anywhere else, and while this is not a scientific survey, so far the
answer seems to be no, the catastrophic wipeout is a Michigan phenomenon.
(Mike: what does Seattle's retail scene seem like? Mickey, how's Austin
doing?)
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micklpkl
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response 15 of 106:
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Apr 18 19:38 UTC 2001 |
Austin music stores seem to be thriving. I admit that I'm not frequenting
retail music stores enough to observe any slow downs, but they do seem to be
expanding all the time. I'm not sure if this growth is simply a mirror of the
continued growth in other sectors, or if this has something to do with the
seemingly insatiable appetite for music for which Austinites are known.
Whatever the reason, I am thankful that there are so many options, and I try
to support the local retailers whenever possible.
I tried to list the stores with a sizeable retail music section, and came up
with this:
Waterloo Records (the granddaddy of Austin's independent music stores, still
doing well in their downtown location, despite traffic and construction
snarls)
- Jupiter Records <www.jupiterrecords.com> (recently opened a second store
in So. Austin)
- ABCDs (www.chainstoressuck.com) another wonderful independent, around since
1987. I like this store a bunch, because they have two smaller soundproof
rooms, one for classical and the other for jazz.
- Wherehouse Music (formerly Sound Warehouse, and I'll forever mourn their
passing) ... 3 locations in Austin
- Tower Records - one location, on The Drag right across the street from the
UT campus
- Barnes & Noble, at least 4 of the newer super stores around the metro
- Borders (!) two Austin locations
There are probably more I'm missing, but there you have it. Music is big
business in Austin. The office of the Governor has even set-up a website
clearinghouse to promote Texas music.
http://www.governor.state.tx.us/music/
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krj
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response 16 of 106:
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Apr 19 00:24 UTC 2001 |
I'm back from making a run at the East Lansing Tower, my first trip
there since the closing was announced. The sale is $4 off the normal
prices of most discs. There is a stark contrast between this Tower
closing and the closings in Ann Arbor -- there is still an awful lot
of merchandise in that store. Is it possible that even at sale
prices, MSU students are no longer willing to buy CDs? In last year's
closing of Where House Records in East Lansing, the store was quickly
stripped of the best stuff.
Classic rock seems particularly well stocked.
I picked up two Jethro Tull CDs for $9 each,
and Horslips/LIVE (a 2-cd set) for $18. There's some personal irony
in the Horslips item; I almost got it back in the 1970s at a long-forgotten
head shop and record store in downtown Lansing, but that store went out
of business before I bought the copy. I never saw that item again
in the LP era; it's recently out on a band-approved CD from Edsel, after
the band won a court fight against their old label. But I digress.
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anderyn
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response 17 of 106:
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Apr 19 01:43 UTC 2001 |
I want one of that! (The Horslips.)
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hematite
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response 18 of 106:
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Apr 25 00:40 UTC 2001 |
I don't think it's a matter of students not buying CD's, it's still
that they can find what they want cheaper. That's the main reason my
friends and I never shop at Tower, and are tentative now because with
the discounts they prices are starting to get back into reasonable
college student prices.
And as a Napster user, I *have* bought more CD's since using it. I've
found a lot of bands that I never would have heard of, and was able to
decide not to waste my money on CD's I heard were good but when I
listened to them they sucked. <shrug>
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krj
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response 19 of 106:
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May 15 21:30 UTC 2001 |
Here's a discouraging word from musicalamerica.com via Usenet.
Go to www.deja.com and search on "Tower Records" to see the whole thing.
The story reports that Tower has stopped buying new releases from three
major independent classical distributors: Allegro, Harmonia Mundi and
Qualiton. Tower appears to be in deep financial trouble and it has
pressured the major labels to give it deep wholesale discounts, and to
allow it to wait a year to pay for product. Universal, Sony, BMG and EMI
have gone along, WEA has balked, and the independents feel they cannot
afford such generous terms for Tower.
Quote:
"All parties quoted for this article insisted on anonymity --
understandable, for, without Tower, selling classical CDs at the retail
level would be well nigh impossible. Tower is just about every classical
distributors largest retail customer."
Bankruptcy is rumored to be a possibility.
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mcnally
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response 20 of 106:
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May 15 23:32 UTC 2001 |
It's got to be the fault of those pesky kids, trading symphony
recordings on Napster..
[Did anyone else watch Futurama this week with its digs at "Nappster"
(aka "KidNappster")?]
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scott
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response 21 of 106:
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May 16 01:49 UTC 2001 |
Little preachy, I thought. But still funny... "If you're an investor, just
dump your money into the hole" (points to hole in floor).
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dbratman
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response 22 of 106:
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May 16 20:32 UTC 2001 |
resp:20 - funny, Mike, but of course classical isn't where Tower ever
made its money, and consequently that's not how they're losing it.
Since a vast percentage of my classical purchases are CDs from those
very distributors from Tower, I'm concerned about alternate sources.
Searching for classical recordings on Amazon is very difficult, and
browsing for just about anything on Amazon (a la wandering the aisles
of a brick&mortar store) is just about impossible. Any better online
sources?
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dbratman
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response 23 of 106:
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May 27 03:48 UTC 2001 |
Well, that was pretty deafening.
I've made my first visit to Tower since the above news hit. There are
two Towers in my area: one has a smaller, but choicer, classical
selection than the other, and it was the smaller one I visited. So
far, at least, it doesn't look much different, and I even found a BIS
release I'd been meaning to buy.
I forget whether Chandos is one of the labels hit by the distributor
crunch, but they didn't have a new Chandos release I was looking for.
OTOH, I'd read about it in the latest issue of BBC Music, and anything
they mention often takes months to show up.
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krj
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response 24 of 106:
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May 27 22:13 UTC 2001 |
We discussed the problems of online browsing for classical CDs
recently, and in that discussion you (David) had the suggestion of
browsing a Schwann catalog instead. I haven't got a better solution.
CD Connection's search functions may be a tiny bit better than Amazon's.
Other than that, there's Borders, which in Ann Arbor was the weakest
of the three classical CD shops, but now it's all we have left.
I suspect the model becomes that one will now browse magazines and
radio shows, rather than actually being able to paw through piles or
lists of discs.
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dbratman
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response 25 of 106:
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May 29 07:41 UTC 2001 |
A day or two after not finding that new Chandos release I'd been
wanting at Tower, I found it at Barnes and Noble. Which has a
classical CD selection at least as large as the nearest Borders, and is
one heck of a lot easier to get to. Pretty small compared to Tower
even now, though, and lacking all the useful tools - Penguin Guides,
posted reviews, classical-only listening booths - that make Tower such
an easy place to shop. Sigh.
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krj
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response 26 of 106:
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Jun 26 19:01 UTC 2001 |
http://www.latimes.com/business/20010623/t000051875.html
Excerpts:
"Tower Records... may have to file for bankruptcy protection if it
cannot restructure weakening finances in the coming months, according
to the nation's top bond rating agency." ...
"The 41-year-old Tower is being squeezed by a decline in album sales and
a protracted price war with discount houses that is driving down
profit margins." ...
"Music merchants say sales are down 5% to 10% for the first six
months of the year, following disappointing showings by releases from
such big-name acts as Ricky Martin, Aerosmith and Depeche Mode....
According to research firm SoundScan... album sales at chain stores are
down about 3.6% from a year ago."
"Record chains such as Tower also blame their tepid sales on
cutthroat competition from discount houses such as Best Buy, which
purchase CDs from manufacturers for about $10.80 and often sell them
for less than $10 to lure customers in to buy other products such as
electronic equipment..."
"In a regulatory filing, Tower said it also would close or sell its
operations in Canada."
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