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Grex > Music2 > #154: Schoolkids II, and Music Retailing |  |
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| 25 new of 247 responses total. |
cloud
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response 75 of 247:
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Mar 10 02:26 UTC 1999 |
I think Schoolkids should move into my basement, too.
I've been to Schoolkids@bivouac, and I've got to say like them. I ordered a
CD on Friday, and it came in today. I ordered one at SKR P&R, and I've been
waiting over three weeks for it.
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krj
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response 76 of 247:
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Mar 14 19:15 UTC 1999 |
After Mooncat's Grex Happy Hour on Friday I stuck my head in to check
out "Schoolkids in Exile at Collected Works." The rumor I'd heard
was that this was supposed to be where most of the folk music ended
up, but only a small fraction of what was there was folk-ish.
I'm happy to hear that Schoolkids-in-Exile's business model of
relying a lot on special orders is working well for cloud.
I remember Steve Bergman talking about how the financial situation
necessitated working closely with "one-stop" suppliers, and this
had the beneficial effect of getting most special orders in within
one day.
This will be a tremendous improvement over the old special order
situation at Schoolkids -- which sounds like it is continuing with
the SKR shop -- which is that you make your special order and it's
something like putting a message in a bottle.
My last special order at SKR Classical, which was a well-promoted
CD from the large independent label Chandos, took FIVE MONTHS to
arrive.
Even with a promise of next-day delivery, special orders just aren't
going to work for me. Making that second trip downtown to pick up the
order is a nuisance for me. If I can't grab a particular disc in town,
I'd just as soon order it from one of the big online services.
The growth of CD Now and its competitors leaves me wondering how many
people are willing to do special orders any more.
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orinoco
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response 77 of 247:
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Mar 14 22:10 UTC 1999 |
Well, Schoolkids-in-Exile also, if I remember right, give a bit of a discount
on anything you have to special order; and in any case you don't pay the
exorbitant shipping and handling. So they'll have a bit of an advantage in
the special order department over other physical stores.
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cloud
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response 78 of 247:
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Mar 17 04:01 UTC 1999 |
Yes, Dan, they did give me a discount too. From over 16 dollars origonally,
to less than fifteen, including tax. I was well pleased, and I think that
they should be able to rely on me as a fairly regular customer from here-on
out.
BTW; my CD from SKR has come in, finally, but I haven't had the chance to pick
it up yet.
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anderyn
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response 79 of 247:
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Mar 17 18:35 UTC 1999 |
I've also been very happy with the new discount policy on S'kids special
orders, although most of mine have taken a bit longer to get in than
next day or even next week (but then I have some pretty specialized
tastes, sigh... which make it rather daunting at times to find what I'm
looking for in Real Stores...) but I haven't actually ordered anything
from them since last year.
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krj
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response 80 of 247:
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Mar 28 18:36 UTC 1999 |
So I was at both Schoolkids-in-Exile at Bivouac, and SKR, yesterday,
and maybe I'm making my peace with both stores. SKR is still thin on
stuff which appeals to me, but on leaving the store I noticed that they
had the new release from the Old Joe Clarks mentioned on the new-release
board, so I went back in for that. (Who are the Old Joe Clarks?
An alt.country-ish band whose debut album was close to the top of my
best-of-1997 list. Review to come this week, I hope.) SKR was also
playing the "country/sitar" album by Bingo which got an interesting
review in the new issue of "No Depression." I would have bought that,
but they were out of stock... we'll see how many weeks it takes for them
to find me a copy.
Schoolkids-in-Exile is starting to recover some of that feeling that the
old Schoolkids had, that if you dug around you would find all sorts of
interesting items. I settled for a Johnny Cash anthology I had not seen,
and for the Michael Nyman soundtrack for "Ravenous." Interesting note:
Schoolkids-In-Exile is competing seriously on price. Their price on
"Ravenous" was $3 cheaper than the other shops I had checked.
They had some Runrig discs from Scotland for only $14.
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mcnally
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response 81 of 247:
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Mar 28 23:47 UTC 1999 |
Someone should bar them from using the name "Schoolkids" if they are,
in fact, pricing things competitively. Isn't that, like, false advertising?
:-)
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orinoco
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response 82 of 247:
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Mar 29 04:12 UTC 1999 |
<laughs> Only if they also sue Discout "we have the most expensive used disks
in town" Records.
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cloud
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response 83 of 247:
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Mar 30 02:32 UTC 1999 |
<laughs>
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krj
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response 84 of 247:
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Apr 7 19:51 UTC 1999 |
Orinoco, what is Discount charging for used discs?
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orinoco
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response 85 of 247:
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Apr 8 00:48 UTC 1999 |
Well, I seemed to remember they had pretty high prices. I went back again
recently, and they still had the sign up saying they bought used discs, but
I couldn't find the used-discs-for-sale section. Very mysterious....
...course, I didn't look very hard, being as I really don't like dealing with
Discount.
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cloud
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response 86 of 247:
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Apr 13 01:43 UTC 1999 |
It's not big at all, and it's mostly junk. Dan, are you still bitter that
they wouldn't sell you that old warped record?
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orinoco
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response 87 of 247:
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Apr 13 22:07 UTC 1999 |
Well, yeah, there's that too...
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krj
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response 88 of 247:
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Apr 17 19:19 UTC 1999 |
So Schoolkids-in-Exile surprised me by having the new Runrig album in
stock -- it's a Scottish import, and now that Runrig have been dropped by
EMI, the band is back on their own label, Ridge. And I liked the
African compilation which was playing in the store, AFRICAN SALSA by
the Earthworks label, so I had Steve sell it to me right out of the
player. Just like old times. Schoolkids-in-Exile is now established
on my regular weekend circuit downtown.
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krj
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response 89 of 247:
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May 7 01:00 UTC 1999 |
I got some e-mail today telling me that one of my favorite folk CD shops
will be no more. House of Musical Traditions is discontinuing their
CD department to make more room for their instrument sales.
Like Elderly Instruments, HMT sold both recordings and instruments;
unlike Elderly, which has expanded ferociously over the years,
HMT is stuck in a small house in a thriving urban neighborhood,
Takoma Park, Maryland, and there is no place for them to expand.
I was introduced to HMT around 1985 by Bruce Schneier, who recommended
it to me at a ConFusion SF convention. I got there just in time to
vacuum up all sorts of wonderful gems from the 1980s glory period
of British Isles folk, LPs which are now rare and expensive collectibles.
I got most of the early Oyster Band albums there, the English Country
Blues Band, Pyewackett, many of my Malicorne LPs too.
Almost all my Breton folk albums came from there.
House of Musical Traditions ran the best import folk
LP & CD store that I have ever seen -- well, maybe they were not
quite as good as San Francisco's Down Home Music, but I don't get
to San Francisco very often, and I managed to visit HMT
once or twice a year.
In recent years, HMT adopted a generous preview policy, and
also moved into used CDs. So I'd visit the store when I made trips
to my parents' home in Annapolis; spend a couple of hours there
rummaging and listening, and come back to Michigan with a giant
stack of music which just wasn't available here.
Online & mail order is nice, but sometimes it's no substitute for in-store
browsing. However, for import folk music, mail order is about all
I have left. Mad's Records in Ardmore, PA, is the only store left
in my regular orbit which stocks more than a token selection of
import folk CDs. Mad's is nice, but it was never as good as HMT.
The last sad irony is that we skipped our planned trip to the
store in December 1998; we just ran out of time.
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krj
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response 90 of 247:
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Aug 7 22:21 UTC 1999 |
Ann Arbor note: a Media Play store is going into the old Best Buy
space at Oak Valley Mall.
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otaking
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response 91 of 247:
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Aug 9 18:06 UTC 1999 |
Re #90: It's about time.
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krj
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response 92 of 247:
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Aug 28 02:33 UTC 1999 |
And on the heels of Media Play: Harmony House is moving in on
State Street, taking the former location of Elmo's T-Shirts.
This Harmony House store will be about two door down from
Discount Records.
How many CDs can this city buy?
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mcnally
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response 93 of 247:
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Aug 28 06:11 UTC 1999 |
Does anyone actually *buy* CDs at Harmony House? My impression,
based on the selection and pricing in the stores I've visited,
was that they'd somehow figured out to make money by *not* selling
records..
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omni
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response 94 of 247:
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Aug 28 06:24 UTC 1999 |
HH is somewhat overpriced, and you can usually cound on them not to have
what you're looking for. I think I'll stay with BMG.
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krj
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response 95 of 247:
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Aug 28 15:14 UTC 1999 |
In Lansing, before the advent of Where House Records' classical
section, and Tower Records, Harmony House was the most
useful local resource for classical music, and they also tended to have
some indie rock stuff which other Lansing stores did not have.
Harmony House's all-classical shop in Royal Oak is still a useful
resource. My impression is that this store is larger than SKR Classical
or Tower's classical department, and it often has stuff which we don't
see in Ann Arbor.
But I don't see how Harmony House is going to put a store which will
be comptetitive in Ann Arbor in the small Elmo's space.
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otaking
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response 96 of 247:
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Aug 30 17:45 UTC 1999 |
With 3 other records shops (not counting Wazoo and Encore) within one block
of the new HH location, there's no way the new location could compete. It
would have to be really special to get my business.
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dbratman
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response 97 of 247:
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Aug 30 23:03 UTC 1999 |
Out here in the oh-so-sophisticated San Francisco Bay Area, there's
essentially no worthwhile outlet for classical CDs except Tower.
Fortunately Tower is pretty good.
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krj
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response 98 of 247:
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Sep 9 02:00 UTC 1999 |
SKR and SKR classical are offering a 20% discount through
September with the presentation of a student ID from Michigan or
EMU. This does me no good, but a few of you may be able to benefit.
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mcnally
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response 99 of 247:
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Sep 9 02:56 UTC 1999 |
I was in SKR today, hoping to pick up "69 Songs", the new 3-disc
Magnetic Fields collection (which came as an almost complete surprise
to me, I'd heard no advanced hype and the only information I had that
anything new was due was from talking to band member Claudia Gonson
after a show last year when she said something vague about "something
due out next fall.") Unfortunately they'd sold out of the limited-edition
boxed set -- apparently the band's area shows over the past couple of years
have built up more of a local following than SKR expected..
Since I'd been lured into SKR, though, I decided to buy Richard Thompson's
"Mock Tudor" and the Talking Heads' re-issued "Stop Making Sense"..
I then went on to several other record stores to see whether I could find
the Magnetic Fields box at any of them. I didn't, but I somehow wound up
walking out of Tower with a Kinks album, a T. Rex album, a collection of
Astor Piazzola's tangoes, an afro-pop collection, and a compilation by
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, as well as a promo CD sampler.
All I can say is: I hope that Magnetic Fields release is *really* good
because it's already cost me a bundle and I don't even have it yet.. ;-)
For those who're looking to try something different, Tower is having a
sale of the "Music Club" collection series and have a display on the end
of one of their aisles. They have collections by influential early ska
acts Desmond Dekker and Toots & the Maytals, a decent early ska collection
("This is Ska",) and an excellent classic dub collection ("Dub Chill Out")
as well as several other interesting picks.
I *highly* recommend the "Dub Chill Out" collection. It's very accessible
classic dub by the greatest masters of the genre -- King Tubby, Lee Perry,
Augustus Pablo, Scientest, King Jammy, etc..
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