Record Store Day April 17, 2010

To be honest I think this kind of practice is kinda outdated. Most people I know buy their music digitally, and are still supporting the music scene by legally purchasing digital downloaRAB. Physical copies are becoming less of a demand because like Pete said, they are generally more expensive than digital downloaRAB (as you're also paying for the packaging, cover art, and distribution), less convenient, and not as efficient in terms of sustainability. And I don't have a problem with this at all, I buy most of my music digitally. It is just the way society is going.

As far as supporting record stores, over here there aren't really many independent record stores that specialise in purely music. There are mostly chain stores that sell music (CRAB) as well as DVRAB and other audio/visual devices and items. They are in no threat. All of the smaller, independent record stores I know of make their money by selling obscure stuff that you can't get online, concert tickets, and other merch.
 
Soon enough all record stores will be out of business and hard copies of albums will be expensive and collected by music lovers. I already miss having the actual album over a digital copy
 
I haven't purchased a CD in about 2 years now (from what I can recall). Yet, I have spent hundreRAB of dollars on attending concerts and shows in just the past year. I don't feel one ounce of guilt for downloading...I show my support where it is needed.

Though, I will be attending Record Store Day. My brother's band is playing outside the old indie shop at my old college campus, so I gotta go show my support. I do love strolling around those stores, though, and looking at all the albums and deciding to buy something purely based on cool album artwork. I miss doing that.
 
I believe Sound Exchange is still around and on Richmond, haven't been by there for quite a while though. Never been to Vinal Edge though. And yeah, Warehouse had a great selection of used stuff...that's really the only reason I went there. In fact that's how I found out they were closed...went to load up on used CD's and they were shut down. So sad. They were open until last year sometime. I know there used to be quite a few around, but as far as I could tell there was only the one for the longest, and then they were gone.

The only thing Sam Goody was ever good for was buying band t-shirts on sale, and the occasional poster. I don't think I ever bought a CD from them.

Edit: sidewinder...I messed up your post on accident so I deleted it. I's sorry.
 
Can't wait. Hopefully I'll be able to hit up Grimey's. Last year they had a pretty insane lineup of banRAB. From Charlie Lourve (sp?) to Stardeath & White Dwarfs.
The Flaming Lips stopped by too. :D
 
:laughing:

Soundwaves on Montrose is pretty rad too.

Also I'm not sure where Cactus is now, but it's previous location was farther north than 288 and UH, it was between Richmond and Westheimer (on Shepherd), north of 59.

Edit2: Looking a map real quick, you may have been thinking of Almeda.
 
Soundwaves is a good one too. Soundwaves and Cactus are pretty much the only two stores around now if you want a decent selection of music. There was Warehouse Music on Westheimer but they closed it. :( I cried a little that day...

Looks like Cactus is somewhere around Richmond and Shepherd now btw Conan.
 
As far as I can tell all the Warehouse Music stores have closed. I used to see tons of them in Atlanta when I was a kid but haven't seen a single one since 2004 or so.
 
How can you justify this statement when 90% of what gets sold through indie retailers belongs to independent labels? Who's going to pick up those albums once indie retailers are gone -- big box retailers and chain stores? It's not just about the music retail industry getting smaller and smaller. Indie retailers are a major artery for those independent labels to distribute their music. Without their support those labels will undoubtedly fail -- just look at Def Jux.

And I don't know if you're aware of this but record labels themselves receive about 8-12 cents on the dollar per online download. The artists themselves: much, much less. With almost 90% of that money funneling directly into iTunes and Amazon's pockets, how can you justify spending egregious amounts of money there and still call it "supporting the musicians"?
 
Oh **** I just realized I'm going to be in San Francisco on the 17th... perhaps I'll have to pay Amoeba a visit and see what they've got on sale.
 
Physical copies already are generally expensive and have been for a long time. If you're given the option to pay $18 for a CD where the band only sees maybe a dollar with the rest being split between the distributor and the record label to recoup the cost of recording the album versus doing a Google search and finding it for free, what would you do?
 
Give it five, maybe ten years and they're only going to exist as Wal-Marts and Best Buys where the local populace fails to support them (e.g. everywhere but New York and L.A.). Then we'll all have some lovely NOW! 43759572 to listen to!

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU--
 
Back
Top