Posted on 03/08/2015 5:20:59 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
Owner: Dwindling sales kill Frank Music Company
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) —Even the home to Carnegie Hall and the New York Philharmonic isn't immune to the realities of the digital age of music.
Frank Music Company, New York City's last remaining store dedicated to selling classical sheet music, closed on Friday. Frank's customers, a community of artists dedicated to playing music written with quills centuries ago, must now buy them online or download PDFs.
The store's owner, Heidi Rogers, said dwindling sales killed the shop.
"Musicians are underpaid," she said. "How can they buy music if they're not getting paid enough?"
Why would a broke artist pay $36.95 for a book of Debussy's piano preludes from Frank's if it goes for $12.52 on Amazon? And why pay at all? Copies of the most popular classical works can be found for free on file sharing websites like the International Music Score Library Project.
Or customers could just photocopy a book and take it back. Rogers posted signs near her door pleading for her customers not to do it. But in the end, even Rogers's strict "no return" policy didn't make a difference.
Frank's was popular when it opened in 1937, and still was when Rogers bought it in 1978. It catered to amateurs and celebrities alike. Pianist Emanuel Ax and violinist Itzhak Perlman would shop there. But in recent years, Rogers would be lucky if two customers walked in a day.
Other classical sheet music stores have met similar fates. Portland's 93-year-old Sheet Music Service closed in 2010. The Music Center of San Francisco shut its doors in 2012. New York lost the Joseph Patelson Music House in 2009, followed by Dowling Music in 2013.
Some are still standing. Miami's Allegro Music has long teetered on the edge of closure. Meanwhile, Paris still has Paul Beuscher and La Flute de Pan. London holds on to Schott Music and Yamaha Music London (formerly Chappell of Bond Street).
Rogers acknowledges her store's end is partly due to her rigid resistance to change.
Transactions at Frank's were tallied up on a loud, yellowing adding machine that prints a thick paper receipt one line at a time. A sign on the counter forbids any cell phone calls inside the store. And while Rogers could take credit cards with her tiny Square dongle on her phone, she resented it.
"The fees!" she said, rolling her eyes. "I'm a fan of people making enough to live."
With the appearance of Amazon -- her sworn mortal enemy -- Rogers didn't even try to compete with the lower prices and speedy mail delivery. Modernize? Rogers scoffed. She'd always resisted listing her 100,000-plus book inventory in a computer. Automated online pricing and e-sales? Out of the question.
"If you have the overhead of rent, inventory and paying your helper five times minimum wage, you can't have the prices Amazon has," she said.
Instead, she stuck to her routine. Rogers used a lead pencil to write down the price on every book. Each purchase was placed in a light blue, string closure envelope.
This past week, she was signing those books and envelopes for loving customers, who came out in droves to visit her tiny store on the 10th floor of a building in Midtown Manhattan.
James Besser, a local conductor, burst into tears at the counter.
"This is a terrible loss for the music community in New York," Besser said. "It's a funeral."
For New York, this is the end of an era. Rogers said an anonymous donor bought her remaining books as a gift for the Colburn School, a Los Angeles conservatory.
"Except for losing my purpose in life, it's a win-win situation," she said.
If you think it’s a loss now, just wait until the machines die.
Cue howling and wailing of dinosaurs thrashing in the La Brea Tarpits.
1) BooHoo
2) Ha!
3) Next...
“Musicians are underpaid,”
This is sadly, still true, unless you’re in a city’s symphony orchestra. The guys who gig night in and night out in clubs are woefully underpaid, and most do it for their love of music and the joy of performing.
Gee a highly competitive market and she pay five times the minimum wage and won’t modernize.
For years the Sears refused to put 1-800 numbers in their catalogs for customers to order. Senior management could not understand why catalog sales were falling (hint competitors had toll-free numbers in their catalogs).
Why would a broke artist pay $36.95 for a book of Debussy's piano preludes from Frank's if it goes for $12.52 on Amazon? And why pay at all? Copies of the most popular classical works can be found for free on file sharing websites like the International Music Score Library Project.
Why indeed. Musicians are not stupid and they make rational decisions, including buying their sheet music online. Should government intervene to keep Frank's in business. That's certainly what is happening with other business in the face of new competition, so why not with sheet music?
Anyone can go to Saville Row and buy a very nice bespoke suit for $2000 - $3000, made the way that they used to make all suits: by hand. Most go to Men's Wearhouse and buy a suit that serves their purpose at a fraction of the price. Men aren't as well dressed, but that doesn't seem to matter much.
It’s a shame. I’m a musician and download my sheet music, now, if I have a special gig. I do miss the days of perusing the bins, tho.
I still do at the local music stores, but the store owner in the story didn’t want to adapt. It doesn’t matter what industry you are in, if you don’t adapt, you are going to close.
Online music sheet stores are quick and options like changing the key at purchase are very useful.
You’re either on the train or you’re on the tracks.
You’re either on the train or you’re on the tracks.
Yep.
You can compete on price or you can compete on service. It appears that she chose to do neither.
the rents kill all sorts of very valuable resources particulary in retail
the last mom and pop Camera Store In Marin County CA no longer carries the brands it did for decades...and basically sells accessories printing material...and repair service which one cant get that well on the Internet.
So where is one supposed to get sheet music?
“Musicians are underpaid,”
Some are, but then there are the six-figure orchestra and chorus members at the Metropolitan Opera.
Now how are the Marx Brothers supposed to insert “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” in the middle of the overture?
This is sadly, still true, unless you’re in a city’s symphony orchestra. The guys who gig night in and night out in clubs are woefully underpaid, and most do it for their love of music and the joy of performing.
True of the vast majority of artists in general.
Commercial pilots don't make too much either, unless they are very senior.
Supply and demand. A heck of a lot of people want to do art and fly airplanes.
“Some are, but then there are the six-figure orchestra and chorus members “at the Metropolitan Opera.”
That’s exactly what I said.
I used to gig in the best Country band in Cleveland. . 5 nights a week, from 8pm until 2am. I was paid $250 a week.
In other business news, Johnson’s Fine Buggy Whips announced today that it was merging with Amalgamated Spats and Button Shoes to form what is arguably the world’s most obsolete company.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.