Posted on 07/18/2006 10:49:17 AM PDT by weegee
On a recent Monday, six people — soon enough four, then two — were browsing the bins of compact discs at Norman’s Sound and Vision, a music store on Cooper Square in Manhattan, around 6 p.m., a time that once constituted the daily rush hour.
A decade ago, the number of shoppers might have been 20 or 30, said Norman Isaacs, the owner. Six people? He would have had that many working in the store. “I used to make more in a day than I probably make in a week now,” said the shaven-headed Mr. Isaacs, 59, whose largely empty aisles brimming with punk, jazz, Latin music, and lots and lots of classic rock have left him, many afternoons, looking like a rock ’n’ roll version of the Maytag repairman.
Just as troubling to Mr. Isaacs is the age of his clientele. “It’s much grayer,” he said mournfully.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
The music industry was fragmented in the beginning, came together for awhile (when an artist like Elvis was able to top Pop, R&B, and C&W charts at the same time) and has fragmented again.
There are music stores that specialize in dance/techno music, rap, or heavy metal. If a store owner sticks to the Classic Rock he grew up with (he's 59) then his business is stagnent and he's not keeping up with any music trends.
Ironic to see the NY Times talking about greying dinosaurs.
These days I stop by the various used record stores in Boston and often I'm the only one there.
The ending of so many "underground gathering places" is sad.
Danny Fields, the Ramones’ first manager, points out that visiting Bleecker Bob’s on West Third Street in the late 70’s was “like experiencing the New York music scene” in miniature — it was a cultural locus, a trading post for all the latest punk trends. “Dropping into Bleecker Bob’s was like dropping into CBGB’s,” he said. (You can still drop into Bleecker Bob’s.)
Except that the punk records that niche music stores (presumably like this punk store) stocked were imports or small label, small distribution. I doubt that the punk stores stocked much Ted Nuggent, Helen Reddy, James Taylor, ELO, Neil Diamond, Barbra Streisand, Donna Summer, or Barry Mannilow reocrds. Think they stocked the Grease or Saturday Night Fever soundtracks?
Only if they were a superstore chain, like Peaches.
There is a lot of chaffe at the Boston record stores to get at those few nuggets.
I know a local record store here that keeps low inventory and will pass on used copies of the "big sellers" of old. They bloat the racks and don't generate new interest so much. Doesn't matter if the seller is practically giving them away; they aren't even worth filing.
Well, this grayhead hasn't bought a CD in ages. About 90% of my "record" collection comes through iTunes.
I find if I'm looking for records it's for something that's never been released on CD--I buy a ton of movie scores. If something's on CD, I buy a CD, so the store owners must follow that logic, too.
I went on a binge last week and came home and glanced at my stack of unwrapped, to-be-listened-to CDs which I already have. There were 28 there, PLUS my new purchases. Think I have a problem?
Payday tomorrow, so I'll tour the record stores again, but just looking, of course...:)
iTunes has been deadly to me lately. Especially the "For You" section. Some of the stuff I don't like, but they have nailed me pretty good on a bunch of music. And then when the receipt comes in my email, it shocks me how much I spend at the store.
Thanks for the ping...
On my way out the door, but I've got a couple I'll post when I get back tonight...
If they start releasing,in serious quantities,stuff from the 50's and 60's...folk,pop,rock,"standards",etc...in "high definition" then I'll be there with my credit card at the ready.A little bit of that stuff...e.g.,Dylan and the Stones...has been released in "hi def",but there's almost nothing released in the last 15-20 years that I'm at all interested in buying on CD or download.
Everything I buy from iTunes is something which is simply not in print on CD or something which is ridiculously overpriced on CD.
I prefer to own stuff on CD for now, until iTunes comes up with a truly lossless format.
My CDs remain higher-fi than iTunes for now.
Now I'd had 1 cassette of his material compiled by Yazoo Records (and knew there was a second volume) but I was unaware that there was this much (and used it was as much as a new CD).
So it may have been overload, but I bought it (I think other multi-disc titles from this company, which largely deals in public domain recordings, retail for $18-25).
Stores that deal in used CDs could clear out those used bins (and help people make music discoveries) if they'd drop the used price to $6-8 instead of $8-11).
I typically buy DVDs in stores or online for $10-15 each (some of those are double features, or at least double discs including the supplements).
Hollywood knows that lowering the prices increases sales and interest.
And if you factor in all of the money for old music and movies that should've already lapsed into the public domain and price-fixing in the industry and major label payola keeping crap dominant on radio airways, it is no mystery as to why the record industry believes they are in the doldrums.
Truth be told, it was the burp of the baby boom that gave them false perceptions. I recently watched an episode of Tomorrow with Tom Snyder interviewing Bill Graham, Kim Fowley, Joan Jett, and others about the state of the (then current) 1977 music industry.
Bill Graham looked at the bottom line and said that acts were selling 5million units when in the 1960s, 500,000albums would've been a "hit".
So now that we are back down to the lower figures (Johnny Cash recently got a #1 DEBUT), it "must" be because talent does not exist. Not because the suits have no taste, had no taste, and haven't grown up.
Kim Fowley pointed out that Joan Jett (then in the Runaways) was famous in Japan. That in Japan, kids buy rock and roll and that adults leave it alone when they hit 20. In America, you had bands like The Eagles programmed for people who were 30.
Same as it ever was.
This was my first CD purchase as a senior in high school (1992).
Rolling Stone had reviewed three new Patton releases at the time, giving them 4 or 5 stars each. Anytime I found a new, unfamiliar artist (especially older music) I'd usually check him/her out.
Of course, all my friends were listening to Metallica's "Black Album" at the time, which isn't terrible, but it's nothing earth-shattering either.
I know that there will be subtle surface noise in some recordings. In the case of old blues, country, etc, mastering may even be done from one of the few remaining copies of this disc or that. I accept the limitations.
I grew up in an era of black and white and color television. Of rabbit ear antenna and fading radio signals (waving in and out or other signals drifting in over them). Of multigeneration copies of tapes passed around.
I'll take a recording in the best condition I can get it, but I don't get worked up over limitations in the source material (instead I get burning mad when I buy a DVD of something, say the Rocky & Bullwinkle episodes, and the studio has superimposed a watermark stamp on the lower right hand corner of EVERY DAMN CHAPTER). I bought it, I don't need to be reminded of what I am watching, thank you.
I can accept substandard source materials (if it is all that exists) but cannot accept deliberate marring of a release.
A recent article in Mojo magazine said that with online services like iTunes (which are now seeing the rerelease of titles that have been out of print on CD and vinyl for over a decade), titles may never go "OOP" again.
And with some out of print CDs getting $40-100 used on Amazon, it is in the artist's best interest to license them for download (unless the artist is sitting on a hefty stack of unsold CDs).
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