Record Stores Rise Again:
Lest you think the “record store” will soon be a thing of the past, Business Week reports that the Bay Area’s own Amoeba Music posted a 6% increase in sales that year while CD sales on the whole fell 7.2%.
Reason? Shopping at Amoeba’s three stores is a lot more fun that iTunes. I live around the corner from their San Francisco store, one of the nation’s largest music retailers. It hums with activity. Every CD you could ever want is available at a reasonable price. DVDs too. The staff, while snotty, knows everything. Bands play there.
Their next move? A record label and a $20 million download initiative. I’m eager to see how that turns out.
I think the days of dimly lit, scruffy record stores are numbers. High Fidelity’s Championship Vinyl will soon be an anachronism. But music shopping that is as much about experience as it is about commerce? That’s why people who can cook still go to restaurants.