Is the Internet the Deat of...
 

Record Stores?

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/...in599008.shtml


Tower Records files for Bankruptcy.

thats a balls, i love tower records.

The big chains in the UK are beginning to suffer as well, although none to the extent of bankruptcy. The problem that they are facing is that the majority of music that is sold is Top 40 stuff and in that respect the chain record stores are being massively undercut by supermarkets. Given the choice between picking up the new Razorlight album for £9 in Tesco while getting the weekly shop and having to make a special journey into a town centre to get it for £13 in Virgin, which are people going to do?

Inteeeeernet, be the death of me
inteeernet, it's my wife and it's my life
Because a mainer to my vein
Leads to a center in my head
And then I'm better off than dead
Because when the smack begins to flow
I really don't care anymore
About all the Jim-Jim's in this town
And all the politicians makin' busy sounds
And everybody puttin' everybody else down
And all the dead bodies piled up in mounds

Yeah when I heard this I was shocked as well, I went and bought me some cd's they were quite cheaper than before.

Mentioning Razorlight... what do you think of it. Shite?

I think it is shite, but also it is a new way to reproduce and make music. This really marks the birth of online music.

Oh, I haven't a clue. The single gets right on my tits though. I just picked them at random as a band that has recently released a new album. I should have picked Robbie Williams, I bet 85% of his sales are through supermarkets.

i liked endind of punk:attitude documentary (well the whole of it). theese days internet is a punk (movement). it's fuck off to the system and corporations.

What on Earth kind of a sentiment is that? Does that actually make the slightest bit of sense to you? Do you mean it's punk as in it's a load of overrated crap populated by twats with stupid opinions? It's badly dressed rehashing of songs that were crap previously? I don't get it. I don't get any of it.

NEW WORLD PLEASE, THIS ONE'S BROKEN.

Are you insane?Eh?

SHITE? thats my line.

We learn from eachother all the time.

hahaha nice

Haven't a clue. Seems like kind of a big question to try and answer, even if I did know what "Deat" means.

Yeah I realized that when I posted it.

This DEAT?

M. Deat?

Probably this Deat?

I think definition # 2 under the last sounds like it might be what we're talking about. I can see how the Internet is the cock of record stores.

It's not the death of internet stores, antiquarian book stores, antique shops or anything else. There's still enough of us who appreciate a nice shop with nice people, being able to see and feel the goods and building up a relationship with the owner. That kind of thing's nice.

Some businesses fall and fail, but mostly things just carry on.

Count me among them. I hate Internet shopping. I hope you're right about there being enough of us, though.

I suspect I am, although as the more people are brought up on the internet, I will probably be proven wrong.

No, your line is 'shoyt'.

See, I assumed that the hallmarks of antiquarian book stores were because of the internet. But apparently not. Apparently, according to elder book-lovers I know, those sorts of stores have always been patronised by slightly shifty looking, possibly piss-stained corduroy types and have always had a chap who, worryingly, actually is either Manny or Bernard from Black Books, but older and more strange.

There was a character referred to as "The Bathroom Eater" in one of the bookstores here.

Also, in another one (A great one with fantastically sick curios and oddities in addition to books) there was a sign on the inside of the bathroom door that said "YOU! YOU WITH THE DIRTY MAGAZINES! I KNOW WHO YOU ARE AND YOU WILL BE KICKED OUT FOR GOOD IF I FIND OUT YOU WERE DOING IT AGAIN."

The internet can't give you that kind of satisfaction. No sir.

you failed ESL, right? DEAT?

I don't wear corduroy, piss-stained or otherwise. I just wanted to clear that up. The rest of that is spot on.

I neglected the most important thing: It's not a real antiquarian bookstore if the shelving and stacking thereof obeys the normal laws of physics. They must somehow seem to bend over your head in such a fashion as to render your entire time within the store in fear of dying as a result of the 70s Fishing Almanacs avalanching upon your person.

Also, there must only be a hint of a proprietor behind a counter stacked high with books and papers. Perhaps an occasional rustling or indecipherable mumbling.

The strangest law of a good antiquarian bookstore is that you should always have another look at the section that most interests you before you leave, as you will notice something that passed you by five minutes earlier.

I like it when I find a nice book and then discover that some previous owner has cut out and placed in the tome a relevent newpaper clipping from years before. That makes me happy.

The one really cool collection we bought during my tenure at the record store had TONS of newspaper clippings in the LPs dating back to the late 60s. It was really enjoyable to check that stuff out.

I doubt there's anything more satisfying. I often put newspaper clippings inside my own books.

I have a Billy Bragg LP (Brewing up with...) from a second-hand store which says, "To Jamie - the jagged edge of life. Please don't ever forget it. Love Gully xxx" which has been crossed out and someone has written, "Love as always!!!! Anna/ Lucy".

I really should scribble out the messages and pass it on to a loved one. I feel sad that the records life as a conveyor of love messages has stopped with me.

it will be a long time before the internet kills the specialist stores where the collectors frequent. so a few multinational chains go down, so what, something else will pop up, the people will get jobs in other places so on and so forth

i don't get yr. post either. it must be some discommunnication.

4 u.

http://www.badongo.com/vid/225675

t think it will be the end of every record store and certainly not the smaller independant ones. i do hope that it brings some sort of end to HMV and virgin etc. they have had over priced music and films for so long and they really should have had a re think about the internet and what it was going to do to their business long ago. i used to work at an HMV and they didnt really think the internet was going to ruin their business with music downloads etc.

What is so wrong with internet shopping,now?For as long as you're buying a record that you are going to enjoy,who cares about where you buy it?Independent shops believed their own preciousness for too long and,also,when all is said and done they do sell online like HMV and Virgin do.If this sounds controversial,i don't care.


Louise Wener

There's nothing wrong with internet shopping at all, Louise. Sleeper's records never sold very much at all, did they, so I guess you're happy with royalties from anywhere.

Well,yes,you are possibly referring to my moderately successfull books then.And i used to be a pop star of some calibre at one point.If this sounds controversial,i don't care.

Lou

Lou - it is still you dragging me under, you said I was cheap but it was, in fact the sale of the century. Oh, it feels just like we just got started.

Personally I have difficulties shopping online because I don't know what I want. I can't browse very well. It's not the fault of the economy, it's just that I haven't quite caught up yet.

Louis Armstrong once said, "If you have to ask what jazz is, you'll never understand."

If you have to ask what's wrong with Internet shopping and what is so right about independent store shopping, well, there's no point in trying to explain it. You won't get it.