Is it worth starting a record shop in this day and age?

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well? currently our town only has a woolies and a tiny little store cupboard of an indie shop despite having a large population of young people and local bands and its own music festival etc... a friend and i were discussing the possibilities over christmas (yeh we were drunk) but does the digital age and the rise of virgin/hmv/etc mean that starting a new record shop be futile?

― wogan lenin (dog latin), Monday, 8 January 2007 15:50 (eighteen years ago)

Start a shop full of 'listening station' computers where people can go in and search/browse mp3 collections instead. you could charge them ala internet cafes. It would be useful, encourage social interaction among music geeks and you'll be famous when the BPI inevitably sue.

― reverto levidensis (blueski), Monday, 8 January 2007 15:54 (eighteen years ago)

'compile and burn your own CD' in-store never really took off anywhere did it?

― reverto levidensis (blueski), Monday, 8 January 2007 15:54 (eighteen years ago)

You could start one of those cool dance music stores that are about the same size as the average barbers and have the same five people hanging around the counter all day.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Monday, 8 January 2007 15:56 (eighteen years ago)

Around here my fave local store survived the change by altering its focus away from new CDs (it'll still do special orders and work with used CDs) and towards vinyl. Don't blame 'em.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 8 January 2007 15:58 (eighteen years ago)

haha, that one closed. too dark, too noisy, too unfriendly. a mate of mine ran it first and then it got passed to someone else, then shut down.

there's a disused restaurant below our flat and the landlady (our landlady as it happens) has no particular plans for it. it's pretty large. what we really wanted to do was start a shop-cum-venue. pull down some iron grates over the cd cabinets in the evening and get dj's/bands to play. if anyone's going to do this in our town then it's me, but then would it work?

― wogan lenin (dog latin), Monday, 8 January 2007 16:00 (eighteen years ago)

xpost

― wogan lenin (dog latin), Monday, 8 January 2007 16:00 (eighteen years ago)

Start a Timpsons-style CDS BURNED WHILE U WAIT shop where customers go in with their list and blank CD (or iPod) and then you go and burn what they want so that they don't have to.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Monday, 8 January 2007 16:00 (eighteen years ago)

isn't that highly illegal?

― wogan lenin (dog latin), Monday, 8 January 2007 16:01 (eighteen years ago)

'compile and burn your own CD' in-store never really took off anywhere did it?

Was this ever tried on a serious scale? I never saw it being done except in a way that seemed half-assed. (Entirely too inadequate catalog of songs, or that was my impression.) I'm not suggesting it would be a good idea at this point.

x-posts

How about a vinyl/cassette to CDR shop? I wish there were such a thing around here.

― R_S (RSLaRue), Monday, 8 January 2007 16:01 (eighteen years ago)

that would be a nice sideline. there would definitely need to be more than just cds for sale. finding a way into the mp3 market via a shop and coming up with novel ways to do it would be the hardest but most profitable challenge i reckon.

― wogan lenin (dog latin), Monday, 8 January 2007 16:03 (eighteen years ago)

i have done it for a decade now and still find it "profitable",as long as u never do any in depth accounting.It beats working straight jobs and lets u into th fascinating world of peed on boxes of records in th backs of station wagons trying to be sold by clueless older gents.

― dan bunnybrain (dan bunnybrain), Monday, 8 January 2007 16:03 (eighteen years ago)

Wait, who did the peeing?

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 8 January 2007 16:03 (eighteen years ago)

(Side note: that Sin Gulls comp is great! Anyway.)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 8 January 2007 16:03 (eighteen years ago)

i generally give burned copies of things away to stimulate sales of hard goods.people are never prepared for FREE.

― dan bunnybrain (dan bunnybrain), Monday, 8 January 2007 16:04 (eighteen years ago)

secondhand stuff is another way to go. there is already a shop that sells secondhand cds and video games and it seems to do okay but the cds are all by Ash and 60ft Dolls and shit.

Having tired of office work and not having the brawn to do manual work I'd love to do this and I'd especially love to be my own boss.

Are there many music outlets that work as venues as well? I can't remember ever having encountered one (other than shops that have instore appearances etc).

― wogan lenin (dog latin), Monday, 8 January 2007 16:06 (eighteen years ago)

xpist:thnxx Nedddd

I guess gents cats do th peeing.or moldering mice turds or what have yu.Its a whole niche of disgust.I just loooked at 1200 records that were welded together w black mold and th guy wanted 300 buxx.I bought 20 cuz they can be cleaned but whyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

― dan bunnybrain (dan bunnybrain), Monday, 8 January 2007 16:06 (eighteen years ago)

"Are there many music outlets that work as venues as well? "
as long as u have an outlet for ac or not for acoustic stuff u can do shows,charge a few buxx or ha'pennys or whgatever and its a lot of fun./Im doin a ton of shows in th spring/summerr here

― dan bunnybrain (dan bunnybrain), Monday, 8 January 2007 16:08 (eighteen years ago)

"not having the brawn to do manual work"
i just got over a 3 day pulled neck muscle from book heaving so u will still need to employ a lil brawn

― dan bunnybrain (dan bunnybrain), Monday, 8 January 2007 16:10 (eighteen years ago)

you could run an in-store wiki that catalogues creative commons licensed free mp3's and charge people to burn CDRs of them and lawrence lessig free culture speeches it's the changing music revolution

― critique de la vie quotidienne (modestmickey), Monday, 8 January 2007 16:10 (eighteen years ago)

Work in a library and enjoy the aged rat droppings.

― R_S (RSLaRue), Monday, 8 January 2007 16:11 (eighteen years ago)

the venue combo idea is a very good one i think. have live music playing while people browse (it might have to be experimental ambient laptop shit most of the time tho) during the day. more 'intense' affairs in the evening.

― reverto levidensis (blueski), Monday, 8 January 2007 16:12 (eighteen years ago)

Sell smart drinks.

― R_S (RSLaRue), Monday, 8 January 2007 16:13 (eighteen years ago)

in all seriousnes though, i can't understand why nobody's started a combination cafe/music shop with an emphasis on used cd's. lots of listening stations spread out around tables, music magazines, etc. drink your chai while listening to used cd's. are there just not enough indie fucks to support an enterprise like that?

― critique de la vie quotidienne (modestmickey), Monday, 8 January 2007 16:15 (eighteen years ago)

re in store burning, this went out a couple of days ago :

http://www.coolfer.com/blog/archives/2007/01/trans_world_hol.php

― mark e (mark e), Monday, 8 January 2007 16:15 (eighteen years ago)

drink your chai while listening to used cd's.

Imagining the freakin' Starbucks model applied to someplace like Second Spin is not soothing for the soul.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 8 January 2007 16:17 (eighteen years ago)

what litwak speaks of in that artickle was promised to my TransWorld location in 1986..so th breath holding will begin now.At th tyme it seemed a great idea,a huge machine that made copies of individual songs preloaded into some sort of immense hard drive.Ah th 80's.

― dan bunnybrain (dan bunnybrain), Monday, 8 January 2007 16:18 (eighteen years ago)

I'm not surprised TWE is trying that. I'm actually kinda lucky in that their local store for me is one of the four Second Spin stores in the country, so rather than their (overpriced) new releases I can scrounge for sometimes reasonable used prices on the DVDs.

At th tyme it seemed a great idea,a huge machine that made copies of individual songs preloaded into some sort of immense hard drive.Ah th 80's.

Hey, I remember those 'make your own mix tapes' machines.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 8 January 2007 16:19 (eighteen years ago)

in all seriousnes though, i can't understand why nobody's started a combination cafe/music shop

'eat to the beat' in bristol did this.
went to the wall last year .. then again, they only had a very limited range of cds, was mainly very cool-n-happening limited dance stuff on offer .. which could be part of the paying the bills problem, i dont know, rarely went in ..

― mark e (mark e), Monday, 8 January 2007 16:19 (eighteen years ago)

mickey, that would be the exact idea. although there's something to be said for making sure your store doesn't become some shitty hangout for your mates to goof about and give people "funny looks" when they walk in.

― wogan lenin (dog latin), Monday, 8 January 2007 16:19 (eighteen years ago)

i've often fantasised about running something like what mickey describes. including bookable workstations for arty projects. staged gaming contests also. i could call it...THE NEXUS.

― reverto levidensis (blueski), Monday, 8 January 2007 16:19 (eighteen years ago)

ours was never shipped to us because they had to spend extra funds on stopping shopplifters w huge coats stealing long boxes of beatles cds.

― dan bunnybrain (dan bunnybrain), Monday, 8 January 2007 16:20 (eighteen years ago)

Stevem, yesterday:

http://www.memory-alpha.org/de/images/thumb/3/35/TolianSoran.jpg/200px-TolianSoran.jpg

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 8 January 2007 16:21 (eighteen years ago)

they had to spend extra funds on stopping shopplifters w huge coats stealing long boxes of beatles cds.

There is something so goddamn comically absurd about this that I'm roffling big time.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 8 January 2007 16:22 (eighteen years ago)

If u had to chase them down leaky back passageways inside th Danbury Fair Mall completely stoned with yur rotund manager huffing and puffing behind u as they threw copies of "meet th beatles" at you to lighten their load u wood not be laffin then.

― dan bunnybrain (dan bunnybrain), Monday, 8 January 2007 16:26 (eighteen years ago)

I speak from the position of the privileged if smug observer as regards the cruelty of comedy. (As Vonnegut once said, the funniest thing he'd ever seen was a bus door opening and a fat man falling out of it onto his face.)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 8 January 2007 16:31 (eighteen years ago)

better that than a revolver (xpost)

― reverto levidensis (blueski), Monday, 8 January 2007 16:32 (eighteen years ago)

Nowadays I don't chase so much.Nor do i carry new cds.And noone reads here,And noone has a turntable,so im relatively safe.

― dan bunnybrain (dan bunnybrain), Monday, 8 January 2007 16:34 (eighteen years ago)

the obvious preventative is to hold dead cases in the display units and the cds behind the counter.

― wogan lenin (dog latin), Monday, 8 January 2007 16:39 (eighteen years ago)

yeah but then u have scratched,coffee stained,raspberry jammed discs and whatnot.

― dan bunnybrain (dan bunnybrain), Monday, 8 January 2007 16:42 (eighteen years ago)

For that 'authentic' experience. (You need to have razor-as-used-for-cocaine marks in the cases itself.)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 8 January 2007 16:45 (eighteen years ago)

I'm surprised (well, not really) Apple hasn't started manufacturing Apple-branded kiosks to just plop down the in the middle of malls/airports/anywhere and allow folks to browse and buy from iTunes with a swipe of the credit card. Or similar "listening stations" that allow you to charge your iPod as you browse. Like the banks of phone charging stations they allegedly have in Japanese airports. Spreads the brand, sells the songs. Costs literally nothing to operate, save the power.

That said, I love my local record store.

― Josh in Chicago (Josh in Chicago), Monday, 8 January 2007 16:55 (eighteen years ago)

There's a guy doing this kinda thing in Covent Garden, round the corner from Rough Trade here in the smoke. Small coffee shop, wi-fi fer your laps, three or four listening posts down one wall, comfy sofa at front of window so that people can watch if you're going to spill your lattee all over your Carhartt jeans and sneakers. Gets a little pretentious at lunch time.

― tolstoy (tolstoy), Monday, 8 January 2007 21:09 (eighteen years ago)

heres some recent pix from the shop
http://picasaweb.google.com/thebunnybrains/Store

― dan bunnybrain (dan bunnybrain), Monday, 8 January 2007 23:47 (eighteen years ago)

Dog Latin, where do you live? If you call it Posh Tiger Records and make your staff dress as, uh, posh tigers, I will come and buy lots of records from you.

Seriously, I think the idea of having a conversion turntable is a really good one. The venue thing is too, but you'd need extra licensing for it, and that may be problematic.

― emil.y (emil.y), Tuesday, 9 January 2007 00:08 (eighteen years ago)

Where is this store bunnybrain?

― The Brainwasher (Twilight), Tuesday, 9 January 2007 05:19 (eighteen years ago)

Any store that has a Jackalope is worth patronizing!

― jodi, samurai photographer (burun), Tuesday, 9 January 2007 05:34 (eighteen years ago)

"'compile and burn your own CD' in-store never really took off anywhere did it?"

The country music hall of fame has a spectacularly disappointing kiosk that lets you do just that, as audio or mp3. Spectacularly disappointing because you get through all of these sweet displays and are like, yeah, I'd like to hear more from the Nudie Suit era or some old Carter family joints and instead you get access to about four Tim McGraw tracks from every album he's put out, and You Are My Sunshine by June Carter or somesuch. I mean, the kiosk was right next to the Waylon Jennings display and not a goddamned track from him on there.
Of course, this was way back in 2002 that I went, so they may have made things better by now. But it was obnoxious to be on this "special, behind-the-scenes" tour and keep running across exhibits that could have been totally cool if they weren't trying so hard to push whatever bullshit from their major names. You know, if it had felt more like a museum than an infomercial (though getting to see the archivist stuff and the recording transfers, and even getting to hold the first electric guitar ever, that was all really sweet).

As far as cafes/used cd shops, we've had about a million of 'em here in town (Ann Arbor/Ypsi), and a combination of shoplifting, shitty coffee, mediocre music taste, poor selection and retarded, theiving staff have all conspired to shut 'em down. Aside from the first, I think most of those problems could be avoided, but the casual atmosphere of Vinyl Joe's (our late, lamented, long-box cafe) led to every goddamned high schooler for miles around running in to swipe used copies of Green Day's Dookie.

― js (honestengine), Tuesday, 9 January 2007 06:33 (eighteen years ago)

http://www.buffalocommons.org/docs/smenu3/images/ICE-Delivery-Wagon.jpg

― timmy tannin (pompous), Tuesday, 9 January 2007 07:24 (eighteen years ago)

"Ice, Ice, Baby, to go..."

― mark grout (mark grout), Tuesday, 9 January 2007 12:43 (eighteen years ago)

im at 347 warren st in hudson ny
518 632 4273 is th number
im 2 hours north of nyc

― dan bunnybrain (dan bunnybrain), Tuesday, 9 January 2007 13:45 (eighteen years ago)

Is it worth starting a record shop? Depends on whether you'd sell new ones or secondhand records, no? The mark-up on new records seems pretty low from what I heard. As with jewellery, I think every secondhand product has a higher markup (or at least the buying price for the vendor is lower).

― Nathalie (stevie nixed), Tuesday, 9 January 2007 13:48 (eighteen years ago)

"Down the alley an ice wagon flew"

― The Redd And The Blecch (Ken L), Tuesday, 9 January 2007 14:24 (eighteen years ago)

http://www.freewebs.com/johndoerecords12534/

― dan bunnybrain (dan bunnybrain), Wednesday, 10 January 2007 03:13 (eighteen years ago)

~~"Down the alley an ice wag~~ oh, never mind. Too slow!

― Monty Von Byonga (Monty Von Byonga), Wednesday, 10 January 2007 04:57 (eighteen years ago)

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