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City’s last known retail music store set to close |
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Wednesday, 25 November 2009 |
By PAUL SIMS
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The local record store once buzzed with the sound of people talking about the latest release and discovering new finds.
Featured music could be heard from the sound system inside the business and store clerks would field questions about when this release or that album would hit the shelves.
The last known retail outlet of its kind in Starkville – a college community with a combined 42,000 people to include students and residents – is expected to close in mid-January.
The Sam Goody store is closing because its lease is expiring, said John Sullivan, chief financial officer for Trans World Entertainment. The decision to close the store became official and public about a week ago, Sullivan said.
TWE is the parent company of FYE stores. The Starkville store kept the name Sam Goody. “Many times, there’s a radius restriction,” Sullivan said. An FYE store is located in Columbus.
Sullivan says the company has a number of stores that come up at the end of the year and officials are closing 125 stores nationwide.
Steve Ellis, 53, the general manager at WMSV-FM, says he remembers hearing something on the radio and going to the local record store.
“It was basically the place everybody hung out,” Ellis said, adding that people would spend a couple of hours and get the latest music and posters.
‘It’s a shame’
The debate over the demise of the local record store goes beyond simple economics, though some think it is a factor.
“It’s a shame what’s happened, but the record industry has done it to themselves,” Ellis said.
Illegal downloading of music and the lack of in-store sales are two of the reasons the record industry will cite in the closure of such stores as Sam Goody, he said.
“But the problem is the recording industry, when the Internet came into being, didn’t spend any research and development funds on figuring out how to make the Internet a true marketing place for them,” Ellis said. “So, the public’s desire for the music outweighed the record industry’s preparedness for distributing music.”
Cara Duckworth, spokesperson for the Recording Industry Association of America: “The first point I want to make is the music companies are now and have always been cheerleaders for record stores. We want them to succeed because ultimately they are about connecting fans with music and exposing fans to new artists and albums.”
‘The industry feels it’
Regarding the closure of music stores, she said: “These are popular local community stores that are a great way for fans to come together to discuss music, to listen to music and anytime that one of these stores goes out of business, the industry feels it. What we can do and what we are doing is providing fans with as many ways as possible to get their favorite music.”
Duckworth says many stores invested in more of an online presence where they can sell music digitally. “Unfortunately, ... some have had to go out of business. The evaporation of record stores is a sad trend,” she said, adding it’s reflective of several variables.
These are the:
• Continued downturn in the economy. “People aren’t spending as much period,” Duckworth said.
• Increase in digital sales. “That’s the result of the popularity of buying music online instead of the physical store,” she said, noting digital purchases now account for more than 32 percent of total sales and the numbers continue to grow.
• “Bad actors” who profit off the theft of music. This includes those who run illegal businesses who refuse to compensate the music creators those who ignore legal avenues in the marketplace and obtain their music through unlawful means, Duckworth said.
“Piracy in all forms - physical and digital - result in thousands of lost jobs,” she said. She listed store owners, backup session musician, singers, sound engineers and producers.
“All of these folks rely on the legitimate sales of music to sustain their livelihoods.”
Regarding the assertion that the industry was slow to act to adopt the Internet as a potential marketplace, Duckworth said: “It’s impossible for a sea change to occur in any industry within a very short period of time. If you ‘re a longtime business owner and a new service came along, took your product and gave it away for free, thus negating your primary means of making money, it’s unlikely you’d jump for joy instead of enforcing your rights.”
The music industry understood that “digital formats were the future and have invested heavily in the fruition of those formats,” she said.
Duckworth cites subscription services like Rhapsody, online streaming services such as Pandora and Slacker,social networking locations like MySpace Music, download sites like iTunes and Amazon’s MP3 and Wal-Mart.com as “ways in which the music industry has invested into digital formats and provided fans with legal access to their favorite music.”
Vinyl sales on the rise
Vinyl was the format when Ellis was growing up, and Duckworth says sales figures for the format are on the rise.
“It’s a cool vintage way for music fans to connect with their favorite artists or even their parents favorite artists. This is an encouraging sign because fans are still interested in getting music in physical format,” she said.
Ellis also says the “record industry is hurting radio stations by servicing them less. ... They’re putting out tons of poor product all to make the quick buck.”
Duckworth says regarding the industry’s interaction with radio stations: “We make sure we provide music to radio stations so that fans can listen to the radio and hear their favorite artists and ultimately radio would profit off of that.”
In response to the assertion that the industry is developing inferior output, Duckworth said: “I would argue with that because it has always been clear that fans love music. Digital formats have increased year over year and people love listening to radio stations because they love hearing their favorite songs. Music remains as popular as ever.”
Closure removes ‘cultural icon’
Mississippi State University Student Association President Blake Jeter says he hates to hear Sam Goody is closing.
“I have not frequented there myself, but talking to a few students, they are upset that the last CD-DVD store is closing,” he said of the store, which also sells other entertainment products like DVDs. “For the most part, students today rely on iTunes or something related for music needs or Wal-Mart for the reduced cheap price for CD-DVDs.”
Jeter says: “ ... This shows that no one is immune during this economy that is permeating so many aspects of the community and university life. The shame of Sam Goody closing is that it just reduces the options for students in a shrinking market. But students, I feel certain, will adapt and rely more heavily on Wal-Mart or iTunes.
Ellis says he doesn’t know that the store’s closure will have “an immediate impact because the music is available online, but it takes away one of the cultural icons of our society – the local music store.”
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 26 November 2009 )
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