Wednesday, January 25, 2006
Here's some record store owner's manifesto that's been making the rounds about Best Buy's recent plunge into selling indie albums on the cheap and how it's going to affect indie record shops. He claims that indie labels/distributors are selling it to Best Buy cheaper to get it into their stores and that someone needs to set these labels straight. Not sure where he got this information, since that would be illegal price discrimination. He also appears to compare the plight of the indie record store to that of Martin Luther King Jr. Right. I might have to echo Macky Ole's sentiments in the smoking ordinance comments section with regard to this. Best Buy can sell CDs at whatever price they want to. So you can buy the new Cat Power for $7.99 (which I probably won't do, purely because Reckless is up the street and Best Buy is a drive)- you still can't probably can't get 90% of what indie stores have to offer.
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It's nice to hear that Best Buy is picking up the pace with their selection, which has been awful for years.
The record store owner needs to suck it up, these labels have no choice. Indie sales are up comparatively and it is an absolute necessity that these labels get their product in to the big box stores. IT sucks, but that's business.
Before long the only record stores left will be collector-oriented holes like Reckless. That said, record stores will always be around because, let's face it, you can't download vinyl. I think there's still a future for record stores if these owners get it together and start looking in to a greater online auction presence. Records are worth a lot more when there are thousands of collectors shopping for them throughout the globe, rather than dozens in one city.
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