Record Stores: Be an "Institution" or Perish

The once mighty Tower Records started closing up shop last year; it's no secret that the record store in general is on the ropes after the two-punch combination of online CD sales and digital music downloading sent it staggering.

But the record store could survive to the next round nonetheless. In a Chicago Sun-Times article, Patrick McNamara of Insound claims that there will always be a large number of people who will buy CDs. (I think he's right, as long as DRM makes most digital music so transitory that fans who wish to buy future-proof music are sticking with the CD if/when they buy music at all.)

Assuming the labels don't start embracing the MP3, many fans will stickwith the CD, and some of those will continue to buy those CDs from offline stores. This would mean that a subset of record stores would survive, but which ones? The same article makes the case that certain shops will stickaround because they give music fans a place to hang out.

"'Music stores will be like the neighborhood bar, only we won't servealcohol [why not? coffee at least?],' Laurie said. 'It's a place to hang out and discuss music anddiscover something new. As long as people like music, there will berecord stores.'"

Online music is useful because it trancends location; certain record stores could survive specifically because they don't.

"'We are definitely going to see the demise of the larger stores andwill probably also see a decrease in the number of specialty stores, aswell,' said Steve Jones, professor of communications at University ofIllinois Chicago. 'The stores that become 'institutions' will survive.'"