Rantings

Reading Bash’s article on the death of bookshops this morning prompted me to write up something I’ve been thinking on music retail, which translates just as well to literature.

Record stores have been dying for a lot longer than the bookshop. It’s not too long ago Virgin Megastores became Zavvi and shortly after disappeared from the high street.

But I don’t think protecting Zavvi is what people get up in arms about when it comes to the death of the record store. No, it’s the independent one on the  street corner, run by Tom, who may come across standoffish but is a nice guy really and more passionate than anyone you know when it comes to music.

But Tom just can’t make it anymore. He can’t compete on margins when he has to stock up a shop with music people may not buy on top of paying rent, when online stores are selling for cheaper and with the convenience of a mouse click.
Could Tom re-invent the record store?

Enter physical spaces that sell digital content. A record store with no records in it.

As nostalgic as I get about having a physical product, I’ve come to accept and live with the fact that it’s just not the future. But there’s something I get even more nostalgic about than the physical product. And that’s the experience. The experience of going to a store, hearing something amazing Tom just got as you’re flicking through album covers, chatting about the local music scene, one-upping each other on obscurity. See, none of those things require a physical product, they just need physical people.
Online music stores are pretty similar to your high street record store. They’re big and have pretty much anything you may want to buy. But visiting one is not an experience. At least not a special one.

But a building full of music nerds, a cafe/bar and gig space is. And if you walk out with some files on your MP3 player rather than a CD in a plastic bag, recommended specially to you, because you’ve been going for months and they know just what you’re into, have you really lost a lot from that experience?

And it may just mean your favourite record store gets to survive. With less overheads - no stock! - and deals in place with digital music wholesalers, similar to what they have now on physical products but hopefully with higher margins, they may just be able to make the rent that month. And have money left over to eat. By becoming something more than a store, they may be able to bring in more money.

Like it or not, the future that awaits books is a similar one. It’s already happening; you’re buying your physical books online. Borders is gone. Bookshops need to reinvent themselves just as much as record stores do.

Load up my iPod and my Kindle on a faceless online store or put the missing human element, what I think we actually miss, back into media retail? Well it’s not going to be the online store…