Suitably apocalyptic fascia above the Virgin store in Union Square. Looks like smoke issuing from the middle of a magnified vinyl LP. The store has closed down.
And where’s the Virgin Megastore in Times Square? The man in pink is pointing in the general direction, but it’s closed too. Tower Records filed for bankruptcy in 2006.
This store in Times Square that specialises in music (CD and songbooks) from Broadway musicals still seems to be doing okay
Look up a guide book and they will direct you to the East Village. This one doesn’t open Mondays.
This is Norman’s, also in the East Village. Decent selection. Downstairs, everything was a buck and you got what you paid for
This guy was doing a reasonable trade, also in the East Village
Apple store on Fifth Ave. Open 24/7. Midnight.
Sixty-five percent of music in the US is still bought on CD, but:
According to NPD MusicWatch, when it comes to the unit-sales volume of music sold at retail – including paid digital music downloads and CDs – Apple iTunes leads in the U.S. with 25 percent of music units sold, which is up from 21 percent in 2008 and 14 percent in 2007. Walmart (including Walmart, Walmart.com, Walmart Music Downloads) remains in second position with 14 percent of music volume sold at their stores and Web sites with Best Buy ranked third.
iTunes also continued to solidify its lead in the digital music arena, as consumer downloads from iTunes comprised 69 percent of the digital music market in the first half of 2009, followed by AmazonMP3 at 8 percent. Walmart leads all sellers of CDs with a 20 percent share of the physical music market, followed by Best Buy at 16 percent and Target and Amazon tied at 10 percent each.
Midnight in the garden of good and evil. Midnight in the Apple store on 5th Ave. A Monday night. There were around 300 people inside, including kids on scooters and kids sitting at the screens playing games. Their parents checked email or spoke to the tech guys. Or bought stuff. Or recharged their iPhones and iPods.
Who wants to hang out in a CD store?
19 Comments
Cool pics Tim, is that young Noah in the last shot?
For those of us still buying vinyl, the market is actually getting better. Australia has some of the world’s best vinyl record stores (Velvet Fogg, Egg, Rocking Horse etc) and the demand for turntables (especially reconditioned 70s ones) is growing. New York, by contrast, has never had good record stores – Boston was always the better place to shop. For some reason the Big Apple has always been overpriced and under-serviced. Their prices are horrific and the stores poorly arranged.
…Now, can someone explain how compressing the sound and shoving it thru an iPod and tinny speakers is meant to sound good?
Good question, but nobody seems to care that much about sound quality these days.
I use and recommend Downtown Music Gallery.
NEW Store Address: 13 Monroe Street [between Catherine & Market Streets in Chinatown], New York, NY 10002-7351
Good for online shopping too.
In my limited experience, Chicago is better for record shops. Have not been to Boston.
I’d like to be listening to vinyl but it is just no practical. It is not meant to sound good but convenience. Almost all of my music is listened to on an iPod or my computer. And the sound quality is more than adequate. I admit to not being a fan of too much compression but I can live with that.
Back in the day (talking the 80s now) I listened to scratched LPs on steroes where the hiss was something you had to put up with. I listed to cassettes so overplayed that the tape was see through and sound variable. Digital music is far superior than what I had when I was a young lad.
Interesting piece. It gels with a story from the New York Times that I mentioned in this post – about a compilation record done by a guy who asked people from 42 different records stores in Manhattan what their favourite rock n roll scream was, and then compiled grabs of each of them on a vinyl LP.
An interesting idea in itself I thought – apparently part of his motivation was a desire to get know Manhattan and its music outlets, having recently moved to NYC from Chicago – but I also noted the NYT article mentioned that by the time he’d got his record together, several of the 42 shops had closed.
I agree Walter and Adrian. Am currently converting the favourites of my vinyl collection to CD quality (Wav) files, allowing me to play on my hi-fi system which suits me, giving me control of DRM. A 300 kbps music file is not all that good soundwise.
Proprietor of local Dada records tells me sales of vinyl are still the major part of his business. Same at Bower Bird records.
Who wants to hang out in a CD store?
who wants to have apple know every song you listen to every time u go on line?
Spot on, reb.
Walter, I reckon JB might be the best general music store left anywhere. Certainly one of the most profitable, even if the money is coming from their other lines. ON the quality issue, I don’t think most people have ever been that concerned, which is why they have embraced CDs and mp3s etc. Convenience and the like has always been more of an issue. Back when it was only vinyl (and cassettes) the biggest issue for most people was warping and scratches! CDs were originally sold (oversold) on their ability to resist both and people embraced the convenience.
On vinyl, for all the revival, it still seems like a pretty small niche to me. I don’t think the resurgence really contradicts any notion that the record shop as it once was is dead.
as an avid vinyl buyer , i hated ny citys vinyl, theres a shop called bleaker records that i happened to be in buying the first print of ” get your ya yas out” when a guy came in with a ” butcher babies “album he wanted to sell. for thiose who know about this album , it usually sells for about 3000 bucks in good condition. they offered him 400 and i happened to here this , so i said ill give a thousand to which 3 guys ordered me out of the shop ? ” at once i might add”
anyway i waited outside thinking ill get this for a grand when the guy walked out without the album. he took a grand off them to which he thanked me..i was furious i would have given him 2000. three days later it appeared on ebay and sold a week later for nearly 5000 dollars,,
the best vinyl shop i have ever found is on the cnr of haight and asbury in san fran..
i wont tell you the name as i get many bargans there and if you want classic well priced albums youll have to fly there like i do..
but to wet your lips ……. i got the beatles “let it be ” box set nearly mint with the tray and book un touched for 200 US dollars : BARGAIN
MARTY
As weird as it may seem, I’d still rather buy a CD from JB Hi-Fi, and then download the tracks to my Ipod for portable music listening, rather than just buy the MP3 versions from iTunes. At least if you have the CD, you can still get to listen to good quality audio at home on your Hi-Fi system.
Once upon a time, old warped 45’s used to make for a fashionable and inexpensive ashtray.
sorry mate .. but give me vinyl anyday,,when you place the needle on the record , you know that there are musos in a studio playing ………when i buy a new cd i know it has been tampered with by computers to get the perfect sound, one example…
put on dave brubecks ” take 5″ on vinyl and really listen……………………
then play the same track on a new remastered CD and sorry but it sounds like herbie hancock has spent 3 weeks removing every background noise……………………..id like to do a survey and find out if CD buyers go to more live gigs than vinyl buyers……..
when i say GIGS i dont mean” U2 at A STADIUM ” WHERE every chord is played live through a computerised PA……..
LONG LIVE THE 33 1/3 RPM
AND FOR THE RECORD.. I PUT ALL MY VINYL RECORDS ON MY IPOD………………
Long live the 33 1/3 RPM! And fair enough too.
As someone who has spent half my life hanging out in record stores of one sort or another, I think this is very sad.
Still in Sydney Red Eye is surviving, and of course JB, which definitely has a larger range that anywhere else.
Not that there’s much of anything else around these days.
I’m with you reb – buy the CD and transfer it to itunes using the lossless setting. Don’t know if it sounds better, but it makes me feel better.
Me too, Adrian. But hey, I also refuse to get too curmudgeonly about it all. In fact, it kinda sounds like, from this, that everyone is getting the best of all worlds…?
I can certainly understand where Martin is at. One of the better hi-fi equipment stores around here gave prospective buyers a taste for what they were about to purchase by playing 3 vinyl album numbers constantly as samplers. Brubeck’s Take Five, Maria Muldaur’s Midnight at the Oasis with the superb guitar work of Amos Garrett, and Money by Floyd; all bases covered, well, almost; great sound nevertheless. Did the trick anyhow. I’d still rather hear the vinyl ‘are you experienced’ above other formats. Don’t mind JB HiFi CDs either. But you’re right Tim, each to their own poison. Latest edition or Rolling Stone magazine (digital) has Ry Cooder also saying ‘records are dead, the whole scene has changed radically’. (BTW, speaking of vinyl, have been gifted a vinyl copy of Hendrix’ ‘The Cry Of Love’ album. Accepted humbly, with glee.)
thats it then ..ill never listen to mr cooder again………..
as i sit here i am listening to the cd version of marvin gayes ” whats goin on” which i purchased as a special edition and has about 7 versions of whats goin on on it and 23 versions of everthing else…….. WHAT THE????????………….this is why i would rather put the original album on and hear the crackles …….and i dont want re re re re mastered “beatle albums” some of us would rather hear the mono version of “please please me” as it was released……. thank god george lucas doesnt have anything to do with old recording artists or there would be 22 versions of abbey road out there,,,and but the way my 16 year old daughter loves vinyl so there is hope !!!!!!!!!!
Qualification (wink), Mr. Hoare: ‘The record store is dead, thing are just not the same as the old days, changing fast’ . . . Ry Cooder