Schoolkids Records in Chapel Hill, NC is closing, after 33 years in business. Apparently the store isn’t getting enough foot traffic, which is insanely difficult to believe considering it’s on the main drag of a massive university town that has a thriving music scene. There was little competition here as far as I can tell, but somehow they’re unable to survive even in the midst of over 30,000 college kids who, by all acounts, listen to music quite a bit. I guess the problem is that these kids aren’t actually BUYING anything in stores. Whether you can blame the high prices of CDs or the ease with which people can quickly download the music that they want, brick and mortar record shops are quickly crumbling. (cough)
I wrote a post awhile back about how the indie music scene didn’t need SEO…my point was that independent music was, so far, mostly disconnected from mass media coverage and, as such, remained true to its very spirit. In this post, I stated that people should personally get up off their arses and seek out new music by actively searching for it without going online, by getting their music news through word of mouth, or by showing up at the local punk rock club for a night.
As I was moaning about Schoolkids closing, even though I haven’t shopped there since 1995 and that was to buy a cheap poster, I started to think about something: has our industry actually been a contributing factor to the demise of my beloved physical record shops? I freaking think so (at least I do at THIS moment) and here is why:
If you do a search for most bands, and let’s take Grinderman as an example since I am such a Nick Cave fan (although I can’t tell my mom the name of their new single (like she’d ask) since it’s got a dirty word in it that rhymes with wussy), you’ll likely see tons of results for their videos on YouTube, their MySpace page, their Wikipedia entry, their Amazon listing, and their actual website if they happen to have one. Nick is well represented in the SERPs, to summarize. You can hear and watch the videos for free, and you can listen to new releases for free. If you happen to buy from iTunes, you can quickly grab a digital song or album and the whole thing’s done in less than a minute. Gone are the days when you accidentally buy an Assuck cd because it was mistakenly put into the Avail section, the store was closing, and you ignored the record clerk who said, looking at your other purchase of The Smiths, “boy you’re all over the place aren’t you!” Your main concern now is that when you got the download of The Mission’s Deliverance, it was actually Tower of Strength which you don’t really like and now you’re out 99 cents. Record shops are closing because of people like you. And me…ok and yes, the photo of Grinderman is only necessary in order to show you how insanely cool Nick Cave is. Sorry.
Seriously, why would you leave the house and go out, in PUBLIC, to risk the flu and ebola and lice and panhandling punk rock kids with $100 nose rings, not to mention having to be chatted up by an overweight and unwashed college dropout wearing a faded and hole-ridden Pixies tshirt who only works at the record store to meet chicks that look like Kim Deal and get a 10% discount on bumper stickers, when you could sit at home in your salt-bagel-encrusted chair and stay safe? Thus, you order online and this record store clerk gets fired, the store owner tries to keep the shop open by showcasing crappy local bands until the landlord sues him for back rent and the only bands they can book are ABC and The Lick Stick (ok I made that one up), and then it all truly goes straight to hell and the next time you show up for your used record fix, you’re greeted by a giant padlock on the door.
When I saw Polyphonic Spree a few months back, the lead singer made a great statement at the end about buying their t-shirts and robes (yes, robes and let me just say YIKES) because they didn’t make a lot of money on CDs anymore and needed the support. Whether or not that’s true isn’t my concern of course. I like the idea behind finding other ways to keep these artists going. He also pleaded with the audience, in his cultlike manner, to support other bands as well by going to shows and buying their assorted rubbish there. For the record (HA!!), I did not buy a robe from P. Spree, since that would just be stupid. I did, however, buy a tshirt in a wildly unflattering shade of light blue.
It’ all evolution, of course, but it does make me a bit sad. This certainly won’t mean the end of music, of course…just maybe the end of walking into a store and spending hours poring over the bins to find something amazing. And what I do for a living is partially to blame.
Ch ch ch ch changes…
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Ah, good old javascript navigation, imagemaps, and spacer.gif images. What a luvverly retro-HTML-coded website they have there.
Are they closing both shops, or just the one that you mentioned? If the business is surviving, their website could do with some real basic SEO on it:
http://www.google.com/search?num=100&q=site:schoolkidsrecords.com
As far as I know, they are just closing the one that I mentioned BUT who knows…
yeah I looked at their site and felt a shudder run down my spine.
Great Point…You are sadly right, what’s really sad is future generations won’t know the feeling of hanging out at the local record store, finding awesome bands that no one has ever heard of:)
@Natasha: I know. It was such a fun part of growing up, to go and hang out and get great recommendations. I guess that can happen with an online community, but nothing will replace the feeling of being in a physical record store, hearing new music, and talking to people.
hmm - the reason the polyphonic spree dont make any money out of CD sales is because there are loads of them on stage. About ten core members and then all the instrumentalists around them.
No wonder they sell robes rather than t-shirts!
I always found the musos at the local record stores a bit too Jack-Black-in-high-fidelity for my liking.
I LOVE that it’s so easy to get ahold of music these days. I can hear a song on the radio that I like, go and check out what the band have up on Myspace, and then go download the album for a lot less than the store price if I like what I hear. If I want to know what others have to say about the album than I can go onto Pitchfork or Drowned in Sound and read the reviews.
An excellent example… on your prompting Julie, I just heard my first ever sample of Assúck. They sucked ass (see what I did there?), and no need to get down to the local record shop to find that out.
As for loss of revenue from CDs, GOOD! Records in general have been overpriced for far too long, with the lion’s share lining the pockets of already wealthy record execs (you know, the bastards that have made it so that most music you’ll hear on the radio is anodyne, generic pap). If a band are talented enough, people will go see them live - that is a fact, as there’s no way to download that experience. However, the few times I’ve actually bothered to buy a CD in the store since getting broadband, I’ve felt like I’ve wasted my money, as I’ve just uploaded it to my PC and put it away on the shelf to get dusty. I’d much rather spend that money on a gig ticket!
@Mr Happy: yes they were great in number. They should fire half the band and then they’d make more.
@Matt Davies: Glad you listened to Assuck. They sound nothing like Avail. I would like to agree with your comments but then that would negate my post so I won’t do it publicly. However, I’d rather spend the money on a gig ticket as well…that’s still supporting the artists!
Um, why isn’t anyone mentioning how cool Nick Cave looks? Matt? Anyone?
The death of record stores is something to be fought against. Record stores are some of the nicest places in the world. Rows and rows of vinyl albums - they have a unique smell record shops - don’t know what it is , don’t know where it comes from.
The format of your music delivers an extension to the music itself. It can be everything from finding something wriiten in the out groove of a 7″ through to seeing an image or q quote that inspires, or annoys, in the liner note of a CD. They expand the experience of the music.
Oh and I hate MySpace - its full of a hell of a lot of rubbish.
@Mr Happy: would you care to comment on how cool Nick Cave looks?
I totally agree with you on the experience…pawing through records to find something amazing and then poring over the liner notes is truly one of my best memories of being young(er).
Hey my favorite SEO chick. Long time no seee, and I am sorry I missed you at SES London. I did want to go viral with you but you did not come which makes me sad..:(
I tried to talk to my friend Adam Lasnik but he chickened out and ran away. I guess Googlgers like to hide behind big Evil Google..:)
I did meet DaveN but he is so shy in person that is not fun to hang out with him, such a party popper!
I going to have to come to Japan to meet me, so we can go have some Sushi, or even better let’s meet in Thailand. Bangkok is okay, you can stay at my guest house for free and I will be your private guide, or come to Koh Phangan for a full moon party and have the wild thing! Phuket is okay but expensive with many Russian Mafia guys hanging around the scene, but I am sure we can find a nice isolated quiet beach to exchange SEO strategies. Maybe we can figure out how to trick Google and get rich together. We will be the next Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Do an IPO and retire on some tropical island, and not worry about link exchanging or Google Juice!
Nick Cave is cool - at least he was. I thought the birthday party were pretty cool but his solo stuff just after that rocked. The duet with Kylie rocked - even if it was a tad repetitive, but Into your arms was great (even if I keep calling it into my arms and getting it mixed up with a Lemonheads song).
Nick Cave looked coolest running about in an ornage prison uniform throwing blood everywhere in some strange Aussie movie - at least I think it was Nick Cave and I have no idea what the movie was called.
@Mr Happy: http://imdb.com/title/tt0095217/
I had NEVER heard of this…but will look it up.
@Mr Happy: confusion is acceptable, and the norm, on this blog.
@Igor: now I want sushi…vegetarian sushi, of course.
I thought you do not Love me anymore and ignoring me..:( Vegetarian Sushi? WTF is that? Oh and I had a great time skiing in Austria!
@Igor: cucumber, avocado, tofu…it’s truly fantastic stuff. Austria sounds nice! Did you run into Falco? Oh wait, he’s dead.
Is this an SEO blog or social media network?
You should have named it Face-The-Chicks.com
It’s anything and everything. There IS the occasional SEO post you know…
Well is long as we do not talk Google guidelines, I love this place. Some blogs out there still worship Google as it were god..:)
Google Guidelines available @ http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=35769