Virgin Megastores have found a profitable way to beat the music sales slump: sell less music. Clothing, DVD, video game, and book sales all went up for the company in 2007, nicely offsetting the decrease in CD purchases. “For the first time in five years our store traffic is up over plan,” said Virgin Entertainment North America CEO Simon Wright. Promising news for music retailers willing to sell something else. [Rolling Stone]
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This sounds suspiciously like the same strategy MTV used when they decided to stop showing music videos….
duh, rolling stone. welcome to the record store industry, circa 2004.
ceci n’est pas une “record store”.
And now look at them. America’s Next Top Model reruns all day long!
@HONEYBFLY: @summeroflove: they should just change the name to PTV: PopCulture Television.
Then VH1 can be PTV2
I know this isn’t a new trend, but every time I walk into a local HMV I notice that the cd space has reduced AGAIN to make room for more video games racks. Within a year or two (less?) it’ll likely be all games save for a Top 20 Sellers cd stand at the back of the store.
*feels old*
@SneakingThroughTheAlleyWithLalley: Heh, yeah! OPPTV!
@Thierry: it’s exactly the same at one of my local indie stores, which was once one of the most respected in the southeast. *also feels old.*
there was a 2004 article in the washington post where the guy that runs Newbury Comics said the record store would be dead in ten years, and he was just trying to figure out if Newbury could manage to go 8. In the meantime, they’re selling a crapload of action figures, I think.
HMV is following suit not just with more video games but also with books and ipods. It’s do or die!
My local Virgin store (Sacramento) closed down a long time ago and got replaced by an Urban Outfitters (two stories of hip-tastemaker approved threads, whoopie-fuckin-dee!) I understand that the record store industry is going downhill but I can’t imagine it completely dissolving. Not everybody has internet access, let alone a MP3 player.
why not just put itunes/whatever kiosks in the stores?
you could preview the full song, b/c there’s no risk of someone just recording it off the soundcard (i assume that’s why i can’t do so on itunes at home)
You hang out, you listen, you like- slide your credit card, plug in your mp3 player and buy it. The store wouldn’t even need any human employees.
@drjimmy11
The problem is, you don’t even need to have a kiosk — just whip out your iPhone and buy music from the iTunes Music Store.
I would argue that Starbucks has probably also indirectly contributed to the death of the music store. You can hang out at a Starbucks, and with your WiFi enabled notebook, listen to your own music and download music (whether you chose to do so legally or illegally).