Virgin Records Megastores Closing Left And Right
March 4, 2009 by Scott
Big Apple Music Scene reports that another Virgin Megastore is closing. This time it’s the Union Square store in NYC. Since August of 2007 they have been closing the doors to many Virgin Megastores and there are only a handful left.
First it was the small record stores closing and now we’re seeing more and more larger franchise record retailers shutting down. Kind of makes you wonder what’s going to happen in the next 5 or 10 years. Will record stores even be existent with the exception of maybe some used sellers? Will CD’s be strictly sold online or in stores like Walmart, Sam’s Club and Best Buy?
I enjoy going to record stores. I like looking around and seeing something new that happens to catch my eye and maybe my ear. This doesn’t really happen online. Amazon might make a few suggestions and “People who bought this also bought this”, but it’s not the same. Often times I’ll be looking through a certain letter at FYE and find something that I haven’t heard before or something that I’ve heard a lot about but just never had much interest. I’ll give the CD a listen and sometimes become a new fan. You just can’t browse online like you can in a record store.
Some people say, “who cares, just download it” or buy a digital copy. It’s not the same. I like digital copies but I really think that they need to be sold with something like a PDF file with the album artwork, lyrics, liner notes and all. A lot of people enjoy the artwork, liner notes and lyrics. If we can’t have it in physical form, how about a digital form. I think I would appreciate a digital copy a lot more if that were the case. Are you listening record labels? It wouldn’t cost much to scan the album booklet in semi-Hi Res and include it with digital sales.
Image: Newscom (The picture above is from the Times Square Virgin Megastore that is also closing)
not that i’m promoting it, but i have downloaded some stuff that has artwork, lyrics, history, quotes, links, and other stuff to do with the album or artist.
I know what you mean about wanting a physical copy for your money though.
You know, I wrote about this issue before. I don’t know how much you know about the semantic web, but there is a story that might help somewhat: http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/12/17/db.semanticweb/index.html
it definitely sucks that there are less stores out there for browsing CDs. Lately, the only place I can go to is BestBuy. I got nothing against best buy, but that is a tremendous shame. Perhaps this is the reason why I refuse to give in and buy an Ipod. Clearly, iTunes is to blame.
I have an iPod and I love it. I still have a load of CDs, but I like the ipod because I can take it all with me. I also wouldn’t blame iTunes. They just took what people were already doing and put a price on it so the artists and labels could get a little money from it too. I would blame Bit torrents before blaming iTunes.
Giles, I’ve seen a few of those too but it’s always a bit raw and often separated. I think it would be great in an all in one file that you could simply flip through with Adobe Acrobat. Plus they could make it large enough to view the art in more of it’s true form. I would love that. You always seem to lose something in translation from the actual artwork and the small cd insert. I even think programs like iTunes could totally integrate it straight in to the software so it could be viewed and listened to in the same program instead of two separate ones. I’m sure this has already been thought about. I just hope they actually do it.
Yeah, I’m sure I’m not the first person to ever entertain the idea and maybe they are trying to work something in to it. Best Buy here sucks as far as selection. FYE is by far the best place in my area to look for CD’s. There is a used CD place too but they only have mainly mainstream stuff that you already know about. I did find a Megadeth Acoustic 2 cd bootleg there that was a little too bootleg for me. The sound was horrible and the packaging was even worse.
I live in new york and I am sooo sad that the store is closing down! I feel like it wuz a part of history that is being taken away!! i am a music lover and i do download music but its the fun times that i have had going to Times Square and walking into Virgin Records and getting lost in the isles. Meeting people and conversating about a song or artist….or bugging the salesperson by singing part of the song u just heard. Its being a part of the madness when an artist would come and sign autographs….. now with TRL and Virgin Records gone, what is Times Square going to be like…..BORING!!!
I know that I am writing this months after the article and all the other comments were posted but I am a New Yorkker who is devastated about the stores having closed down. After many first dates ending with a trip to virgin and after having bought tons of cds for family members that don’t “download” or want to bother learning how to. There were so many sounds and songs that I discovered when walking into the store on Times Square that sort of shaped my life experiences. Who will recapture that for the young generations who soon will be looking for a place to go to to learn and listen to new tracks and artists? I am a lil nervous as to what will be of Union Square now that a huge gap is going to be left behind. With the economy the way that it is will that space now be infiltrtated by used goods stores or booleg sellers? It is scary to imagine New York without virgin, without Circuit City, and who knows what will be next to fall.