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This link should hopefully work.
It's an interesting notion... the thought of the culturally-significant-but-economically-invisible Rough Trade opening "the biggest music only store in Britain" - so presumably bigger than the biggest HMVs and Virgins - isn't so much "ambitious" as totally insane.
Except that, hang on, HMV and Virgin, and Fopp for that matter, sell movies and books and whatnot too, so "biggest music ONLY store" could effectively just equal = bigger than any other indie stores, eg, not really that insanely big.
Also, I think it goes without saying that a giant super-shop run along the same lines as the current Rough Trade shops would be a complete disaster.
I mean, Rough Trade is good, but it is a)EXPENSIVE; no cheapo stuff or bargain offers - they essentially rely upon dedicated music fans picking up exactly what they need for £14.99 a pop, and b)SELECTIVE; snobbish and kinda elitest as it is to admit it, half of RT's appeal is that it has No Crap - for the most part, they don't stock media-hyped albums by obviously crap bands on majors, or at least when they do, they don't put them out on display or give 'em any special priviledges or order lots of copies etc. - they seem to take pride more in drawing attention to 'staff picks' with nice hand-written labels etc.
Factor in c)stocking as much vinyl as they do CDs, and it's clear that any 'mega-store' run upon these principles would be shot for meat within the week.
So yeah, sadly I'd imagine we will probably be looking at a shop based on a slightly indie-ized Fopp model... stack up the big hit albums and major label back catalogue stuff for tasty prices at the front, and retain yr indie cred by keeping an average/expensive selection of random independent label stuff stashed in the racks at the back.
On the other hand, reading Geoff Travis in the above link comparing the new venture to Ameoba Records (in L.A. - possibly the best record shop in the world?) makes me tremble with excitement, but then, a)Geoff is not running things and b)it would be EXTREMELY difficult to open a shop like Amoeba right off the bat. For those who haven't been there, Amoeba essentially operate a mixed new / 2nd hand shop on a MASSIVE scale, pushing down the price of the new CDs (buying in bulk or whatever), so that it hovers just above the 2nd hand price, so you can basically track down whatever obscure few-years-old release you're looking for and grab it 2nd hand for $5, or failing that, new at $8. Lovely thought but.. not going to happen.
Gosh, maybe I think about this nonsense too much - it even sounds like I have a clue in hell what I'm talking about! |
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