Well some of this has already begun, a good % of FYE locations with expiring leases will be getting closed, after dismal sales in 2007 of music and no help in sight, Tranzworld the parent company bought what was left of Musicland about 2 years ago when Musicland filed for bankruptacy, but it now looks that many Suncoast and Sam Goodys that remained will be gone too. Think this isnt affected "big box" stores, Best Buy and Walmart have set plans to downgrade many locations "music" selections 30% at least, meaning stock levels will be decreased due to their losses in music, also they will be slimming down their catalog stock. Also feeling it is Virgin Records, though it only has about 10 -12 stores left one of their major locations on 14th in Manhattan may bite the bullet, the company is looking to keep only one location in NYC. Now everyone may think this is just because everything is digital, but get ready to see numbers fall big time, no one ever seems to account for lower numbers in soundscan due to lack of stores, in 2005 between Sam Goody/On Cue and Tower close to 1000 stores closed, and that translates into numbers, since not everyone is going along with "digital".

We're not talking about your local recka stow with crates of gems as well as local artists' work.

All those dudes got chased out by all these places closing down, so fuck em.

:fuckemdance:
[Edited 1/8/08 18:53pm]

No, not everyone is going to digital, but the target audience the record companies seem to be chasing is going digital. The biggest group of CD purchasers these days are people over the age of 30, and they can get their CD's online or through non-traditional outlets like Starbucks and Whole Foods as well as Barnes and Noble and Borders. The labels should be courting these buyers who are loyal enough to still buy the latest Eagles, Bruce Springsteen, and Paul McCartney albums, but they shoot themselves in the foot by trying to follow Soulja Boy and Hurricane Chris, who is similar to Hurricane Katrina in that artists like him are permanently destroying the music industry.

I think they court the babies over grown folks and listeners with sense because the babies aren't focused on CDs and shows. They just might buy all 40 products an "artist" associates themself with.

Greed is a hell of a drug.

Dance said:

I agree. The big and even small music chains from Media Play to the maybe more local Harmony House were nice (although often crazily over priced and didn't always carry gems) but frankly all music lovers will now be relagated to going only to the local wrecka stores which at this rate, may not go out of business with such frequency since there is no competition. It might be harder for new music to get out there, but what are you going to do.

the FYE stores need to be shut down,with those ridiculous prices Plus,for many artists,they only carry their "Greatest Hits" CD.I hate that place!

SoulAlive said:

Well when labels charge a store 13-14 dollars a cd, what choice would you have to sell it for? I know people dont like to realize this but Best Buy loses about 3 dollars per disc, dont believe, next time check a Best Buy ad and wonder why that little * is at the bottom, that says, you cannot buy more than 3 of a title, this is to keep other shops from going in there and buying 30 copies of a new cd at 9 bucks and then selling it for 12 on the street, Best Buy would be bankrupt (in the music dept) if they didnt have that *

TonyVanDam said:

Expect to see mostly "frontline" product (meaning top40), their catalogs will be dropped and mainly a cut down in the amount of copies of things store to store.