A couple of weeks ago, in this very spot and at this exact time, I remonstrated the loss of the local video store from neighbourhood high streets. This week however I’d like point out a surprising success story.
Last month, HMV Canada, all 121 stores was sold to Hilco UK – a ‘restructuring’ firm – for a whopping $3.2 million! Shit. That works out to roughly the cost of 2000 cds per store. Take a minute. I understand.
Wow. And while HMV’s future may still be unknown, one has to acknowledge that the corporate mega music store – corporate music stores, full stop – is now essentially dead in Canada. The way we consume music has changed so dramatically over the past decade that the music store, much as the video store, has been all-but obliterated from the urban landscape. Where once our malls and street corners were littered with A&A Records, Sam the Record Man’s...oh, I’m sure there were others, but you remember those times. Those times are no more.
And yet, the independent music store, not so long ago declared dead by the sages of economic predictions, stays free, and afloat. Where deep-pocketed corporate giants could not seem to stay relevant, the local record store remains – now more than ever some might say – that way.
Much can be said about why and how this has come about, about the forces of niche markets and irrational sensibilities that have saved the independent music store from obscurity, but the fact remains that the record store has always been and will continue to be, it would seem, an integral part of city life.
The record store is dead. Long live the record store!
