What's wrong with the record business?

[Grunch]

Peacock Records in Plattsburgh, New York was a goldmine for overpriced and generally all crap and is still in existence today. If ever up that way, and you are looking for the latest rap, Americal Idol, and other general fodder, stop in and say hello to the peacock himself, the owner, and watch as he watches you shop to be sure you don't try to walk off with a Mariah Carey treasure. Price wise, he figures $18.99 a good price for a CD. This guy's shop was always a joke. Actually, we always hit Montreal, a shop called Dutchy's back in the 80s was a treasure trove for imports, literally thousands of LP's and 12" imports, they had it all back then.

[devildog]

Skinnytie, I spelled the name of Stu's wrong, probably why you have not heard of this shop. It is actually spelled Stooz Records on 122 E 7th Street, between 1st Ave and Ave A. Now is it familiar? It was a neat place for out of print stuff when I was there last.

Your correct, Vinyl Mania is down the block from Record Runner. My memory gets faint but wasn't Record Runner across the street from the Pink Pussycat boutique? Or was that a different shop altogether? Anyway, I hope to visit the Village again soon. Thanks for the web address for Midnight Records!

[devildog]

Righto, Grunch. Peacock's is a joke. He would not know what good music is if it hit him in the face!! And his used prices are just as expensive as the new stuff. Beware of the two-way mirror!! As if anyone would want to steal anything from that store anyway![xx(]

[Grunch]

It was always fun to just go into Peacock's and annoy the peacock himself, and not buy anything, since there was nothing decent to buy anyway. It's fun to go in just the same to annoy this joker.

[skinnytie]

Your memory is quite good, devildog, across the street from the Pink Pussycat Boutique is where Record Runner is. I was getting Vinyl Mania confused with another store that wasn't too far from there, and I believe it had closed up anyway (can't remember the name of it now, but they had two locations across the street from each other. One was for records and CD's and the other was for DJ 12"s and the like).

I never heard of Stooz Records, but then I never went that far east for my music to begin with. I'll be sure to check them out and see how it is. Not too far from where the mecca of all record shopping is on St. Marks Place.

[quote][i]Originally posted by devildog[/i]
<br>

Skinnytie, I spelled the name of Stu's wrong, probably why you have not heard of this shop. It is actually spelled Stooz Records on 122 E 7th Street, between 1st Ave and Ave A. Now is it familiar? It was a neat place for out of print stuff when I was there last.

Your correct, Vinyl Mania is down the block from Record Runner. My memory gets faint but wasn't Record Runner across the street from the Pink Pussycat boutique? Or was that a different shop altogether? Anyway, I hope to visit the Village again soon. Thanks for the web address for Midnight Records!
[/quote]

[devildog]

Skinnytie,

Let me know if Stooz is still around and good. I also recall that shop that had two separate stores, one for 12" and dj stuff. I cannot remember the name either. Do you ever shop at J&R music? I am sure the cds they sell now are aimed for the rap/urban contemporary market but back in the 80's, they carried alot of interesting stuff including many 12" singles.

BTW, in my quest to pick up Nick Lowe cds, I was not able to get Jesus of Cool or the Abominable Showman on cd. I did find Labour of Lust and Party of One. I know we discussed Nick Lowe before.

[bpdp3]

some intersting points...

As for CD pricing, I find it heartening that a chain like Best Buy (not on the 'cutting edge' or anything...) is offering many interesting new releases or $6.99 to $7.99. That's about what I paid for a brand new lp back in the day. They've had recent releases by the Killers, Franz Ferdinand, Modest Mouse, Yeah Yeah Yeahs etc. at that price. I think that's great.

I also like that the mall "mega-entertainment" stores are offering listening stations where you simply scan the bar code and listen to admittedly brief samples of all the songs on the CD. It's certainly enough to get a feel if you'll like it or not.
I love this! Reading recent rock mags, I'll pick up on 5 or so current groups that sound interesting, and then I can get a feel if I'd actually like them or not. It's nice to be able to do that.

[bpdp3]

Oh I should add that as a commited used vinyl collector, of course I hate that these 'monster' stores squeeze out many of my favorite haunts. But I know it's going to happen, despite my best efforts. I will look for releases there first; but I'm not going to pay twice the price for a CD in support of principal. I can't afford to.

[skinnytie]

I still go J & R on occassion. Their selection is still pretty decent, an obscure import can still be found there if you look hard enough (they had a couple of copies of "Simple Man" by Klaus Nomi last time I was there, for example, and that was a couple of months ago). Their prices aren't as good as they were since before 9-11, but they're still a viable resource. J & R does have a website (www.jr.com) and they do more business through mail order than they do with with walk ins. I never went to their website, so I don't know how their CD's would be listed.
As for Nick Lowe, my own quest continues. I'll email you about that. Cheers!

[quote][i]Originally posted by devildog[/i]
<br>Skinnytie,

Let me know if Stooz is still around and good. I also recall that shop that had two separate stores, one for 12" and dj stuff. I cannot remember the name either. Do you ever shop at J&R music? I am sure the cds they sell now are aimed for the rap/urban contemporary market but back in the 80's, they carried alot of interesting stuff including many 12" singles.

BTW, in my quest to pick up Nick Lowe cds, I was not able to get Jesus of Cool or the Abominable Showman on cd. I did find Labour of Lust and Party of One. I know we discussed Nick Lowe before.
[/quote]

[Lazlo Nibble]

Grunch, there's a UPS store about a block south of Amoeba in Berkeley.

Quite Life, there are two stores in that immediate area, DBA Brown which is north of the freeway and Saturn Records which is south.

[Frank_Chickens]

The UK perspective:

The average price of a chart CD is around £10-13 ($18-23) in the shops. The on-line price for the same CD can be purchased for around £9 ($16.20). There was a court case this year when the BPI (British Phonographic Industry) took Hong Kong retailer CD Wow to court for selling 'grey market' CDs to the British public for £7.99 ($14.40) postage free.

The BPI said that the CDs were not of the same quality even though there wasn't any differences in the packaging and sound to the ones being sold here. Needless to say they won and we now pay higher CD prices. [:(]
If CDs can be delivered here from Hong Kong for under £8, they why not sell them here for that price??

Airplay of new singles. The videos and radio play of these tracks are normally 4 weeks before release date. In that timeframe the public becomes sick and tired of hearing the track and will be very reluctant to buy it when released, hence low record sales and the majors scratching their heads as to why.

The record companies knew about Napster before it started but thought that it wouldn't work due to the popularity of CDs. Whoops.

The RIAA have seen the future of music which involves fans paying to download songs from the artists' website. The record companies are not involved and don't make money from this and that is why they're throwing out all these lawsuits.

As someone already mentioned, when was the last time you saw a record label cutting the price of a new CD? They've already been found guilty of price-fixing, you would of thought they would have learnt their lesson by now.

[buffalochipz]

[quote][i]Originally posted by Frank_Chickens[/i]
<br>
Airplay of new singles. The videos and radio play of these tracks are normally 4 weeks before release date. In that timeframe the public becomes sick and tired of hearing the track and will be very reluctant to buy it when released, hence low record sales and the majors scratching their heads as to why.
[/quote]

I noticed this when I was listening to Roundtable on BBC-6 Music. I forget what the song was but I remember the host saying that it wouldn't actually be released for two more months! This was back in the summer.

[Frank_Chickens]

[quote][i]Originally posted by buffalochipz[/i]
<br>[quote][i]Originally posted by Frank_Chickens[/i]
<br>
Airplay of new singles. The videos and radio play of these tracks are normally 4 weeks before release date. In that timeframe the public becomes sick and tired of hearing the track and will be very reluctant to buy it when released, hence low record sales and the majors scratching their heads as to why.
[/quote]

I noticed this when I was listening to Roundtable on BBC-6 Music. I forget what the song was but I remember the host saying that it wouldn't actually be released for two more months! This was back in the summer.
[/quote]

In recent years this has become common practice and I can't see it do anything else but damage their sales in the long term, but since they only think in the short term that's all right.. [:(]

[jumpshift]

[quote][i]Originally posted by Darkwave[/i]
<br>I remember reading a few years ago about the RIAA wanting to ban record shops from selling