The Death of the Record Store

I love record stores. In the same way that I love libraries, wandering around the racks, talking to the staff, getting recommendations, finding great albums I remember my parents playing to me, back catalogue releases by bands I adore.

It's another one of those places where I can zone out completely and spend hours flicking through thousands of CDs and records. I love record stores so much I got a Christmas temp job in one after Uni. I had visions of getting up every day and going to work at Empire Records

It didn't work out that way. When I worked in a record store there was so much focus on DVDs and Gaming, CDs were falling by the wayside. That was almost 4 years ago. Last week I went in to my local HMV, in Islington, and the changes in there made it virtually unrecognisable from the record stores I remember from when I was a teenager, spending all my wages from my weekend jobs on my, now extensive, CD collection. The CD racks were reduced to approximately 10 racks squeezed down the side of the store, the majority of the floor was taken up with 'technology', iPods, iPads, speakers, headphones. There were quite a few racks of DVDs too, what seemed like more than double the CD area.

I get why this is happening, I understand that I'm old school and very few people buy CDs, let alone vinyl, but does that mean I can't mourn the demise of the record store?

I'm lucky enough to live in central London, I can walk to Rough Trade, there is a massive HMV just one bus ride away from my house, I can get the CDs and Vinyls I want to add to my collection, but what about the future generations? I believe there are many teenagers like me, out there in small towns, wanting music. Wanting to flick through inserts, feel the weight of vinyl in their hands. People who have to wait days or weeks for a package from Amazon (other online retailers are available!).

I wish there were more independent record stores out there and, although I understand why people are downloading and using online retailers, I hope that there are enough people out there like me who can keep those record stores, independent or chain, open.

I would hate to see the day that 'physical' music ceased to exist.

This week I have mainly been listening to Bright Eyes - The People's Key