Record stores try to get groove back

Always on the look out for great stories about vinyl and record stores, I hope that you find this story enjoyable:

BY TIMOTHY FINN • MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS • February 22, 2009


KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Tuesday used to be sacramental in the world of music. It was new-release day, the day faithful music fans stopped by their favorite record store to buy something they'd been waiting for weeks to hear or to discover something they hadn't heard.

Back then, record stores were the best places to hear new music and mingle with other music fans.

"Record stores used to be neighborhood hangouts," says Corky Carrel, who co-owns an online record store based near Kansas City. "You'd go in and browse and talk about music."

Tuesdays aren't the only days that aren't what they used to be -- for record stores or their customers.

Stores that sell new music are in a fight for their lives. The chains are dying. Independent stores are closing. The record labels are running out of ways to make money.

The stores that are surviving are performing balancing acts. Most rely heavily on the used record business: Buy it cheap, sell it cheap. Some have turned to niche marketing, selling new CDs to one or two refined segments of the music world. And others have been helped by the recent revival of what was once considered a relic: the vinyl record.

Steve Wilson remembers the good days.

Read the rest of the story here:
http://www.freep.com/article/20090222/ENT04/902220351