VARIOUS: Independent record stores across the world will celebrate "Record Store Day"

Record ID: 842608

  • Title: VARIOUS: Independent record stores across the world will celebrate "Record Store Day"
  • Date: 22nd April 2012
  • Summary: LONDON, ENGLAND, UK (FILE - JULY 26, 2007) (REUTERS) MAN AT ROUGH TRADE RECORDS TAKING VINYL RECORD OUT OF SLEEVE, GOING TO PUT RECORD ON TURNTABLE MAN PUTTING VINYL RECORD ON TURNTABLE, TURNTABLE TURNING TO SPINNING GRAPHIC, WHICH MOVES TOWARDS SCREEN, READING: "2011 MUSIC SALES DOWN 3%", GRAPHIC SPINNING BACK ONTO TURNTABLE, ANOTHER GRAPHIC SPINNING, MOVING TOWARDS SCR
  • Embargoed: 7th May 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Germany, United Kingdom
  • City:
  • Country: Germany
  • Topics: Business,Entertainment,Industry
  • Reuters ID: LVAANAC5L44IZ0V7C0OUA1A2XB7X
  • Aspect Ratio:
  • Story Text: Independent record stores across the world will celebrate on Saturday (April 21) Record Store Day, marking the importance of small high street shops to the music industry by offering free gigs, exclusive merchandise and one-off releases.
    Hundreds of artists including Noel Gallagher, Jon Lydon and The Gossip have offered their support to the day by releasing new content, with many available only on vinyl.
    Around 70% of independent stores in the UK have closed in the last decade, while weekly album sales earlier this week hit a 12 year low.
    Threats to sales in stores like Sister Ray Records in London have come largely in the form of digital downloads, as consumer habits have changed with the advance of technology.
    Paul Williams is Head of Business Analysis at Music Week, and says that even as the high street suffers, some still believe independent record stores are vital to the industry.
    "Increasingly now it's about downloads and going on to the likes of Amazon, and buying your music online. However these independent stores, although there aren't many left, are still very, very important in terms of breaking artists, and they have a role to play that maybe other players that are bigger can't quite fulfil," he said.
    According to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) report on the Recording Industry in Numbers 2012, global music sales in 2011 were down 3% -- the smallest drop in sales since 2004.
    But in the last decade the industry has lost around 40% of revenue, and no one knows if it's ever going to get it back.
    Independent stores have tried to diversify their income by concentrating on exclusive releases, and in particular vinyl record sales, which according to former Sex Pistols frontman Jon Lydon, are the only real way to listen to music.
    "If for no other good reason other than intrigue, listen to music from vinyl. It may sound prehistoric, the idea, the concept, but that needle, scraping through a piece of plastic will do wonderful things for your heart and soul," he said in an interview with the Official Chart Company.
    In the UK, although they represent less than 1% of all sales, vinyl distribution has ballooned by 44% in the last year alone.
    The Director General of the Entertainment Retailer's Association, Kim Bailey, says she's not surprised by vinyl's growing popularity.
    "I think there are two things driving that: first it's a bit of what I was saying about vinyl being something you can collect and touch, but secondly vinyl now quite often comes with digital download codes, so even people who don't own turntables are able to listen to that music and still hold the vinyl record in their hand," she said at Sister Ray Record Store in London.
    Senior figures in the music industry have also taken heart from the growth of subscription-based services like Spotify, which have grown 33% in the last year.
    IFPI says the growing number of paying subscribers to these types of services have not resulted in corresponding losses in sales.
    But according to Bailey, the further closure of independent stores would leave not just a fiscal gap, but also a cultural hole in the music industry's heart.
    "We all know from the music industry history, that every time a shop is lost from the high street, half of their sales never come back to the music industry, even though we have the option of Amazon or online music sales. And secondly we'd lose that connection with a lot of the artists because very often they start with their local record shop, before they're signed to a record label. So it's very difficult for some artists to actually get their product in front of customers without those shops," she said.
    The record store is, for many, a place where their love for music was born.
    Few can deny that severe challenges remain but as record store lovers congregate on Saturday, most are not yet mourning the day the music died.
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