Tuesday (1/15) on the Telegraph online (London), Neil McCormick writes, “What would you miss about browsing in a record store? The long rows of albums, stacked in their hundred and maybe thousands, racks and racks of colourful sleeves, arranged alphabetically and by genre, fingers moving through the stack in search of some sought after gem at the right price, or just a moment of inspiration or nostalgia as you contemplate a personal favourite, before slipping it back in with a sigh, and moving on. … Well, those days are going … going … almost gone. … It was inevitable because the way we consume music has been utterly transformed by the internet and a high store retail space no longer fills the interactive desires of a digital generation. … The end of HMV is not good news for music lovers. It may well suit some independent stores to pick up the slack, the kind of places we really love, where the staff are as enthusiastic about music as the consumer, but there isn’t an indie store in every shopping mall and high street, and the commercial struggle remains the same, to sell consumers a product they can pick up cheap or free at the click of a mouse.”
Posted January 17, 2013
