“If you want to lose a lot of money, current wisdom suggests that opening a record shop would be a good way to do it. Better still, open the biggest music-only shop in Britain and spend a fortune on fitting it out with a top-of-the-range PA system and bespoke furniture created by one of Britain’s top architects � exactly what Rough Trade plans to do when it opens its new, 5,000-square-metre branch, designed by David Adjaye, in east London later this month.” (
What better way to remind people that CDs and vinyl still exist than open a massive record shop through your big ‘indie’ label? I think this was a fine idea. Vinyl enthusiasts are born all of the time, and each one has a significantly different set of discs in mind. I’m a bit of a lazy record hunter myself; I do most of my thumbing-through online. Don’t get me wrong, if I pass a record shop, I’ll go in and spend 10-20 minutes flicking, but if there is something in particular I want, odds are I will go down there and they won’t bloody have it, so I’ll have to go home empty-handed. A record shop as big as the afformentioned Rough Trade store are much more likely to have that plastic I’m after. Another dilemma I face when buying music is that of ‘which format’? To be honest, most of the music I listen to is either from my iTunes library or my iPod. But the vinyl I own, I play a lot. It just so happens there is infinitely more music on my computer than in my record box. I rarely buy digital music – I tend to download it for free. Maybe there is a solution to this though…
I had a little idea (perhaps not an entirely new idea). What if everytime you bought an LP from Rough Trade you got a little card shoved in the bag. You would take that card to your computer, enter the code into a special section on the Rough Trade website and you would be able to download a legal and digital copy of the LP you’ve got spinning on your record deck. That would solve my dilemma, anyway. I don’t know anyone that buys more than one format of an album unless they’re a bit of a fanatic who buys the iTunes version, the LP, the Japanese LP with bonus remix disc and the CD.
Radiohead’s upcoming album, ‘In Rainbows‘ is availible via pre-release digital download or with a boxset including CD, two 12-inch heavyweight vinyls and artwork and a digital download as part of the deal. This isn’t too far from my idea. Perhaps it has already been done to some degree, but I think the idea has potential to bring more people into record shops more frequently.
Ideas and contributions are welcome as always.
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