"We knew the iconic Virgin Megastore was on its way out, but now we've got a date for the goodbye party. The store closes this coming April; not long after, a Forever 21 will open in its space. Some fun facts: Virgin has the highest volume of music sales in the US, and that location was "profitable to the tune of $6 million," but it was only paying $54/square foot in rent (as opposed to the $700/square foot that's market rate for the neighborhood.) Worrying about the Union Square outpost, Idolator speculates about how long we have "before Other Music becomes the retail powerhouse of New York City by default."" [Racked]

And in other related news, Record Store Day returns this year. The date is April 18, 2009. Stay tuned for a list of festivities that will happen in non-megastore type record stores across the country that haven't gone out of business by then. Last year there were sales and in-store shows and and limited editions and free schwag and other fun stuff like that.

Some 3,100 record stores around the country have closed since 2003, according to the Almighty Institute of Music Retail, a market research firm. And that's not just the big boxes like the 89 Tower Records outlets that closed at the end of 2006; nearly half were independent shops. In Manhattan and Brooklyn at least 80 stores have shut down in the last five years.

But the survivors aren't giving up just yet. Saturday is Record Store Day, presented by a consortium of independent stores and trade groups, with hundreds of retailers in the United States and some overseas cranking up the volume a bit to draw back customers and to celebrate the culture of buying, selling and debating CDs and vinyl. [NY Times]

Continue reading "a map of all (open & closed) Manhattan RECORD STORES"

Paul McCartney @ Amoeba Records, LA - June 27, 2007 (CRED) (info)

The past few years have been bittersweet for music retail in Los Angeles. The opening of Amoeba Records in 2001 gave the city one of the stronger music outlets in America, but was followed soon by the closings of Aron's Records and Rhino Records.

Yet indie music fans not wanting to brave the Hollywood traffic to hit Amoeba had an outpost outside downtown in Sea Level Records, run by Silversun Pickups merch man Todd Clifford. The store arrived as the city's Echo Park neighborhood was undergoing a revitalization, and stocked a heavily curated catalog (top sellers this month include Silversun Pickups, adventurous guitar rock act Electrelane and avant-folk duo CocoRosie). Yet come the end of this month, the 32-year-old Clifford will close up shop for good. [CNN]