After the continual shut down of independent, mom-and-pop stores on State Street, a large chain store will now be closing. Sam Goody, which is owned by Musicland, is scheduled to close by Jan.1, 2004.
“Our strategy was to evaluate expenses and costs, and we decided to shut down 150 stores across the country,” Musicland spokesperson Laurie Bauers said.
In recent years, the overall music industry has seen a decline in business, which can explain lower sales at Musicland locations, Bauers said.
“It is an overall industry trend,” she added.
A number of factors have contributed to this trend.
“Part of it is unchecked piracy,” Bauers said.
Another suspected reason is the increase of online buying, which, for some people, is more convenient than shopping at a store. However, it is difficult to pinpoint why specific locations shut down, Bauers said.
Music stores, independent and non-independent alike, have been struggling while people turn to their computers for virtually free and limitless music. Both Sugar Shack and Disc-Go-Round on State Street have also recently closed due to the declining number of music sales in downtown Madison.
Many University of Wisconsin students are unwilling or unable to pay the $12 to $16 for a CD, even if they would like to support the artists.
“It’s wrong, but I’m less willing to buy music because I feel like I can just download it,” UW sophomore Jill Ingber said.
Music-store owners alike have noticed the significant decrease in sales.
“CD sales have been dropping for three years,” Dan Jenkins, founder and co-owner of B-Side Compact Discs and Tapes on State Street said. “People download in incredible quantities.”
On top of the emergence of music downloading, music stores have also had to face the competition of additional sources of entertainment. According to Jenkins, people have been losing an appreciation of music as they spend more time with their PCs and other gadgets.
This, Jenkins said, simply represents changing times and changing business.
“All of retail is going to big box stores. Little stores like us still survive because we are in touch with the people, and our money goes back into the community, whereas with chain stores it goes into big headquarters on the East or West Coast,” Jenkins said.
Jenkins added that similar to K-Mart’s defeat by Wal-mart, Best Buy and Circuit City are pushing Sam Goody under, which are more successful chain stores.
However, Jenkins remains confident that his music store will survive. Despite the changes in the way people obtain music and competition from chain stores, there are some vital aspects of B-Side Discs that will not change.
“We care more about the music. We are more active in the community. We are more in touch with what people want,” Jenkins said.
David Peters, manger of Exclusive Company, said that he thinks students will continue shopping at music stores, regardless of if they are chains or independent stores, as long as they have what they are looking for.
“If the selection is right, students will shop there,” Peters said.
