Final Piece (Rough Draft)

Workshoppers,
Due to logistical and communication failures on Sunday, I was not able to do my venue profile.
Today I began piecing this together. It is a bit short because I will be interviewing the Record Shop's owner this weekend and then placing bits of the interview throughout my piece.
Keeping this in mind, please let me know how the interior descriptions of the store are functioning.
Since I have not yet interviewed Joe, what questions about the store would you like to see answered (focusing perhaps mainly on the importance of record stores in today's digital society)?
 Thanks.

Rough Draft

Cam Stewart

                        The Need to Be Heard: Independent Record Stores’ Vital Place in Society

In a time when music consumption occurs mainly online, the idea of a record store seems obsolete. Music purchasing has become an activity based mainly on the MP3 format, a digital product that has given both compact discs and vinyl albums a true test of their value in modern society. But for some, the idea of clicking a button to hear a song is void of intimacy and lacks any interaction with the music. For those feeling this way, the value of vinyl is infinite. Over the past decade vinyl has made a significant resurgence, due mainly to the sales occurring at local record stores.

            Fortunately for both vinyl enthusiasts and vinyl sales, the Corner Record Shop exists. Located on West Main Road in Kalamazoo, the Corner Record Shop is an independent retailer focusing mainly on vinyl releases from both past and present artists. The interior of the space is vibrant. The walls are painted orange and music from the store’s record player blasts throughout the air. While not the largest record store in the country, the Corner Record Shop’s selection is diverse, spanning dozens of generations of music: it feels like the record collection of an eclectic group of music-savvy individuals.

            The walls of the store are speckled with albums by artists including the White Stripes, Can, Neil Young and Gram Parsons. Just looking at the records hung on the walls reminds one of how wonderful it is to see album art in its fullest size- a grateful departure from the dwarflike dimensions of MP3 artwork. To hold the album is to feel its gloss and to see the slanted reflection of the store’s lights off the plastic casing, an image one simply does not get when looking at album art on a computer screen.

            But perhaps those who visit record stores already know the benefits of purchasing LP’s. Those who need to truly be allowed into the world of vinyl are those illegally downloading MP3 albums online for free-they are the people greatly affecting the future of the music industry.

            In the past decade, spawned mainly by the downloading site Napster, music sales in the United States have dropped 47 percent. A staggeringly low amount of people are frequenting record stores like Corner Record Shop, instead choosing to illegally pirate their music in large quantities.

            Only 37 percent of music acquired by United States consumers was paid for in 2009. One can only guess how small a percentage of this was bought at local record stores.

            It is clear that the American music industry is in a state of flux. But where does this leave the hundreds of independent retailers still trying to nurture honest music consumption?

            These stores are now catering to a small niche of customers devoted to buying physical albums, a small but passionate clientele that keeps these stores afloat. For these people, watching the music industry transform entirely into a digital atmosphere is ghastly.

            Perhaps the greatest contributor to vinyl’s resurgence is the independent music scene. Nearly all of the big indie labels, including both Matador and Sub Pop, release their artists’ albums on the vinyl format. Albums from both these labels are scattered throughout the shelves and walls of Corner Record Shop. Releases from Beach House and Yo La Tengo are quick to go home with many of the people who enter the store.

            To celebrate this flourishing bond between labels and stores there exists the glorious Record Store Day. Created in 2007 by a group of individuals hoping to promote independent record stores, Record Store Day features a wide variety of special, limited releases from an expansive list of artists. The event’s goal is to reconnect the consumer with the music he or she listens to. Because none of the releases can be downloaded, the listener is encouraged into visiting their local record store and engaging with the community.

            The Corner Record Shop stocked many of the limited-edition releases featured on Record Store Day and enjoyed a large flow of customers throughout the day, many accompanied with albums tucked between their arms.

            The store is part of a vital community of small-scale record shops that are preserving the pleasures of buying vinyl.