Record Store Day

It's Record Store Day today! I bet you didn't know that. I didn't know it until yesterday, when I read it in the NY Times. I probably wasn't aware of it because I haven't been in a record store in months. But I think I just might go today.

But just exactly WHY is it Record Store Day? I don't think there has ever been a Record Store Day before. Has there ever been a Sporting Goods Store Day? Or Culinary Arts Supplies Day? I don't think so.

It's Record Store Day because record stores, where they sell actual, physical things like vinyl albums and CDs, and maybe cassettes and posters and t-shirts, are a dying breed. We all know why. Because no one listens to music anymore, we all just watch American Idol and let our brains rot. Ha! No, that's not it. Record stores are dying because of the iPod. And the Internet. And satellite radio. So record stores are trying to drum up some publicity before they all expire.

This means more to some people than it does to others. Obviously, it means a great deal to the people who work in record stores. And, obviously, to musicians. Here's Sir Paul McCartney:

There’s nothing as glamorous to me as a record store. When I recently played Amoeba in LA, I realised what fantastic memories such a collection of music brings back when you see it all in one place.

It doesn't mean that much to me, because I don't go to record stores that much. Still, I think it's great that people are trying to keep alive a dying tradition, even if it's one that I don't really care that much about myself.

But there's something that doesn't get mentioned in the debate, and that is that record stores are not just a victim of the Internet: they're also a victim of the fact that their business model is horrendously energy-inefficient compared to digital distribution of music. Consider how much energy and raw materials are required to produce and distribute a vinyl album, as opposed to doing it on iTunes. CDs are obviously better in this respect, but it still takes a certain amount of energy to make the CD and its packaging, ship it across the country, and sell it in a store, while it requires virtually no energy to do the same for a song that exists merely as bits and bytes. This sounds trivial until you multiply it by a couple billion albums a year. And even playing a song requires less energy on an MP3 player than it does on a CD player or on a turntable.

So, yes, it's unfortunate that the times, they are a changin', but that's the deal with living here on planet earth: things change. There are lots of great things about independent record stores - very knowledgeable staff, usually a funky decor, moments of serendipity when someone finds an unexpected gem. But all of that can be found on the Internet. Are you interested in gay Puerto Rican death metal? Do a google search. I just did, and got back 119,000 hits. Obviously there aren't that many web sites devoted to gay Puerto Rican death metal, but it's probably out there somewhere.

I don't think physical record stores will ever truly disappear. Sir Paul mentioned playing at Amoeba here in LA. That store only opened a few years ago. It's huge, like a Borders of used records. Which makes it more efficient than all those tiny places that are dying. It has better cash flow, which will help it survive. It can make better use of its floor space. For example, its cash registers are always going, which is very efficient. Same thing with the line for selling used CDs. So we will probably see more of these. And the size means lots of diversity. An uncle of mine once asked me to buy a CD of a Hawaiian artist I had never heard of, Israel "IZ" Kamakawiwo'ole. I went to Amoeba, and they had several of his CDs. Voila!

So yes, for a while we will all to have suffer as people with odd tattoos and lots of obscure musical knowledge in their brains try to find alternative means of supporting themselves. But they will survive. As will we all. And, at the end of the day, we still have High Fidelity.

Update: I would be a little more sympathetic to the cause of dying record stores if recordstoreday.com didn't take forever to load. Uh, guys? Waiting forever to navigate your site isn't great customer service. Also, I noticed something incongruous on the home page: it reads "RECORD STORE DAY IS ALMOST HERE!" But I'm typing this on Saturday, April 19, which is supposed to be THE DAY. So I just have to wonder about the technical sophistication of a group that can't update its Web site on the day that is supposed to be the reason for its very existence.