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The Day the Music Died in DeKalb
Feb. 11th, 2009 02:52 pmWe spend a lot of time in the SF bubble talking about death. That’s not surprising since we’re a morbid bunch of bastards. We especially like to talk about industry death: the end of short stories, the end of magazines, the end of books, and the end of bookstores. We look at new technology with fear and shake our fists at change.
A lot of this is an overreaction to evolution, but some of it is quite legitimate. It’s hard not see parallels with a certain warm corpse: the music industry.
Today, the owner of DeKalb’s Record Rev announced he was closing his business.
Record Rev is a completely unexceptional music store. They carry some new and used CDs and a decent vinyl selection. The prices are average. There’s an indie section, but the selection is nothing to get excited about. The store has been next to the Northern Illinois University campus since I was born.
Here’s the problem: it’s the last record store in DeKalb, Illinois. Not just the last independent store, the last record store of any kind. When I first visited DeKalb a decade ago, there were at least 5 record stores in the campus area. Now, the only places selling CDs will be the box stores.
And almost nobody cares. In my lifetime, I went from vinyl to cassette to CD. There was a point that I bought at least a CD per week. Now I’m no different from all of the kids on campus. When I buy a CD, it’s only to rip it and throw the music onto my iPod. The fact that I buy any CDs makes me a novelty.
Things changed. I miss going to record stores and the thrill of discovery when I found a particular album. I miss it right up to the point that I realize that my friend David just gave me his old iPod loaded with 5000 songs. I’m sitting in a coffeehouse with a music library bigger than my college album collection. That’s phenomenal.
I’m sorry to see the end of an era, but I can’t think of a good reason to fight that change.
Which brings us back to publishing. Will technology kill the paper book? Will we all own Kindle 5s and talk about the closing of the last bookstores in a few years time?
I just don’t know.
A lot of this is an overreaction to evolution, but some of it is quite legitimate. It’s hard not see parallels with a certain warm corpse: the music industry.
Today, the owner of DeKalb’s Record Rev announced he was closing his business.
Record Rev is a completely unexceptional music store. They carry some new and used CDs and a decent vinyl selection. The prices are average. There’s an indie section, but the selection is nothing to get excited about. The store has been next to the Northern Illinois University campus since I was born.
Here’s the problem: it’s the last record store in DeKalb, Illinois. Not just the last independent store, the last record store of any kind. When I first visited DeKalb a decade ago, there were at least 5 record stores in the campus area. Now, the only places selling CDs will be the box stores.
And almost nobody cares. In my lifetime, I went from vinyl to cassette to CD. There was a point that I bought at least a CD per week. Now I’m no different from all of the kids on campus. When I buy a CD, it’s only to rip it and throw the music onto my iPod. The fact that I buy any CDs makes me a novelty.
Things changed. I miss going to record stores and the thrill of discovery when I found a particular album. I miss it right up to the point that I realize that my friend David just gave me his old iPod loaded with 5000 songs. I’m sitting in a coffeehouse with a music library bigger than my college album collection. That’s phenomenal.
I’m sorry to see the end of an era, but I can’t think of a good reason to fight that change.
Which brings us back to publishing. Will technology kill the paper book? Will we all own Kindle 5s and talk about the closing of the last bookstores in a few years time?
I just don’t know.
