The Day The Music Died

It was summer. The soft wind that flowed into the driver’s side window of my Chevette provided an accompaniment to the cassette tape that provided a soundtrack for my summer adventures. I was on the hunt for a George Thorogood and The Delaware Destroyers album “Bad to The Bone”. I reached a nearby mall. I walked in, a man on a musical mission, and found the record. The mall was vibrant, dynamic, and filled with people. I walked into the record store. I was always in awe of these stores, it was like walking into the Library of Alexandria, a cascading library of art, tonality and expression.

?Even if I had a purchase in mind I always lingered over the albums, consuming the images and reading the content on the back of the album. The stores were quiet as music lovers visually grazed over the albums. A wave of tradition usually consumed you as you searched for the latest and greatest. I found my album, resisted the temptation to buy more and paid for it, usually being cashed out by a devout audiophile who would throw some engaging conversation at you as you handed them money. I would drive home, rip off the plastic wrap and begin an odyssey:

On the day I was born

The nurses all gathered 'round

And they gazed in wide wonder

At the joy they had found?

George Thorogood and The Delaware Destroyers,

Bad to the Bone

?At one time, the days before music streaming, there were retail shrines to music; stores like Tower Records, Sam The Record Man, Sam Goody, Peaches and Camelot music.

In 1990, Tower Records Founder Russ Solomon made the list of the 400 wealthiest Americans based on an estimate of Tower Records’ parent company’s private market valuation. He was worth $335 million. In 1995 Tower created the first online music store. It was on AOL. In 1996 Tower launched the online sales platform Tower.com. All these efforts were to facilitate a wider distribution of physical CD’s and records (sales which were increasingly declining). They got excited and decided to expand internationally. Debt started piling up and the wolves were at the door. It was forced to sell off its more than profitable Japanese locations. In 2000 cd sales fell flat. By 2004 it filed bankruptcy for the first time because of failing to make a $2 million payment of their line of credit.

?In the summer of 2006, bankruptcy was filed again. All assets and all locations were purchased for $134 million to satisfy liabilities of $210 million. All inventory and locations were sold. Soon other record retail icons began to fall one after the other, not acknowledging that the rise of digital technology was bringing about both piracy and the ability to deliver music over the internet.

The days of music retailing on a mass scale were over. Spotify, Pandora, and Apple soon took hold of the market. It was a cold and antiseptic delivery and artists, consumers and a tradition suffered. Year later a groundswell of music fans under the leadership of artists like Jack Black saw the re-invention of the vinyl record, it was a heady reminder of what was. The damage was done, the cult of the record store was over and the dutiful fans of the veneration of albums were cast adrift.

?There are many commonalities between the fall of the record store and the market forces that are shaping the world of exhibition. The digital world has created a tsunami of change, much of which was not anticipated by the average cinema owner nor the large circuits. In the 90’s Nicholas Negroponte wrote the groundbreaking work “Being Digital”. In this bible of transition Negroponte clearly tells the reader of the huge paradigm shift that was about to take place. Most of his predictions have taken place.

?I have had conversations with theater circuit owners who claimed scoff at my perception of the studios abandoning moviegoing. In 1995 365 million albums and cd’s were sold at an average price of $18.25. In short if we do an extension…they flushed a 6.5-billion-dollar industry. It is predicted that the exhibition business this year in North America will be around $7 billion.

The goal since the inception of streaming has been to have a direct contact point to the consumer. I have noticed now that most streaming services, the big ones anyway, are featuring community viewing. An option to watch movies with people you invite to the experience.

?Sounds like movie going don’t it…