S AT U R D AY, J U N E 3 0 , 2 0 0 7R.I.P.</p><p> NYCDThe record store is dead.</p><p> A recent business story said the top fourmusic stores were Wal-Mart, Best Buy, iTunes and Amazon.com.</p><p> Not amusic chain in sight among them.</p><p> And of course Tower Records hasshut down, leaving a hole in my heart.</p><p> New York City holds some eightmillion people.</p><p> If I want to go to a record store and browse, I haveliterally TWO choices: Virgin MegaStore in the midst of all the touristsin Times Square or the slighly preferable Virgin MegaStore in UnionSquare.</p><p> That's it.</p><p> You can find a few used CD stores in the East Village,while most of the specialty stores like Footlights, have disappeared.My favorite record store NYCD shut down its physical location a whileago.</p><p> And now the guys have closed shop at their office location, wherethey tried to go all-Internet (piggybacking on Amazon, mostly) andfinally just gave up the ghost.</p><p> They had almost no competition on theUpper West Side by either major chains or indie stores or used CDstores, with the closest real competitor being Tower Records at 65th St.(They were in the high 70s.) But rising rents forced them out of a tinylocation on Amsterdam and sent them up a block or two and aroundthe corner to a basement location.</p><p> It might as well have been the moon,as so many customers failed to follow them.</p><p> They had every advantagein some ways: New York magazine highlighted them in its Best of NewYork edition, their weekly email newsletter about new releases was alsosingled out for praise in the media and went out to thousands ofcustomers.</p><p> Their switch from a physical store to an online presence waswritten about in the LA Times.</p><p> They gave interviews, wrote liner notes,sponsored shows, played in bands, posted on Huffington and of courseeven had their own blog.And yesterday it came to an end.</p><p> Rob -- who has the twin loss of nonew Grateful Dead records to ever look forward to -- is I think movingin with his Mom.</p><p> Sal -- who has the twin loss of his second home NewOrleans to incompetence and indifference -- is I think selling blood.And Tony's wife has offered to put him on allowance in exchange fordaily chores.And me? Me, I'm stuck with my smart-ass comments about ringtonesand digital sales and the unnatural bulge in CD sales in the early 90sNext Blog»sal1mineo@hotmail.comSEARCH BLOG FLAG BLOGFOLLOW BLOGP O P S U R F I N G .</p><p> C O MS U R F I N G T H E WAV E S O F P O P U L A R C U LT U R EB Y M I C H A E L G I LT Z & F R I E N D SPOPSURFING.COM: R.I.P.</p><p> NYCDhttp://popsurfing.blogspot.com/2007/06/rip-nycd.html 1 of 37/25/09 12:35 PMFAV O R I T E L I N K SAmericablogFive O'Clock Lightning baseball blogDeep Pop -- Lori Lakin's BlogThe Back Page -- Jason Page on ESPNRadioCine-Blog -- George Robinson's BlogDocuments On Art & Cinema - DarylChin's BlogBrucie G's Wondrous Blog OfAdventure and Mystery -- BruceGreenspan's BlogB L O G A R C H I V E▼ 2009 (17)▼ July (3)1939 -- The Greatest Year ForMoviesSwimming Bans Those Hi-TechSuits!Best Movies Of The Year -- TheMaster List► June (3)► May (1)► March (2)► February (1)► January (7)► 2008 (86)► 2007 (781)► 2006 (2412)► 2005 (5)C O N T R I B U TO R SAaronBiboyMichael in New York POPSURFING.COM: R.I.P.</p><p> NYCDhttp://popsurfing.blogspot.com/2007/06/rip-nycd.html 2 of 37/25/09 12:35 PMPOPSURFING.COM: R.I.P.</p><p> NYCDhttp://popsurfing.blogspot.com/2007/06/rip-nycd.html 3 of 37/25/09 12:35 PM
