Declan Posted July 15, 2007 Share Posted July 15, 2007 Rough Trade's New Store In Brick Lane This seems to be a bold move in the current climate, but as my idea of a holiday is one spent trawling record shops, and as I'm off to that there London next month, I really hope this works out. Whilst I don't see a chain of Rough Trade's extending accross the UK and to here, I hope some of the ideas filter through to stores like HMV. I have great sympathy with this statement - "There are misconceptions about music retailing - that people don't want physical product - but the issue is that the high street has become the place for homogenous retail. Great music shouldn't be sold like this - it deserves more respect," he says."The failure of the high street is that it is a jack of all trades and a master of none. As a result music lovers have congregated online," he says." To the extent that a couple of winters ago my New Year's resolution was never to shop at the HMV in Douglas again. The experience of shopping there at Christmas was so bad - they'd cleared out all the normal stock for items aimed at the Christmas market, staff running around asking if they could help you when they patently couldn't - I saw one woman being advised that Coda (picked at random from the rack) was the Led Zep album most people bought, and awful music so loud that when I asked if the reissues of the Pogues lps, which were being advertised in the music press at the time, were in I had to write down the name of the band - he hadn't heard of them. So I decided that they clearly didn't want my custom and resolved that I'd save the £50 a week I was spending there and spend it on-line or on my fairly regular trips to London. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Declan Posted July 15, 2007 Author Share Posted July 15, 2007 Sorry that post turned into a bit of a rant. What I'm trying to say is that the record buying experience should be less like a supermarket and more personal and that if anyone is going to change this situation it is going to be Rough Trade, since they already run the best record shop in the British Isles (excluding Preston). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ai_Droid Posted July 16, 2007 Share Posted July 16, 2007 I guess we the consumers made our bed, we'd better lie in it. I used to make a purchase from Shocks every saturday, mostly buying stuff I had no idea about before I'd entered the shop, stuff that Paul would pop onto the deck for a listen before I bought. But then when Harrison Musique (heh remember that?) came out, they had tonnes more stock for cheaper, I defected like everyone else. Now, I can't remember the last time I bought a cd, all my music is online where I can listen before I buy and HMV is more of a movie/games shop for me, I'm not surprised they don't pay extra for staff knowledgable about music. I wasn't prepared to pay for that, why should they? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deejay Denzel Posted July 16, 2007 Share Posted July 16, 2007 I used to order all my tunes from Shocks, Harrison Musique/HMV always seemed to be really late with upfront tunes... The guys & Gals at shocks seemed to have good contacts and I was always happy with them, I shopped there as preference right up until they closed... I even bought the shops speakers which I still have to this day! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dames Aflame Posted July 16, 2007 Share Posted July 16, 2007 clicky Your wish seems to be their command! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foxtrotlima Posted July 16, 2007 Share Posted July 16, 2007 As a teenager I remember being taken to Probe in Liverpool as an ultimate treat. It has gone commercial now Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ray marshall Posted July 16, 2007 Share Posted July 16, 2007 the article makes a god point of actually owning something.....having tried the digital download route for a short while i found myself wanting to hold what i had just bought....and you cant, 'cept for cd....but vinyl is still too much fun to not use imho Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Declan Posted July 17, 2007 Author Share Posted July 17, 2007 the article makes a god point of actually owning something.....having tried the digital download route for a short while i found myself wanting to hold what i had just bought....and you cant, 'cept for cd....but vinyl is still too much fun to not use imho The way I look at it, mp3's have made the cd obsolete. cd's are horrid items, but gained over vinyl for the following reasons - 1. Portability 2. You don't have to turn them over every 15 to 20 mins 3. Easier to pick tracks. Now mp3's trump cd's on each of those points. 1. Portability - mp3 players are smaller than portable cd players, and you don't have to carry the music separately. And instead of choosing between 6 cds worth you can choose from hundreds. 2. You don't have to get up to change the music ... ever. 3. And you can pick any track from any album in your collection seamlessly. So that leaves the only thing missing - actually owning the original thing. And vinyl trumps cd on that score. As an object to own an lp or 7" is much nicer. So you can see why the mp3 generation are turning to vinyl. Download or digitise the tracks you want hear and buy the object you want to own and cds can be avoided altogether. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marcus Posted July 17, 2007 Share Posted July 17, 2007 Funny i drifted onto this topic, i went to see a client today who's big into the music scene has a decent band etc. Amongst all the 'clutter' you music chaps gather, was an array of 12" albums the the art work doesn't seem the same on CD's. My son is big into 60's music, it's been so sad to discover most of the record stores i frequented as a Northern Soul fan are no more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matty Posted July 17, 2007 Share Posted July 17, 2007 I have quite a few bits of vinyl collected over the years, I've also even bought CD versions of some of the same for 'portability' as Declan has mentioned, however I have never purchased music online (as in downloads). I have no desire to buy music online as it (due to current broadband speeds) doesn't have anywhere near the same quality as a digitally encoded CD, unless you go for an uncompressed .wav file (IIRC around a meg a minute), even the more recent compressed formats still leave a lot to be desired. Owning vinyl has all of the plus points recently mentioned, you actually have a tangible piece of 'hardware' with it's associated sleeve notes & 'artwork' that with the correct technology you can actully make an effort, use a few calories, and be able to listen to a 'nice warm' version of the tune you have purchased, true vinyl is a bit crap for portability, but you don't buy it to be able to listen to it in the car, or on the bus!! I have an ipod that spends 99% of the time sat in the car, - very portable for sure, brilliant for podcasts, but no where near as good for music as being able to sit at home and listen to the 'real thing'..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RC-Drift.com Posted July 18, 2007 Share Posted July 18, 2007 You're right, you can't 'feel' music played on an ipod like you can the Real Thing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Declan Posted July 18, 2007 Author Share Posted July 18, 2007 What does that mean? It's got as much feel as cd. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
parchedpeas Posted July 18, 2007 Share Posted July 18, 2007 if anyone is going to change this situation it is going to be Rough Trade, since they already run the best record shop in the British Isles (excluding Preston). Action Records on Church street? Best Shop Ever. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slim Posted July 18, 2007 Share Posted July 18, 2007 I have no desire to buy music online as it (due to current broadband speeds) doesn't have anywhere near the same quality as a digitally encoded CD, unless you go for an uncompressed .wav file (IIRC around a meg a minute), even the more recent compressed formats still leave a lot to be desired. Lossless compressoin such as Flac or apple lossless is identical to a cd, if it was encoded from CD. A lossless encode will be around 50% in size, so 300mb at 2mb broadband that'll take 20 mins, much more than a meg a min, and significantly faster than going down the shop and buying a cd. A cd, or a .wav wont have tags, and tags are bloody essential. Owning vinyl has all of the plus points recently mentioned, you actually have a tangible piece of 'hardware' with it's associated sleeve notes & 'artwork' that with the correct technology you can actully make an effort, use a few calories, and be able to listen to a 'nice warm' version of the tune you have purchased, true vinyl is a bit crap for portability, but you don't buy it to be able to listen to it in the car, or on the bus!! A lot of the warmth associated with vynil is because of the poor sound quality, the farts and crap you hear from the analog disk and equipment adding to the sound to give you your familiar warmth. Just annoys me I've got to say, every time I root my old vynils out I just get hacked off with both the sound quality and the inconvenience. Plus they're far too fragile. I have an ipod that spends 99% of the time sat in the car, - very portable for sure, brilliant for podcasts, but no where near as good for music as being able to sit at home and listen to the 'real thing'..... Try some blind testing, it's always bloody revealing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ray marshall Posted July 19, 2007 Share Posted July 19, 2007 What does that mean? It's got as much feel as cd. its the tactile thing isnt it?...as i said i downloaded some stuff but found myself wanting to read the sleeve notes, the label....even the run out groove message.....u can with cd's with the exception of a run out message but u cant with d/l's as for crap sound quality, vinyl has a frequency response of over 40khz whereas cd has it cut off at 22kh...it has to "guess" what the sound should be in the result of surface damage......... i have vinyl dating back to the late 70's that play perfect, so i dont think that fragile is the right word to use......if someone is throwing them around and not looking after them then they will get damaged yes...... for what its worth i have an ipod also....and its gathering dust..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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