Record Shops of Old

[anotheoldgit]

I read many requests on this site asking for titles of music tracks from certain films and where can they be purchased from etc.
The question I ask now is, why are there not the type of record shops as there was in the distant past?
Then you could go to the cinema and see a film, and then later you could go to your record shop and ask them for a recording of a song/piece of music from the said film, most times the assistant would be able to find the record from their stock. You also got the opportunity to listen to it in a private booth.
One particular film I saw was ' Young Man With A Horn ' which for some reason for British audiences the title was changed to ' Young Man Of Music ' This film starred Doris Day & Kirk Douglas, Doris sang the songs accompanied by Kirk on the trumpet (in actual fact he dubbed for the great Harry James). Yes I was able to buy all the various songs from this film on 78s, straight from my local shop within days of seeing the film, these I treasured for years, and it was only recently that I was able to obtain all these rare tracks on a CD.
Could the re-introduction of similar shops see a resurgence of the flagging singles market or is this just a pipe dream?

[Leo1972]

You can still do that, just the media & technology have moved on. If I see a film & like the music, I can find the music composer on the internet (IMDB.com), and then listen to samples of the song online via Amazon or iTunes. If I like it I can order the CD (Amazon) or download the tune to my computer and then iPod (iTunes).

But there's another aspect to music shops, which is the interchange of ideas and influences. This happened in traditional music shops, but not so much online. Sure there are music chat sites, but where can you get the benefit of the experience of the equivalent of a record-shop owner these days?

I miss old-style record shops (and they ARE a dying breed unfortunately) but do think your hope of a resurgence is a pipe dream. Somebody needs to set up an online record store which is manned by 'shop assistants' who can advise on purchases....

[andy-hughes]

The major death blow to the traditional record shop was the use of CD's by supermarkets as a 'loss leader' - selling them below retail price to entice customers into the stores.

Soon after that came the wide-ranging change in music provision and consumption caused by the twin arrivals of the i-Pod, and Internet file sharing.

Wheras years ago, music was a pleasure and a hobby, and you bought it in a specialist outlet staffed by people who knew what they sold, it has now become as much a supermarket product as baked beans or jam, and sold in a similar fashion.

The file-sharing has meant that people can track down and download individual songs, so music is absolutely everywhere these days, and almost always used as a 'background' to another activity, as opposed to setting time aside to listen to a new or favourite album.

There will always be room for specilaist outlets with knowledgeable staff, but the high street store has gone, and will probably never return.

[reinganum]

Sadly, as the two previous posters have said, the old-style record shop is a dying breed (but in Sussex where I live, there is still a thriving independent shop).

Both the Guardian and the Independent have run features on independent record shops in the last two years or so, but these tend to be found only in large cities or university towns.

Also, independent record shops are more likely now to be specialists in one type of music or other. The internet is likely to be the best bet for locating these, depending on your particular tastes in music.

However, really big city-centre outlets (e.g HMV) will still probably have a section on "films and shows" for example.
But of course there is no difficulty in obtaining practically anything on-line (and you can often sample 30sec or so of each track to see if it was the one you were looking for), and some sites even carry reviews posted by customers.