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Thursday, November 01, 2007
Scenes from a major bookstore/media outlet
"Your Mom digs me."
For at least two more weeks I'll be working at a major bookstore/DVD/music sellers. One of the big chain ones. This one's in a mall and near a university (my alma matter in fact). I spend a lot of time in the music side and I decided I'd reveal the buying habits of our customers. People who want to get a handle on the ever changing music industry need cold hard facts before they construct their brilliant opinions. I can't offer any summation of the entire music buying public. I can just offer what I've seen. It's all real, though.
1) CDs are fun for kids and their grandparents: We might be near a university full of twenty-somethings but you wouldn't know it from who's coming up to the cash register. The store on a whole doesn't see as many young people relative to the people in the area. Teens and young adults are not as common as middle-aged adults, their kids and their parents. That means we get a lot of requests for new work from older artists. I think we've sold out of the Robert Plant/Alison Krauss album. For a while we couldn't keep the new Springsteen on the shelf. The kids eat up Disney Channel material like High School Musical, Hannah Montana and Jonas Brothers. I've helped more than a few seniors find a Tony Bennett or Frank Sinatra CDs (this after I explain the difference between CDs and DVDs).
What do all of these demographics have in common? They don't use computers as much people my age (24). Hell, I have an employee discount I still go to eMusic and iTunes rather than paying $18.99 for a bloody CD. Go to iTunes and you can get the same CD for half off! No hassle with packaging or the surly staff (ahem), it's right there on my iPod and I saved ten dollars. Why the Hell wouldn't you get music that way? I suppose if computers confound you and you make a comfortable income spending $18.99 for a CD maybe three or four times a year sounds okay. Maybe you'll get a fifth one just to shut the kids up so you'll get an hour to yourself.
I clearly remember a man, he looked around 45, bringing in a newspaper clipping on unsigned artists. He gave me the name of one of the artists to look up. The article had her MySpace address but did he go there to find her music? No, he went straight to a happy corporate retail outlet. He even got one of those kids who works there to handle that crazy typewriter-looking thing in front of that weird TV.
2) People still want their music television: It's hardly controversial to declare that MTV is a joke. The network has gone from being thought of as trendsetters to being thought of as unimaginative idiots who can only create content by putting cameras on vapid sluts (I mean, if these sluts had something to say then at least we'd be somewhere). But people will still learn about music from TV. I told you how popular The Disney Channel brand is. People are still asking for the Bennett special. But if you want to know who one of the biggest stars of the music world is I say look no farther than Andre Rieu. Holy moley. Minutes after one of that violinist's specials airs on public television we'll get requests for it.
It's a small amount of people who will go beyond TV and the culture section of the newspaper to find new music. We're just a vocal lot. Again, most people like me know better ways than to obtain music than waiting to see what's on after Dr. Wayne Dyer's latest special. But for most people that's enough. These people have hard jobs and don't have the time to see what rated a 7.8 or above on Pitchfork. That's why they have enough money to pay for these prices.
3) Expect Britney Spears to be doing a week long residency at The Castro Theatre in 2020: There are some CDs young folks do buy. Britney Spear's latest product, it cannot be considered anything else, is a fast seller. Most of the audience seems to be young gay guys and the women who love them.
Of course, I'm sure there are just as many gay men and women who would go for the Plant/Krauss CD over whatever Spears' army of producers have concocted. It's certainly a specific type who's buying this CD. I knew plenty of them when I went to school. You're a young kid from a small town who hung out with a tight knit group of weirdos in high school, signing songs from Nightmare Before Christmas to cheer each other up becuase you didn't get invited to the popular kid's party that you didn't even want to go to anyway because you know it's just going to be a bunch of losers who are probably too scared to drink beer or whatever. Now it's your first year at a state university. This university isn't anywhere, though. It's in America's Gay Mecca, one of the greatest cities on Earth, San Francisco. Now you can be you with no judgments. There's freedom like never before. Freedom from bigotry but also freedom to party and dance your ass off. Apparently "Gimmie More" is the soundtrack of choice for a lot of these kids. Spears has certainly become one of those campy tragic figures that strikes a chord for some gay males. If I was part of her management I'd rework that into a business plan. There's a loyal fanbase just wanting to be courted.
The three observations probably don't add up to a whole lot by themselves. I can tell you I certainly see a lot of people my age at Amoeba Records. They have a lot more copies of The Knife's new CD and you can probably get it for $7.99 used. You don't need to step over displays for whatever book Oprah had on yesterday, either.
Just deal with my own neurosis here: all these descriptions come from my love of these people. I love identifying groups of people and noticing their little foibles. I thought I turned in a good post and then thought "oh no, I probably pissed of all the little kids, middle-aged adults, senior citizens and gays who read this blog." Maybe I did or didn't it's just that I'm yet another young Jewish guy whose mind is always running around in circles for no good reason -- HOLY SHIT I DID IT AGAIN!
Permanent Link: 7:53 PM |
2 comments
Comments:
This is an interesting perspective on CD sales.
I can tell you my parents never buy any CDs unless I offer to recommend something for them or I'm shopping with them.
But they're both in their early 60s.
The only time they actually wanted to buy CDs that I can remember is when that Norah Jones album came out earlier this year.
# posted by AaronM : 8:48 AM
I still buy physical CDs, but I would never in a million years buy one at a Barnes & Noble/Borders type retailer, simply because their mark-ups are absurd. I go to a local chain called CD World.
The few times I've bought complete albums on iTunes I've regretted it. I don't like their proprietary BS, I don't like that they've apparently offered different track listings than what you'd get on the actual CD (I've had this happen twice), and I really prefer having the actual CD in my hands, packaging and all.
Old habits die hard, I guess; I get a thrill out of hunting around a CD store, listening to the used copies, and finding something new or unexpected. I don't get that high off browsing the iTunes store.
# posted by Ken Lowery : 9:44 PM
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