The Struggle to Stay Independent

By Kyle Swartz

In an era dominated by online shopping, local businesses have been struggling to keep their doors open. Though it is difficult for any independent business to compete in today’s market, record stores have been hit especially hard. Operating a successful record store has become an increasingly difficult task, not only because of competition from online retailers, but also because increasingly widespread use of music streaming services such as Spotify has drastically reduced demand for physical music formats.

Despite these setbacks, many independent music retailers have been able to survive. This is due to a cultural desire to return to physical media. In fact, the Recording Industry Association of America’s 2017 mid-year report shows that retail music spending is up and that records have seen a 3% increase in profits since last year. The renewed interest in records has been fueled in part by the highly publicized “Record Store Day”, started in 2007 as a way to celebrate culture of the independent record store. According to Eric Harvey’s journal “Siding With Vinyl”, the limited edition releases offered during the event have made it an annual holiday for record collectors and enthusiasts.

Though sales have been on the rise in recent years, record stores have not always been so fortunate. Historically, when a new music format was released, stores would shift their focus to the new format. Most notably, this occurred in the 1980s when retailers shifted from records to CDs. Complications arose in the early 2000s though, as digital music, which couldn’t be sold in-store, started to become the dominant format. This competition is still seen today in music streaming services which, according to the RIAA’s 2017 report, now make up 62% of music revenues in the country. Additionally, online retailers have become a threat. According to pricing strategy consultant Rafi Mohammed, aggressive online pricing has been an issue for stores since the launch of Amazon in 1994, and has only been getting worse.

The issue splits both companies and consumers into two groups. The first, and much larger group distributes and supports digital music. Companies in this category are able to cater to a larger population of casual listeners by being both affordable and easy to use. The other group consists mostly of independently owned stores serving the more dedicated fans who are willing to shell out more money for the music they care about.