JIM CARROLLon music
Another week, another story about record shops closing down. This week, BPM Records announced it is to shut its shops in Wexford and Waterford.
No prizes for guessing why these outlets are going out of business: competition from internet outlets and especially multinational supermarkets is killing off the music business as we’ve known it for the past few decades. The way things are going there will be only a handful of stores open by the time Record Store Day rolls around in April.
But while there may be a limited future for the traditional record shop, this doesn’t mean some folks aren’t fighting back. Last September, New York hip-hop mecca Fat Beats shut its bricks-and-mortar store and concentrated on flogging tracks online. Once every few months, though, Fat Beats returns to the world of physical retailing via a pop-up shop at its Brooklyn warehouse.
It’s not the only music retailer in the pop-up business. Since yesterday, The Vinyl Factory has taken up lodgings in London’s St Martin’s Lane Hotel, from where it will sell records for the next three months. Those who drop by can buy limited-edition vinyl releases by Massive Attack, Pet Shop Boys, Bryan Ferry, Duran Duran, David Lynch, Grace Jones, Hot Chip and others.
Such retail innovations really are the only way to go. Sadly there’s just not enough demand to warrant keeping a shop that only flogs music open, unless you have a generous, deep-pocketed patron paying your bills.
There is still a demand for music but, as with so many sectors that have seen their business models upended by the internet, the shops can no longer rely on customers coming to them. If you want to stay in the game, you have to change the way you play.
New music
ELAINE MAI
Galway-based singer-songwriter with a magnificent smoky slap of a voice and a way with neat, nerve-tingling acoustic pop (check out Softly on her Bandcamp page). Playing Dublin’s Grand Social on Sunday and Workman’s Club on March 19. breakingtunes.com/ elainemai
THE KILL VAN KULLS
One of the acts who made an impression on talent spotters at last year’s In the City festival in Manchester. The Stockport four-piece’s debut single, Fools Wish, is a thumping indie-pop gem that is going to entice a lot more folks to check them out. myspace.com/ thekillvankulls
HOORAY FOR EARTH
Expect a lot of love in the room over the coming months for this Boston-bred, New York-based band and their forthcoming debut album, True Loves. Hugely impressive, rousing alternative pumps with an endearing groove-laden edge. Hoorayforearth.net
Now playing
Cloud Control Bliss Release (Infectious) Heavenly pop hits from our new favourite band from Oz, who won the Australian Music Prize for this album last weekend.
James Blake What Was It You Said About Luck (Atlas) Hushed, fragile blend of vocals and electronics on a previously unreleased track from the six-feet-five-inch dubstepper.
Lykke Li Wounded Rhymes (LL) The more we hear it, the more we dig it. Blockbuster, emotional pop from the pouting Swede.
Various Sehorn’s Soul Farm (Rhino) Magnificent double album shining a light on Sansu, the New Orleans soul label founded by Marshall Sehorn and Allen Toussaint.
Young Buffalo Catapilah (Young Lost Club) Bumping, bodacious single from the Oxford, Mississipi act who we expect to make a big splash at SXSW next week.
