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Ann Arbor's record stores find a way to survive

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

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Ann Arbor

Where does a record store fit in in a downloadable society? In Ann Arbor.

Excerpt:

Walking into Encore Records is like stumbling into a corn maze, a disheveled college bedroom and a natural history museum all at once � just 20 times more overwhelming than any of those places. The walls are practically crawling with musical artifacts from the past century, teeming with an otherworldly sort of life that�s completely missing when you�re browsing for obscure records on allmusic.com.

But as daunting as walking into a "mom-and-pop" record store can be, there�s also something incredibly warm and fuzzy about browsing records in a culture den surrounded by fellow music lovers. There's something magical about pulling a vinyl record from a shelf based purely on the merit of its cover art, handing it to the store clerk and having him play it for you.

This might all sound hunky-dory, but if the financial wallop peer-to-peer music sharing delivers to these stores continues, this experience could be gone faster than you can say "Lady GaGa."

It's disturbing to consider how much the market for these homespun businesses has collapsed over the years.

"Ten to 15 years ago, there were actually about 12 record stores in (Ann Arbor). There was a way oversupply," says John Kerr, the owner of Wazoo Records.

Read the rest of the story here.