The Beginning of the End
Aron's Records, an L.A. institution for 40 years, is closing its doors. This is distressing to me for two reasons.
First off, I grew up in L.A, and consequently, I spent a great deal of time (and money!) at Aron's, and they are certainly responsible for fomenting my love of music. In the old days, I bought lots of vinyl there and fondly recall flipping through the LP bins to become acquainted with Cabaret Voltaire, Eyeless in Gaza, The Birthday Party, Bauhaus, New Order, OMD, and many others. As CDs became more popular, I picked up many gems at Aron's including the ulra-rare "Happily Every After" by The Cure, the "lowdown" low-priced Bauhaus reissues and hundreds more. It was literally impossible to leave there empty-handed.
But more important that the nostalgia, however, the closing of Aron's brings home the fact that CDs won't be around forever. Digital downloads continue to gain popularity, and buying music digitally avoids the bloated distribution infrastructure which goes hand in hand with the compact disc. Yes, I think the writing is on the wall--barring accidents or illness, I will outlive the compact disc.
I do believe that the music we sell is bringing up the rear in the death march of the CD, whereas major label pablum has no doubt got the pole position. So I hope that I am correct when I predict that stores like EAR/Rational will be the last to go. But they will go...
First off, I grew up in L.A, and consequently, I spent a great deal of time (and money!) at Aron's, and they are certainly responsible for fomenting my love of music. In the old days, I bought lots of vinyl there and fondly recall flipping through the LP bins to become acquainted with Cabaret Voltaire, Eyeless in Gaza, The Birthday Party, Bauhaus, New Order, OMD, and many others. As CDs became more popular, I picked up many gems at Aron's including the ulra-rare "Happily Every After" by The Cure, the "lowdown" low-priced Bauhaus reissues and hundreds more. It was literally impossible to leave there empty-handed.
But more important that the nostalgia, however, the closing of Aron's brings home the fact that CDs won't be around forever. Digital downloads continue to gain popularity, and buying music digitally avoids the bloated distribution infrastructure which goes hand in hand with the compact disc. Yes, I think the writing is on the wall--barring accidents or illness, I will outlive the compact disc.
I do believe that the music we sell is bringing up the rear in the death march of the CD, whereas major label pablum has no doubt got the pole position. So I hope that I am correct when I predict that stores like EAR/Rational will be the last to go. But they will go...
posted by Dave, Owner of EAR/Rational Music at 2:30 PM
2 Comments:
As sad as it is to see Aron's go -- and damn, I love Aron's, I found so much cool stuff there over the years -- how much of its demise is due to digital downloads and how much of it is due to the Biggest Goddamned Amoeba Music On The Planet opening up 3/4 of a mile away?
In the end, EAR/Rational can still probably find a life as a "distributor", just a different type. Part of what I think EAR/Rational does, and Aron's did, was sort through the pablum at the pole position and offer a more limited selection, aimed at a certain market segment. Instead of a wide, shallow market niche like Top 40 radio, EAR can cater to multiple narrow, deep specific niches. After all, there's still going to be the need to find the gems hidden in the piles of shit - which, considering 2007 is probably the year CD will start dying, in terms of sales vs. digital, it's also the year when it seems every single person is in a band. Someone is going to have to sort through all the crap out there (look at MySpace!) and find the good stuff. So I think there's a place for EAR to evolve into - offering digital downloads of specific genres, labels, etc.
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