Discussions

So Sunrise Records wants to open more stores and they are doing a survey for new locations. They posted a quick survey on facebook the other day about it.  
 
I just wanted to let as many people, in Brandon, know about this. This is your chance to suggest Brandon as a possible location.  
 
Link to survey is below:  
 

I do have some concerns about this.  
 
1. Sunrise Records is basically just HMV. They're going to open up shop and have more Blue-Ray and DVD's than music. However, the couple that I have been to seem to have absolutely zero support for local musicians and also squeeze out local business.  
 
2. Speaking of local business...Faders is an amazing local option for records (basically the only physical music medium people buy anymore) and he works really hard to service the needs of Brandon. As far as I know they're the only real distributor in Brandon, but with the number of people buying their music from streaming services (or even worse, not buying their music at all), I feel like this would jeopardize an excellent local business that has served Brandon very well for a long time.  
 
3. Speaking of "Serving" Brandon, Sunrise Records does an excellent job of providing a handful of minimum wage jobs for people looking for a fun job, but don't necessarily know anything about music or LPs or Turntables or their product. It would suck to see Faders suffer only for people to realize that at Sunrise they will get next to no service.  
 
Example: Christmas time I bought my parents a record player, I noticed that one of the speakers wasn't working correctly. I suspected a faulty wire. This is an extremely simple fix but rather than open it up myself, I brought it to Faders and they had it repaired in under an hour, without sacrificing my warranty. You're not going to get this kind of service or know-how or even just accountability from a place like Sunrise.  
 
Now, I'm a huge supporter of music. I'm a musician myself and I love LOVE the idea of having more music stores. I just worry that a place like Sunrise will be around only long enough to hurt Faders, and then eventually fold just like HMV did, and then leave...and then we have neither.  
 
I guess I just think we should ask ourselves if Sunrise is really going to provide anything that local business in Brandon doesn't already have. You know, besides cheap trinkety KISS Coffee mugs and Aerosmith T-Shirts...

I too would hate to see a wonderful local business like Faders be affected by a chain store.  
Most people buy & download their music online now, and the physical music most people are buying is vinyl.  
Faders has done a great job slowly expanding their vinyl selection, both new and used, and they are always super accommodating when I am looking to special order something in, and often in a very timely manner.

Did clicking the image work for you?

of my music is digital now. Ripped my physical CD's into digital as well. Originally to listen on MP3 players. But now uploaded all music to Google Music. I can now listen to anything in my collection on anything with Google Music and anywhere.  
 
And now also buy my music digitally from Google Play. Can't remember the last time I used a CD player to listen to music.

As Trevor said, most music is now distributed digitally, thus negating the need for a physical store to purchase a hard copy (i.e., compact disc) version. The costs (shipping, handling, duty, exchange rate) of importing CD's from American web sites (like Amazon or direct from the artist's web page) mean that sometimes the buyer ends up paying as much as 2.5X what the CD originally cost. All these factors explain why digital downloads are such a popular choice. I currently have a 32GB USB stick in my truck loaded with about 2,800 songs. I can only guess how many physical CD's that is equivalent to and what capacity CD changer would be needed to accommodate them all. Factor in how quickly that many songs can be accessed on the USB drive vs. playing the same songs randomly on a CD changer and it's obvious why CD is a dead storage medium.

I remember browsing CD plus back in the day. That place and future shop started my cd collection. However, I've been buying fewer and few as the years have gone by.  
I LIKE having the hard copy, and that used to be my reason for picking disks over downloads. However, in these days of streaming and cloud storage, my collection is about as redundant as one can get.  
 
I can't even use the songs in order argument, because my playlist is always on shuffle anyway.  
 
I liked browsing the CDs at stores. But like Blockbuster, some things just aren't meant to last. Particularly if they may put a more than superior local option at risk.

What's neat is that vinyl has made such a resurgence. Because for some people that physical medium really is important. And while those people are an extreme minority, it's nice that for them, there's a place like Faders to serve needs.

We listen to vinyl ....the more the better