Filed under: Products and services, Consumer experience, Marketing and advertising

A month from now, on April 19, “hundreds of independent record stores across the country will celebrate Record Store Day.” In addition to the stores, numerous artists will lend their support to the day and some will appear or offer special gifts to lucky fans and attendees. This support indicates what place the CD has even in a shrinking market and where the record industry fits into that market. If artists can still support a dying format and the stores that rely on that product, hopefully fans, listeners, and consumers can find something in it, too.

A kink in the plans of artists like Paul McCartney and Stephen Malkmus to support the day is that while they can appreciate record stores based on experiences in their youths or support the stores by buying hundreds of dollars worth of CDs, young people today might not be as familiar with the entity or have the money to buy that many CDs. This is especially true in the economy right now, but even more pronounced when one thinks about the ease and availability that digital stores have introduced to accessing and enjoying music and other media from the comfort of one’s own home.

The record industry is certainly invested in the day as well, since it is the CDs they produce that facilitate record stores. But the simple fact that they’ve sat on their hands for so long means that the day comes at a time with the CD is no longer a truly viable format for selling music. Again, look at the digital stores that are finally offering the same quality files that are on CDs. I’m not knowledgeable in bit rates, but I do know that 256 kbps is on the same par with the quality of a CD. To support “Record Store Day”, all the industry has to do is market the CD in new and inventive ways, but I couldn’t speculate how that can possibly be reached.

Designating a day and inaugurating an annual “Record Store” event is a nice idea, but if it is to be truly successful, consumers are going to need to be more invested in record stores beyond one day where “goodies” are given away and artists make appearances. Each day consumers need to consider going to a record store to get music as a viable substitute to downloading music directly into their hands.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 18th, 2008 at 6:07 pm and is filed under Marketing and Advertising. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.