For the record

Bought a CD lately? Get your music off the internet? Alice Hudson downloads the latest on a burning issue ? what's happening to Auckland's music stores?
IF YOU'RE over 50, you remember when music came in two ways: on a 45, a 7-inch vinyl disc for the Top 10 hit, or an LP, a 12-inch album. Later there were bulky 8-track tapes for the car ? and later still, the tiny, oh-so-convenient cassette. And you bought them all at a record store.
If you're under 30, you go to your computer, log onto iTunes (or a less legal site) and download albums to a memory stick. You play them on an iPod ? a digital player that's smaller than Mum and Dad's old cassette tapes.
SOUNDS LIKE the music business might be recording its last tracks. After three generations the Marbeck family has sold its downtown store to a national chain. Dawn Raid, the voice of South Auckland, has gone bust, partly blaming illegal downloads.
Sounds, the big music-DVD-games retailer, doesn't have an outlet on Queen St anymore. Apple has launched its New Zealand iTunes online music store, offering over 2 million songs at $1.79 per track.
A CD costs more than $30. Tried to find a mom and pop record store in your suburb lately?
Ask Ricky McShane of Musiquarium ? a Kiwi music-oriented store suitably sited halfway down Dominion Rd ? where the other little stores like his are. He'll tell you, almost apologetically: "Well, we've all kind of dropped off."
Coming up to a decade in the business, he says competition has been stiff for a while. It's not just downloads and CD burning. Think big Red Sheds.
"The Warehouse are quite happy to sell CDs and make 80c or $1," says McShane. "They can make their money somewhere else in the store. We have to make money on every CD we buy."
McShane reckons downloads are affecting CD sales, but mainly in the "disposable" mainstream market. "The kids, they'll like something for two weeks."
There's plenty good about CDs, he says, and plenty of customers think so, too. MP3s have no secondhand value. "Once you've downloaded it, all you can do is listen to it, then delete it."
Quality? "It's compressed sound. It's never going to sound as good as a CD." And people like having something they can hold in their hand.
About one third of Musiquarium's stock is brand new. McShane knows his customers and goes for Kiwi music, or "slightly more alternative" stuff from the States. Like a new record he shows me by American band The Shins.
The vinyl comes with a coupon that gets the buyer free downloads off the net. "That's happening lots in the States with the smaller labels," says McShane.
He reckons the quality of on-line stores is also affecting real-life retailers. "Especially with the exchange rate ? you can buy a new release on Amazon and get it here for $25 or less."
So will real-life stores one day become extinct? "I hope not. There's a bit of a flurry of interest about downloads at the moment. But I think people will start returning to CDs. Dealing in secondhand stuff, the stock is always changing, and there's often stuff in here that can be hard to find."
Dave Fearon agrees. The owner of My Music, selling mainly Polynesian sounds in Mangere, and Dave's Basement in Onehunga, he's been in business for 17 years. Like McShane, about one third of his stock is secondhand.
He reckons the biggest challenge for small music retailers, apart from Red Sheds, is so many things competing for the same dollar. "Twenty years ago when Michael Jackson's Thriller came out, what else was there?
There was nothing. Now, there's PlayStation games, DVDs, computers." He's seen plenty of others fail. "I can count 10 or more places that've shut down in the last few years."
So how has he survived? "We've had to change. We sell DVDs, we concentrate on older CDs. We can't compete with the chart, so we concentrate on offering a different selection."
FLIP the record. Plenty of industry veterans say there's another side to the story, that the stores will survive.
Roger Marbeck has copped "a bit of abuse" from former customers since he and dad Murray sold their iconic business to the CD and DVD Store in November. It wasn't because he saw no future for the store opened by his granddad in 1934. It was a case of the right offer at the right time.
Marbeck, who now owns Ode Records, says while plenty of independent stores have gone down in recent years, the mom and pop stores have the best chance to capitalise on a music market that's more diverse than ever.
"A lot of the future lies with those people because they're selling one to one. They always said computers would wipe out the book industry. How wrong were they? People are consuming music differently, that's all."
People are listening to more music than ever, he says, noting "they want to listen to it ? in many respects they don't want to pay for it".
So what about when the iPod generation grows up? "God knows. That's a good few years away yet ? before we see another shift, maybe."
He doesn't think iTunes will have a huge effect now. "There's a cost involved and you have to have a credit card."
Echoing McShane, he says listening to music on an iPod is fine, but doesn't sound as good as a CD or vinyl. "It depends how deaf you are," he quips. "If you want to use it while jogging, fine. But if you want to enjoy the music, like you would a good book, or a bottle of fine wine ... iPod isn't your answer."
That music-store chain Sounds has 45 stores but not one on Queen St could be seen as telling of the industry's condition. Not to Steve Dods, CEO of Icon Entertainment, which owns Sounds.
He's the first to admit the industry is going through "relatively tough" times. "The consumer today is different to 10 years ago. Their habits and demands have changed," says Dods.
Music stores, though, look the same as five or 10 years ago. Dods believes, in the future, retailers will "have to be in a digital environment to engage the consumer".
He's excited about his new concept store Sounds Plus in Botany. With its flash technology, including high-definition screens and interactive touch-screen posts for watching movies and trying out games as well as listening to CDs, the store is the way of the future ? he hopes. It's so cool, people come just to hang out there, says Dods.
ON QUEEN ST, Real Groovy's Marty O'Donnell reckons niche players who offer something different can survive in a big city. "There is a diverse range of music fans who consume music in different ways.
"Kids are buying 45 vinyl singles of bands again," he says. "While having that on your iPod is one way of talking about music with your friends, another cool thing is having something physical in your hands, that you can pull out ? a CD or a record.
"It's great to see fans of bands again. There was a period when a lot of people were listening to DJs, now they're going to gigs with live instruments ? you know, drums, guitars."
Just up the hill on K'Rd, Paul Faircloth agrees. Selling 80 per cent vinyl, specialising in breakbeat and drum'n bass, he's not worried about business at his Lowpass Records store.
Others have hit the eject button ? Play Music shut up shop at Christmas, and in terms of specialist vinyl stores, "there are basically only four of us left running, apart from Real Groovy. That dirty ol' Red Shed has definitely made some major inroads. Luckily, the music I peddle you don't see there."