Japan has more old-fashioned music stores than anywhere else
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Re: Japan has more old-fashioned music stores than anywhere else
#2When I visited Japan for the first time a few months ago, I wandered upon a record shop that had the largest selection of Beatles records (both re-releases and originals from the 60's) I've ever seen. And the speakers in the store played only Beatles song covers by all types of different groups (country, punk, new-age, you name it).
As a Beatles junkie, it was so cool. And a very grounding moment for someone still experiencing a bit of culture shock, to share something in common with this culture.
Re: Japan has more old-fashioned music stores than anywhere else
#3I remember reading article about Japan and fax machines. A lot of lunch takeout places still have a very high fax traffic because they accept orders via fax.
Re: Japan has more old-fashioned music stores than anywhere else
#4I went to a very large music store in a heavily trafficked area of Portland recently and realized how useless this type of store has become. Unlike a bookstore, it's not fun to "browse" music physically, we have become spoiled by services such as spotify.
Here is what it looked like inside, nearly empty of shoppers: http://i.imgur.com/kcrYKG6.jpg
Re: Japan has more old-fashioned music stores than anywhere else
#5I went to a very large music store in a heavily trafficked area of Portland recently and realized how useless this type of store has become. Unlike a bookstore, it's not fun to "browse" music physically, we have become spoiled by services such as spotify. Here is what it looked like inside, nearly empty of shoppers: http://i.imgur.com/kcrYKG6.jpg
The one you should be going to is Music Milennium on East Burnside and 22nd.
Re: Japan has more old-fashioned music stores than anywhere else
#6I went to a very large music store in a heavily trafficked area of Portland recently and realized how useless this type of store has become. Unlike a bookstore, it's not fun to "browse" music physically, we have become spoiled by services such as spotify. Here is what it looked like inside, nearly empty of shoppers: http://i.imgur.com/kcrYKG6.jpg
I would be very interested in an article about how people still shop and select music in these stores. Most doujin music artists post cross-fade previews on Soundcloud so you know what you want before going, but I don't think that's true of all genres.
Re: Japan has more old-fashioned music stores than anywhere else
#7I went to a very large music store in a heavily trafficked area of Portland recently and realized how useless this type of store has become. Unlike a bookstore, it's not fun to "browse" music physically, we have become spoiled by services such as spotify. Here is what it looked like inside, nearly empty of shoppers: http://i.imgur.com/kcrYKG6.jpg
>> "Unlike a bookstore, it's not fun to "browse" music physically"
I enjoy browsing a music store much more than a book store.
Re: Japan has more old-fashioned music stores than anywhere else
#8I went to a very large music store in a heavily trafficked area of Portland recently and realized how useless this type of store has become. Unlike a bookstore, it's not fun to "browse" music physically, we have become spoiled by services such as spotify. Here is what it looked like inside, nearly empty of shoppers: http://i.imgur.com/kcrYKG6.jpg
> it's not fun to "browse" music physically
speak for yourself.
Re: Japan has more old-fashioned music stores than anywhere else
#9I went to a very large music store in a heavily trafficked area of Portland recently and realized how useless this type of store has become. Unlike a bookstore, it's not fun to "browse" music physically, we have become spoiled by services such as spotify. Here is what it looked like inside, nearly empty of shoppers: http://i.imgur.com/kcrYKG6.jpg
A good music store has excellent curation, which is still not a solved problem for online stores. (IMDB's "People who liked this also liked..." has got much worse over time.)
There's also a bunch of sub-culture signalling, which I accept is off-putting to many people. But the fact that at least two reasonably good films were set in record stores means something.
Re: Japan has more old-fashioned music stores than anywhere else
#10Tower Records spun off their Japan division and it is still going strong. Back at home, they declared bankruptcy closed all their US stores