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Photo via Digiart2001's Flickr.
In 2006 Tower Records tumbled, only to be followed by rumors in 2007 of New York's Virgin Megastores being the next to close up shop. Originally the Union Square outpost was supposed to be closing by February of 2009, but now it's confirmed that the Times Square one will actually be shutting down first...or as the NY Post put is: "come April, there'll be one less Virgin in Manhattan."
There are 250 employees who have been getting steady paychecks from the store, and one told the paper, "Management has been telling us that we were going to close for years. We've all been on edge. We're all being fired." Is it time to go all Empire Records on management, yet?
All in all, it's not a huge shocker, as music sales have been on a downward spiral for quite some time. Recently the NY Press put the store on a DeathWatch while noting that "disc sales fell nearly 20 percent, to 362.6 million, the seventh decline in eight years, according to SoundScan's report."
So what will be able to stay afloat in the 60,000-square-foot space? Forever 21, of course! But don't get too excited, The NY Times says not to expect to buy any youth-inspired discount clothing until April 2010. In the meantime, Virgin is having a "sacrificial sale" (as pictured).
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Blame the mp3 players.
And what's wrong with that? That's the march of progress. Nobody in their right mind would want to spend $15 or more on a CD (especially if they only like a song or two on it) then go through the hassle of shuffling CDs through their players. I re-ripped some songs from my old CDs recently and it was a PitA to keep swapping out disc after disc.
Yeah, that what I meant by the blaming the mp3 players. Stores like virgin aren't needed anymore unless they adapt to the year 2009, which they haven't.
Bad news for the people who worked there, of course, but when a company's whole business model has become obsolete there's not much that can be done.
Forever 21? Wow.
Aren't they building an American Eagle store across the street? Why don't they just rename Times Square "Mall of America - with lights!"
i still buy cds.
if i want them on 1 of my mp3 players i rip them myself so i don't have to worry about bloated software spying on me or drm preventing me from listening to the music i paid for.
Wow, are you serious? Bloated software spying on you? That's some real paranoia. And as for DRM, I suppose you're too scared to keep up with recent news. Apple now sells almost all of its songs without Fairplay protection (and in very high quality 256kbps AAC files, not those chintzy 128kbps mp3s everybody's used to) and soon their entire catalog will be DRM free. All for the same price as before.
you apple fan-boys are so sensitive, i never mentioned itunes
but since you brought it up, the key words in your comment are: recent, now, & soon.
but i'm not the only one who thinks that itunes sucks.
you apple fan-boys are so sensitive, i never mentioned itunes
...
but i'm not the only one who thinks that itunes sucks.
You're awful at being defensive. "What makes you think I was referring to iTunes? Well, okay, I was and it sucks." You couldn't possibly have been referring to the iTunes store just because it's the number one music seller in the country, even bigger than WalMart, could you? Or maybe you're referring to Amazon, but interestingly, that doesn't have the DRM you hate so much. One can always find some whiners who don't like something. I think it's telling that this two-month-old blog you link to only has about 60 commenters who say they hate it. And even on that blog entry which is solely dedicated to bashing iTunes, I don't see any mention of iTunes "spying" on you as you claim. Sounds like you have a bug up your butt about Apple as well as people owning pets. You've got some weird phobias there.
iTunes will soon be DRM-free, but they now encode your email address into those DRM-free tracks. Better than DRM, but not awesome.
Hardly "now." They've always done that, always told you they were doing it if you read the EULA and they're not the only ones to do that. Besides, if you're just putting the music on your personal devices, even if it's 100 different computers and players, why should you care? It's completely legal. You should only be worried if you're sharing them on P2P.
256kbps AAC = crappy.
Sorry, but if you want a decent listening experience, you need to go with at least Apple Lossless, if not AIFF or WAV. The only tracks I buy from the iTunes store any longer are ones where I won't care if the lossy conversion mashes the highs and lows (and everything in between) and blows out the subtleties. In other words, I buy my gym music there. But if I 'm going to listen to something for actual enjoyment, study, or sensory experience, I buy the CD and rip it.
Or give me vinyl any day.
I think your last sentence says it all. You're one of those people who swears they can hear the "higher quality" vinyl brings. Or that you can distinguish between 256kbps and uncompressed AIFF. Blind tests have proven such that people are deluded liars time and again.
Responding to this late because I've been busy at work.
I'm a professional sound designer and composer. We CAN tell the difference.
I've yet to see a study that involves anyone but the average Joe.
Next.
you mean I can't pay the full price of $18.99 for Ace of Base's seminal album "the sign" anymore? damn! I'm sad to see this store go cause I used to rob this place blind because their inventory system was using an archaic mainframe database. Luckily, I took a mainframe class while in high school and did some things there that weren't too kosher. They've since changed their Point of sale machines to a updated real time server but not until I was sitting on a mountain of overpriced cd's, dvd's and games. The other sad thing for the economy is that hospitals won't get the tourists who've contracted staph infections from Virgin's disgusting headsets anymore, thus putting hundreds of healthcare workers out of work.
not every cd is 18.99...the majority of the stuff i ring up all day is $5, 10, or 12.99. yes, good albums too. everytime i go to an indie store, i find that the prices there are far more bloated than anything found in the virgin megastore, and they're usually used.
Reuters reports it's going to be a Century 21, not Forever 21.
http://www.reuters.com/article/musicnews/idustre50d0o420090114
That's a typo. Early reports were saying Century 21, but they were eventually corrected to Forever 21.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/15/nyregion/15virgin.html?em
Yep, Century 21. Not a Forever 21.
Not much better though, may as well be a 99c store.
75% off for music I wasn't buying in the first place? What a BARGAIN!
Sam Goody has summoned Virgin home.
Ever been to a record store lately? A bunch of weirdofuck 50 year old guys with ponytails poking through the bins for that Pink Floyd re-release. I quit going 10 years ago and couldn't care less if they all, and especially the ripoffs like Bleeker Bobs, vanish.
I hope they don't close the one in Union Square, that place is basically a hang out place then a store.
The again, almost every shop in Union Sq. is a hang out place.
Staples, especially.
anybody know when the real store-closing clearance sale starts????
The record industry's bad karma for getting rid of vinyl so they could make everybody buy the Beatles catlogue again.
maybe this article will prevent assholes from smugly asking me (basically) when i'm gonna lose my job. "but i heard this store was closing!! waaahhH!!" i work at the union square location. i mean, even if we are (no one knows anything, not even managers), it gets depressing being asked over 20 times a day by mouth-breathers who are only interested in getting box sets for 75% off. don't kid yourselves, guys, that stuff would all go back to the manufacturer for cost.
I did score the thermal paper special super limited edition box of massive attack's greatest hit's for 30 bucks.
Century 21 or Forever 21, doesn't matter. They'll be so crowded you won't be able set foot in them.
umm, the reason behind the store closing is NOT slow sales. I read it actually made millions in profits. the thing is that virgin america was bought by a real estate company and it's more profitable for them to lease the space opposed to having the store.
same thing goes with the union sq location. there's still no word on that one closing. i hope it doesn't... either way who goes to that store if not tourist. times sq suckssss
i'd love to know when they are having a sale on everything in the store, see if i can snatch some dvds of movies i've seen a gazillion times and would like to own, not for 40 bucks.