# 40 Sad Portraits Of Closed Record Stores **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 16, 2011, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/40-sad-portraits-of-closed-record-stores/603105 "2011-11-16T11:39:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2011, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/40-sad-portraits-of-closed-record-stores/603105/1 "2011-11-16T11:39:57Z")
A bygone era: > **[40 Sad Portraits Of Closed Record Stores](https://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/40-sad-portraits-of-closed-record-stores)** > > In honor of Record Store Day on Saturday, here's a depressing collection of old record store photos. Don't let the music die, people. Keep the dream alive! Also check out our list of 40 Portraits Of Independent Record Stores Still Open For Business. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2011, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/40-sad-portraits-of-closed-record-stores/603105/2 "2011-11-16T13:01:17Z")
WE are seeing the end of analog-its all didgital now! How long before AM radio goes extinct? But, change is good…this is what ahppened to the stables when the autombile came along. As one poster in the link noted, the record business was sper sleazy-most of the money went into other pockets-the artists got very little. Did you notice the stores in Detroit? They look like they closed 40 years ago. ---
**Author:** ![Panurge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/fbc32d/32.png) [@Panurge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Panurge)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2011, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/40-sad-portraits-of-closed-record-stores/603105/3 "2011-11-16T13:01:46Z")
That is sad but not the whole truth. Vinyl seems to be on the rise again, at least where I live. Off the top of my head I can count 6 vinyl only stores and 2 cd+vinyl stores within a mile of my home. Most of them sell new releases, and 3 have opened within the last year. They even have vinyl again at the libraries here (which is quite ironic, since I remember the libraries selling their entire vinyl collections less than 10 years ago). ETA: Cd only stores are closing all around. It’s only vinyl (and even tapes) that are holding on. ---
**Author:** ![nonacetone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nonacetone/32/2819_2.png) [@nonacetone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nonacetone)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2011, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/40-sad-portraits-of-closed-record-stores/603105/4 "2011-11-16T13:11:57Z")
We have a record store in our area that has been thriving for decades. It’s a great place to go, and you’ll find anything you’re looking for. If they don’t have it, I’m sure they can get it. It’s called Headstone Friends, in Terre Haute, Indiana. [http://specials.tribstar.com/terrehautestop40/stories/headstonefriends.html](http://specials.tribstar.com/terrehautestop40/stories/headstonefriends.html) ---
**Author:** ![Hermitian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hermitian/32/470_2.png) [@Hermitian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hermitian)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2011, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/40-sad-portraits-of-closed-record-stores/603105/5 "2011-11-16T16:35:12Z")
I’m not bothered. Records sucked. What does bother me is all of the terrible mastering of CDs and low bit-rate MP3s. We’re going backwards people! ---
**Author:** ![Soylent\_Juicy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@Soylent\_Juicy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soylent_Juicy)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2011, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/40-sad-portraits-of-closed-record-stores/603105/6 "2011-11-16T16:42:09Z")
I KNEW they’d include the old Sam the Record Man on Yonge Street in Toronto. That section just doesn’t feel right without those iconic giant neon records. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2011, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/40-sad-portraits-of-closed-record-stores/603105/7 "2011-11-16T16:43:28Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > WE are seeing the end of analog-its all didgital now! Not even remotely true (although it was a few years ago.) When digital became the thing in the recording world, people began selling off their old analog tape and processing gear. The smart producers and engineers started buying it up for cheap. Now, analog is very much on the rise again, because a lot of people like the sound quality much more than that of digital. Most everything still finds its way to digital eventually, but a track produced with analog equipment and then converted still sounds much, much different from a track produced digitally. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2011, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/40-sad-portraits-of-closed-record-stores/603105/8 "2011-11-16T17:26:55Z")
This post made me wonder where I could buy CDs in Boston. Then it occurred to me that Newbury Comics is not only hanging on, but thriving. They sell CDs and records. And right around the corner is Best Buy. ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2011, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/40-sad-portraits-of-closed-record-stores/603105/9 "2011-11-16T18:20:39Z")
> [@Hermitian](#): > > I’m not bothered. Records sucked. The term “record store” generally includes stores that sell CDs and DVDs. If you read the signs on many of the stores pictured, it looks like most of them did. I actually saw an _open_ record/CD/DVD store in my town the other day. I was pretty floored by its very existence. Seemed so quaint. ---
**Author:** ![zoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zoid/32/336_2.png) [@zoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoid)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2011, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/40-sad-portraits-of-closed-record-stores/603105/10 "2011-11-16T18:28:23Z")
> [@Ogre](#): > > Not even remotely true (although it was a few years ago.) When digital became the thing in the recording world, people began selling off their old analog tape and processing gear. The smart producers and engineers started buying it up for cheap. Now, analog is very much on the rise again, because a lot of people like the sound quality much more than that of digital. Most everything still finds its way to digital eventually, but a track produced with analog equipment and then converted still sounds much, much different from a track produced digitally. There’s also been a resurgence in film photography. Digital is obviously never going away but it’s starting to look like film is gonna be with us for a good while as well. ---
**Author:** ![Lunar\_Saltlick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/977dab/32.png) [@Lunar\_Saltlick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lunar_Saltlick)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2011, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/40-sad-portraits-of-closed-record-stores/603105/11 "2011-11-16T18:43:42Z")
> [@Rigamarole](#): > > …I actually saw an _open_ record/CD/DVD store in my town the other day. I was pretty floored by its very existence. Seemed so quaint. Actually, if you go to the site specified in the OP and scroll about two-thirds of the way down, there’s a link leading to 40 independent record stores that are still open. So 40 closed and 40 open. The point is, you can kind of make it as a record store owner these days, sort of, maybe…but I’m probably not gonna open one anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2011, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/40-sad-portraits-of-closed-record-stores/603105/12 "2011-11-16T18:53:08Z")
Those pix are indeed sad. I know I patronized at least 2 of them back when. Is the demise of record stores due entirely to the availability of online music downloads? I can see the market for LPs and cassettes dried up long ago, but aren’t people buying and trading CDs anymore? ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2011, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/40-sad-portraits-of-closed-record-stores/603105/13 "2011-11-16T18:55:26Z")
LONG LIVE AMOEBA!!! > **[Amoeba Music | The World's Largest Independent Record Store](https://www.amoeba.com/)** > > We Buy and Sell Used Records, DVDs, and CDs. The World's Largest Independently Owned Record Store! ---
**Author:** ![thirdname](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@thirdname](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thirdname)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2011, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/40-sad-portraits-of-closed-record-stores/603105/14 "2011-11-16T19:15:18Z")
Are tapes going to come back too? ---
**Author:** ![Hermitian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hermitian/32/470_2.png) [@Hermitian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hermitian)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2011, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/40-sad-portraits-of-closed-record-stores/603105/15 "2011-11-16T19:21:22Z")
> [@thirdname](#): > > Are tapes going to come back too? [Of course](http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2010/10/04/130329219/cassette-tapes-are-coming-back-kind-of). I’m stocking up on wax cylinders now! They’ll be coming back soon too. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2011, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/40-sad-portraits-of-closed-record-stores/603105/16 "2011-11-16T20:48:09Z")
I’ve shopped at four of these stores. ---
**Author:** ![Neidhart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Neidhart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neidhart)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2011, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/40-sad-portraits-of-closed-record-stores/603105/17 "2011-11-16T22:58:04Z")
I bet #31 would have been fun to shop at: a little storefront in a residential neighborhood, narrow aisles, creaking floorboards, idiosyncratic selection. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2011, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/40-sad-portraits-of-closed-record-stores/603105/18 "2011-11-16T23:38:45Z")
We had two really nice Camelot stores that closed about 12 years ago. I bought most of my music from them. We had two independent records stores that also sold bongs and other paraphernalia. Always had incense burning in the store. They had a great selection of records. They eventually got closed because of a state law that prohibited selling the bongs. That was around 1992. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2011, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/40-sad-portraits-of-closed-record-stores/603105/19 "2011-11-17T00:15:12Z")
> [@Neidhart](#): > > I bet #31 would have been fun to shop at: a little storefront in a residential neighborhood, narrow aisles, creaking floorboards, idiosyncratic selection. Actually, that’s one of the four I’ve been in. It was a long time ago - probably close to twenty years. My recollections were that it was very crowded and pretty dark. I didn’t buy any records but I did buy some old back issues of National Lampoon. ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2011, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/40-sad-portraits-of-closed-record-stores/603105/20 "2011-11-17T01:05:38Z")
let’s be honest- the three in Detroit have been closed for decades, and closed because they’re in Detroit. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/40-sad-portraits-of-closed-record-stores/603105.md?page=2)