We need a physical digital music experience
I love the idea of Record Store Day but I no longer have a turntable, cassette deck or CD player despite the hundreds of vinyl records going mouldy in my garage (wanna buy them?).
These days I want less stuff, not more. You’ll understand when you’re in your fifties.
I love to buy albums digitally on Bandcamp and Subvert (or Qobuz/7digital/Juno if it’s a major label) after using Spotify to try-before-you-buy, but it’s an underwhelming experience. Wouldn’t it be great if there was a way to do this in a physical store, where the retailer gets a cut of my digital purchase like they do with vinyl?
Indie record stores are so great, especially my local, but there’s no reason for me to go in and bother them because I won’t be buying anything. I feel like a fraud! I’d love to be able browse the music physically like everyone else, chatting to the staff, listening to stuff and getting recommendations, but rather than bagging the vinyl I’d like to pay them for a FLAC download that gets delivered to my inbox. To make it more of an event and add a physical dimension, maybe they could offer me a postcard version of the cover art too? That would be a nice keepsake.
As far as I know, this experience doesn’t exist, which is such a shame. Could we make it happen? Technically speaking, it’s entirely possible. I mean, Bandcamp and others already do it, but an equivalent system would have to be made for independent stores to get their cut as well as the tech provider.
I suppose you can think of it as an iTunes / Bookshop.org mash-up but one that’s integrated into physical stores. The store needs to get their 20% (or whatever) so perhaps they pay an annual SaaS fee (and probably a cut of the cut) to the software company who runs the system. There’s a workable model in there somewhere I’m sure.
As always, the tech isn’t the hard bit. You’d have to get all the major and minor labels on board as well, which Jobs and Ek have proved to require Herculean salesmanship and major concessions. It already seems insurmountable, and I’m probably kidding myself, but this isn’t streaming – it’s a physical retailer flogging high-price, high-margin digital recordings. There’s a lot more dosh in that for labels and artists alike over the streaming situation.
It’s unlikely, and something of a small niche (for now), but I think there’s something in this. We need independent, community music stores (like book stores, life without them is worse) but the world also needs fewer physical things. At the same time people are becoming increasingly fed up with smartphones, and Gen Z (as well as Tony Fadell) are calling for the return of the iPod.
I’m calling it. It’s time to make digital downloads cool again, and physical record stores need to be at the forefront.
I’d love to help solve this problem, so on the off chance you happen to know some major label execs, please introduce me!
