Local music retailers ride the wave of industry's changing landscape

by Mike Talbott
For The Post

With music sales down 11 percent from last year and students now capable of downloading songs they choose from their dorm rooms for free, some independent music storeowners are worried about slumping sales.

But local independent music retailers say they are not concerned about the changing landscape of the music industry.

“We haven’t really taken a big hit,” said Eric Gunn, owner of Haffa’s Records, 15 W. Union St. “College-oriented music stores tend to be a different beast. Our customers may download music, but if they like the whole record, they’ll still come and buy it.”

A study released by the Record Industry Association of America found that from 1997-2000, music sales decreased 11 percent for stores around college campuses, while overall music sales increased 18 percent for the same period.

Gunn said his store is doing fine financially, and is an exception to the rule. But other stores are a different case.

Tony Santoni, owner of Schoolkids’ Music & Clothing, 12 S. Court St., said Schoolkids’ music sales are down about 25 percent over the previous three years, but his store is doing fine by selling other items, such as posters and T-shirts.

“It comes down to whether you want to support the artists,” Santoni said. “If a musician is not getting paid for his work, he won’t be around for much longer. We can always sell other things; it’s the musicians who are getting hurt.”

Though courts ruled in March of 2001 that downloading music was copyright infringement and shut down Napster, the then-largest site for public music sharing, other services, such as Morphius and Kazaa, took its place.

“If it’s a choice between paying $18 for a CD that might have songs I don’t like on it, or burning songs I choose onto a blank CD — that’s a pretty easy one,” Ohio University junior Scott Weaver said.

Santoni disagrees that CDs are overpriced.

“If you take a CD that you buy for $14 and you live 40 more years, divide that and what do you get? You’re paying only pennies a day for the album,” he said.

But others believe the music industry has problems besides piracy that lead to the decrease in sales.

“I haven’t bought any CDs for the past year because there hasn’t been anything out there I really wanted,” OU senior Matt Sutherland said. “I think it’s just been a down year for music in general.”