New Classical: Solomon's Requiem for Tower Records (1 Viewer)

[Lee Scoggins]

Wow...I hate to write this but may be good therapy.

I went to the Tower Records in Atlanta. They continue to pull CDs from the store's classical room. (in fairnesss, a recent trip to Wherehouse Music here had almost no titles)

Classical music is dead from a business standpoint, me thinks.

Also, I ask sales clerks about Super Audio and I get asked "what is super audio?" same response with DVD Audio...

While I understand Tower is in a severe credit crisis, I wonder where to go as a classical music fan. Borders is good here, but are they not threatened by KMarts imminent bankruptcy?

Where are the deep catalogues?

On top of this, we are getting few juicy titles with lots of cross-over fare, some good, most crap. Someone recently wrote in The Absolute Sound deploring the repititious nature of the same title releases of dead German composers. He has a point.

I wonder if other HTF classical fans have the same experience...is classical music DEAD?

 

[MikeAW]

The retail Tower that I frequent in Manhattan, seems not to have diminished in size, nor the Virgin outlet in Times Square...though it was moved to a seemingly smaller part of the store, and more closer to customer traffic.

Lee, how do other retail outlets for classical music compare where you live...the smaller stores or chains?

 

[Lee Scoggins]

Mike,

Borders is fairly good, but as a former NYC resident, I will admit we have nothing like selection in that city.

The Tower near Lincoln Center has a legendary selection. I used to live near the West 4th street Tower in the village and they had a good selection as well.

For Atlanta, I am struggling to find anything with a deep catalog. Other than this one area, I love Atlanta.

If other HTFers in Atlanta have suggestions, let me know.

Lee

 

[MikeAW]

Lee, it's surprising that Atlanta is not more accomadating in this regard, as it has the reputation of being one of your "hip, here, and Now" southern cities.

Well, at least you can shop online...from anywhere !

 

[Jaehoon Heo]

Nice to see you classical fans here. Best Buy in Austin/Cedar Park, TX has some limited, but not too bad classical CD collection. However, I feel the classical music business keeps shrinking, and we have to rely on a few major on-line dealers, more and more. I actually dream of very high-quality internet music distribution for classical music. Could it be possible in the future??? :frowning:

 

[Dennis Nicholls]

I haven't bought classical titles in B&M stores for years now. Tower wants roughly list price for everything. I get everything online. This stuff will never sell to the masses and therefore B&M's won't stock it. Also what I want are often older budget-lable titles (e.g. the Katchen set of Brahms), and B&M's are loath to stock this when they can push the expensive titles. Thank heaven for online merchants - they can afford to stock all sorts of marginal titles. I do browse the used CD stores because I'm always looking for a few out of print titles.

 

[Frank Tran]

The Tower Records out here in the LA area are actually quite good in regards to Classical music. They even have their SACDs and DVD-As separated in an Audiophile section!!