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One of Virginia’s most colorful retailers, Plan 9 Music, is closing its store in Roanoke. The move follows the closing of oneмебели стара загора of its two Charlottesville stores as well its Lynchburg store, and it plans to close its store in Harrisonburg, the Roanoke Times reports.
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Good riddance!
This is sad. The “record store” has played a very crucial role in the rise of popular music for many decades. The internet is fine, but you can’t replace the experience of flipping through racks of records (or even the newfangled “compact disc” thingys) to find that one old album you’ve been looking for. And Plan 9 especially is a great store with a terrific vibe.
Let’s hope its remaining Charlottesville store survives. Come on people - dig into your pockets and pay a buck or two more for some instant gratification instead of ordering through Amazon!
When you charge $11.99 for a used CD, this isn’t surprising. Bad biz model. Alb Sq. will be gone by June. You heard it here first.
From the article:
“Plan 9 stores will remain in four cities — Richmond, Charlottesville, Williamsburg and Winston Salem, N.C. The retailer does not expect to close those stores, (owner Jim) Bland said.
…Harrisonburg is a ghost town when the JMU students aren’t around, and Lynchburg and Roanoke really offer a whole lot of nuthin’. I am less worried about the future of Plan 9 than their overarching ambition to expand into lousy towns for their music retail business. Sounds like they now get the message, too.
I do agree with the previous poster that Plan 9 is overpriced across the board. Yet I also agree with music lover that there are unique aesthetic pleasures to be had from browsing the bins of a record store.
Whether the benefits cancel out the overpricing is a matter of individual perspective.
But when you absolutely, positively gotta have a record, you can just about bet that Plan 9 has it in stock.
Sam said, “But when you absolutely, positively gotta have a record, you can just about bet that Plan 9 has it in stock”.
So do Amazon & Ebay via independent sellers. There is no reason for a physical music store. A web store can let you sample the music and buy it. The only thing you can’t do is feel how heavy it is.
Actually, Plan9 doesn’t have quite a bit in stock, especially classical.
Plan 9 has a vibe that can’t be appreciated by shopping online.
There is aesthetic pleasure in flipping through vinyl and CDs and DVDs. It is pleasant to hold up a couple of Dylan albums side by side, for instance, and compare the tracks, or to chance upon some amazing old piece of 12-inch vinyl with the original cardboard cover and think, “Yeah. This approximates what it must have been like to hold a copy of Love’s “Forever Changes” in a funky record store circa 1967.”
Music is obviously an aural experience. For some people, it’s also a tactile thang — the ritual of placing the CD in the tray, of lowering the tone arm onto the grooves of some musty vinyl LP and waiting with anticipation for the notes to give life to an emotion.
Plan 9 also offers interesting opportunities for people watching, as you get to see a broad spectrum of humanity wandering the aisles.
And for instant gratification, it’s hard to beat walking into a store, plopping down coin and walking out with what you want right here, right now. If I gotta have Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana or a copy of Heaven Up Here by Echo and the Bunnymen, or something by The Pogues to get me in the mood for St. Patrick’s Day — then I don’t want to futz around with Amazon or E-Bay (which sucks runny eggs, if you’ve tried using it lately as buyer or seller).
You can buy coffee online, too. But you can’t smell it brewing unless you pop in the bistro.
Listening to music samples online doesn’t cut it.
I am going to Plan 9.