Internet propels sales slump

by Pat Mirrotto
Staff Writer

Ohio University students have hard drives full of mp3s and stacks of burned CDs, but despite the megabytes of music flowing through Athens’ computers, some record shops offer music the old-fashioned way – available for purchase on CD and vinyl.

With residence halls and off-campus housing wired with quick access to the Internet, scoring songs is easier than before. Piles of consumer CD cases seem archaic in contrast to the mp3s sprinkled through hard drives and Zip disks.

In a town such as Athens, where musical tastes are diverse and varied, technology — and a loss of consumer enthusiasm — has affected sales. While the digital music revolution has hurt sales, the biggest problem remaining is a decline in public excitement about releases, said Tony Santone, owner of Schoolkids, 12 S. Court St.

“I can remember having midnight record releases and having hundreds of kids line up to buy the new release. I once had over 500 people line up on Court Street down to the bank just to buy the new Guns ‘N Roses album,” said Santone, who has operated Schoolkids since 1979. “You just don’t see that enthusiasm too much anymore. One Dave Matthews Band album created a lot of excitement, as did the one O.A.R. album.”

To operate in such a small town, music stores must carve a niche. Finding a clientele and character of its own keeps each in business.

Punk rock, indie and underground rap are popular choices for customers at Haffa’s Records, 15 W. Union St., owner Eric Gunn said. Haffa’s, an Athens vendor for more than 25 years, sells new and used CDs and records.

By keeping the focus on the music and off the mainstream charts, Haffa’s keeps customers satisfied.

“They seem to be more in touch with college types of music,” said Jamie Boothroyd, a Haffa’s customer and OU senior.

Other Uptown record shops have found a home with Athens customers as well.

“We specialize in pure rock ‘n’ roll, as well as jazz and blues,” said Sarah Stevenson, an Outer Limits employee and OU sophomore.

Outer Limits, 42 S. Court St., sells not only CDs but also vinyl and vintage clothing. It also sells a few vintage instruments, and Stevenson said it hopes to expand to selling student art in the future.

There is room for each store to provide particular types of music because of the college atmosphere and the fact that Athens is known as a culturally diverse city in Southeast Ohio. People from surrounding areas are drawn to the town for music. Local bands often do not have the power to sell albums on the Internet or in big stores, so they leave small orders with area stores. This brings customers to Athens from larger cities — the uniqueness and variety of products from each store is creates appeal.

Deborah Eli drives to Athens from Kent specifically to go to the record stores.

“Selling my old albums was the main reason for coming to Athens,” Eli said. “I thought it was a great idea, since my albums were attracting cobwebs and there was no place to store them properly.”

Eli could not find a buyer in Kent, so she decided to come to Athens.

“I go to Haffa’s. (They are) very helpful and I feel that I get a fair price,” she said. “Athens is very accessible and an easy town to negotiate, as opposed to those campuses in the heart of a metropolitan area. True, it is quite a hike down and back, but I feel it’s well worth the ride. Besides, I’ve been coming to Athens for over 30 years and I really feel comfortable there.”

Santone sells all genres of music at his Schoolkids store but tries to change with the times and tailor his operation to provide whatever his customers desire.

The shop offers customers the added opportunity to special order from its catalog anything not physically in the store and usually can have the requested item overnight.

“There’s a small-town feel to it, but you can also get what you need,” OU junior Jason Peters said.

But for some customers such as Eli, the positive effects of having the right music are too great to forget.

“There is always a need for music in life,” she said. “It brings with it memories, good and not so good.”