Lexington, KY - June marks the 10-year anniversary of the launch of Napster - you know, the free digital file-sharing giant that
some analysts blame for singlehandedly destabilizing the entire media industry. Undoubtedly, the record industry, labels and retailers alike, are still reeling from the fundamental shift in the way people get their music, much of which can be attributed to Napster and the number of subsequent online music-sharing and purchasing options that have surfaced in its wake. (Though Napster filed for bankruptcy and sold its assets after a series of legal battles in 2002, it continues to operate as a pay-only download service.)
With the recent launch of ThinkIndie.com, an MP3 download site fueled by the Coalition of Independent Record Stores (CIMS), this month is also marked by a significant move from independent music stores to fight - or rather, get in on - the phenomenon that has caused a decline in CD sales for most of them over the past decade. The site is set up so that a percentage of proceeds from MP3s purchased (albeit, a small percentage) directly benefit whichever independent music store the user has registered with.
"If you register through CD Central, you will always be our customer, each time you get on the site," explained Steve Baron, owner of Lexington's CD Central. CD Central is one of two Kentucky record stores to have signed on as ThinkIndie affiliates, with Louisville's Ear X-Tacy being the other. Approximately 70 percent of the proceeds from ThinkIndie purchases still go to whoever owns the rights to the music (typically the record label), with the rest divvied up between the independent music stores and the ThinkIndie site itself.
"This is a legal, licensed site," Baron noted. "We're not competing against free, peer-to-peer sites; we're trying to compete against iTunes, Amazon, whatever the others are."
With the slim-to-none chance that music lovers will abandon their affair with downloading music anytime soon, it seems inevitable that record stores would eventually try to get a piece of the action. Still, Baron said, many record store owners have found themselves in a deep philosophical pickle while trying to decide whether or not to sign onto ThinkIndie - a service that, in many ways, undermines their longstanding attempts to steer their consumers away from obtaining music online.
"We know we're losing customers to downloads. That's a given," Baron said. "And we've been trying to say, 'Hey, shop at record stores. It's the cool thing to do. It's a different experience. It's better to shop at an actual store rather than just sitting in your room and downloading something.' And now we're going to give this mixed message of 'Oh, go ahead and download it from our site.'"
Baron likened this dilemma to one that newspapers have been facing with the shift to digital media.
"They know people want to read papers online, so they have to develop a nice Web site," he said. "But are they really making money on that Web site? No, not so much."
It's early to tell if the time and effort spent on creating ThinkIndie will pay off financially for independent record stores. The commission they get from the site is small, and Baron said part of the debate among record store owners was whether or not it would be worth the trouble. Despite the surface irony, 50 independent record stores have joined as ThinkIndie affiliates so far. Baron said the quality of the site is something he is proud to stand up behind.
With over 35,000 MP3s and a growing library handpicked by "people who eat, sleep and breathe music," ThinkIndie is set up to resemble an online version of an independent music store as much as possible, offering a number of exclusive releases only available at independent record stores. The MP3s are priced competitively - typically $1.11 per song or $9.99 for an entire album - and at 320 kb/s, are of higher sound quality than the standard downloads of competitors iTunes and Amazon. Currently, all of the titles offered at ThinkIndie are artists represented by independent record labels; however, CIMS has reportedly been in conversation with EMI, who may end up being the first of the major record labels to find its way onto the site (though they will likely cherry-pick artists rather than representing their entire catalogue, Baron noted, in order to maintain the "indie connoisseur" vibe).
"You're going to find African psychedelic stuff from the '70s. You're gonna find all the indie bands that everyone knows and loves, and you're going to find some really far-out heavy metal," said Baron. Basically, he added, you'll find all kinds of stuff that your favorite independent record store would carry, but you're not going to find Mariah Carey or Brittany Spears, flashy banner ads or ringtones.
Ultimately, record store owners still hope that listeners will continue to shop at their stores, rather than shifting to buying music online exclusively. Surveys conducted by the Alliance of Independent Record Stores (AIMS) have suggested that many people who still buy physical albums tend to download some music too, and ThinkIndie will provide an option for them to support their favorite record store while they do so.
It's no secret that the downloads sell, said Baron, "so we figured, well, let's try to capture some of that market. Let's put it in terms where people can identify with real record stores and not just some faceless corporation, and where it does have a little bit of that 'buy local' angle - even if it's just some tiny sliver."
To register to purchase MP3s at ThinkIndie through CD Central, visit cdcentral.thinkindie.com.