It’s lunchtime at Orion’s Music and owner Brian Richards is helping a woman purchase “a good Frank Sinatra CD.”
Soon after a twenty-something man in search of a track by an Australian band called “Dead Can Dance” surfs Richards’ computer in vain. Richards tells him the album is likely out of print, and advises him to order it online. Later, a young man with a lip piercing, looking younger than the first, peruses a wall of tobacco products. He settles on a pack of Dunhill cigarettes and leaves.
Since 1997, Richards has maintained his independent music store on Snow Creek Drive in Park City, and has, for the most part, relied on local customers, dodging the usual cycle of the tourist-based economy.
However, like most independent stores worldwide, Orion’s is feeling the effects of the digital media age and these days concentrates not on its music albums, but its other merchandise. “You have to keep changing constantly and evolving that’s key,” Richards admonishes. “I want people to think, ‘Gotta go to Orion’s because who knows what there might be there.'”
Richards estimates he stocks $100,000-$150,000 inventory that include piles of DVDs and CDs. But it’s the Bob Marley T-shirts, tobacco products, stickers and Skullcandy headphones that keep the store afloat these days.
“There was a moment when, about five years ago, Steve Jobs stood up and gave his idea for the iPod and I knew we were heading into a different world,” says Richards. “I remember specifically, seeing that on the news you could hold all this compressed music in a little device that was going to hold your entire music collection Ever since then, it’s been, ‘Okay, now how are we going to survive?'”
Richards says the new digital music landscape has forced him to reexamine his business model, especially within the last four years, as Apple’s downloading site, iTunes, has usurped the music industry. In July, Billboard magazine cited Neilsen SoundScan’s latest report: physical album sales down 15.1 percent year-to-date, but a 48.5 percent increase in digital sales.
Particularly foreboding are the recent headlines about the independent rock band Radiohead, which made history as the first band to bypass middlemen altogether, offering its latest album, “In Rainbows,” as a “pay what you think its worth” download only available on its Web site.
Richards is not alone in his convictions. Salt Lake City’s independent music store, The Heavy Metal Shop, advertises that it’s been “Peddlin’ Evil Since 1987,” but, like Richards, owner Kevin Kirk, admits in the last decade, he’s also changed with the times, emphasizing his clothing, not his music.
Kirk counts himself fortunate in that regard: the metal world embraced his shop’s logo on sweatpants, belt buckles and T-shirts. Musicians like Primus, Exodus, Slayer, Alice in Chains and Alice Cooper have worn his gear on the news, at concerts and in their music videos. On the walls of his shop, he hangs photos to prove it.
“I’ve been doing this for 20 years and I’m just happy to still be doing it,” Kirk says. “There are still kids that love to come down here, meet friends; it’s just now there aren’t so many of them. Now they go on myspace.com and don’t even leave the house, or they buy the CD, then burn it for their friends It used to be everyone had to have their own copy, but that’s changed.”
Though his CD and record sales have shrunk, Kirk rejects the notion they will disappear completely a position he shares with Richards, who plans to continue to sell music CDs no matter what.
Chris Brozek, who opened his independent music store Slowtrain in Salt Lake last year, reports his used CDs, vinyl and DVD sales have steadily increased. He credits this sustained growth to capturing a niche market by hosting live in-store performances by local bands.
“I guess people who are buying CDs from us are not totally convinced of downloading,” he says. “They’re into more tangible objects I don’t really see us needing to change anything in the future. We offer a different experience than going online.”
The Slowtrain’s nostalgic record-store model comes close to Richards’ imminent makeover. After the store celebrates its 10th anniversary on Saturday, Richards will start to renovate his store, pushing music to the front to make room for more locally-made merchandise in the back, and creating a retro atmosphere that borrows from the music stores of his youth. In college and before moving to Park City with Orion’s original Orion’s co-founder Jonathan Keller, Richards can remember working at stores like Soundgarden in New York and All That Jazz in Steamboat Colorado places that let customers listen at stations and supported a society of music lovers. With his newly renovated store, he hopes to recapture that same feel.
Among the CDs available in-store, Richards will offer mixes he and his employees will custom-download for individuals looking to expand their musical palette or throw a theme party. By 2008, he also plans to challenge iTunes by launching an Orion’s Web site with 600,000 downloadable tracks.
He will embrace the digital revolution, but at the same time supply people with a kind of musical destination reminiscent of a 1960s lounge, where people visit to see live music and exchange music ideas in person. Richards describes the concept as a move forward by looking back so that in the process of rebirth, he protects his favorite part about his profession.
“We definitely live in a different world and I’m definitely open-minded enough to find the Internet to be a wonderful way to discover new music,” he says. “But I still really enjoy talking about music It makes me very happy to have someone come back to the store and say, ‘Man I really liked that CD you recommended.’ That’s what I like best spreading music to the people.”
Celebrating a decade
Saturday, Oct. 20, Orion’s Music Shop will celebrate 10 years running with an all-day celebration beginning at 10 a.m. The event will include in-store performances, stickball games in the back alley for old time’s sake, Atari 2600 on the flat screen, the debut performance of the Band of Good Intentions. Orion’s Music is located at 1400 Snow Creek Drive near Park City Market.