Keep Music on the High Street

As someone who has been a victim of the steady decline in music retail, I'm kind of opposed to the whole downloading music concept. I liked it when there were record shops on every high street. I enjoyed browsing them and looked forward to running down and looking at the "new release" wall every Monday. Even if there was nothing I wanted to buy, it was good to see the new stuff out there.

Those stores also provided jobs for the freaky little kids who got laughed at at school and knew they'd rather die than work in a bank. It gave them a space to find others of their ilk and spend time figuring out who they were - watch Empire Records if you don't know what I mean.

When I first started working in record shops it was all about music as an art form. Every member of staff was a huge music fan and the product was treated with respect. Then came the endless buy-one-get-one-free and three-for-fifteen-quid campaigns, suddenly the product didn't matter anymore, it was more important that you were getting it cheap. After a while the stickers advertising the sale prices became so large you could barely see what was beneath.

Inevitably it reached a point where people wouldn't buy anything at full price anymore, the passion for the music was gone and they would rather wait a few months for the discs they wanted so they could get them at a reduced price. Profits declined, stores had to close and people like me got made redundant and had to take shite jobs in government and insurance.

Then came the advent of downloading where music is little more than a commodity. It's not a real part of your life anymore, it's just something you keep for a while then delete when you're sick of it.

When I worked at Our Price one of my favourite customers was this little geeky guy who was a huge Pet Shop Boys fan. Everytime they released something new he'd be on the doorstep at nine o'clock prompt with a big excited smile on his face, you can't get that same buzz when you simply download something.

For one thing there's no artwork to treasure, no discs to archive that you can look back on and remember as part of your history. So there's also no jobs for photographers and designers. Remember when marketing didn't mean cut price? It used to mean gatefold sleeves, coloured vinyl and free posters. It was all about fun, artistry and inspiration.

Now it's just an impulse purchase from the sale rack in HMV or a couple of faceless tracks on an iPod.

The point of this rant is that yesterday I thought I should stop being an old fart and give this new fangled downloading thing a bash. I thought it was suppposed to be easy.

In the time it took me to individually download the 11 tracks of the Lily Allen LP, I could have taken a leisurely walk into the West End and bought a copy. Then I found I had to apply for a licence for each-and-every-track before I could install them on a CD. Good lord, if that's progress then take me back to the olden days.

I'm pleased to say it was worth the effort. The album is fun and easy to listen to. It very teen-centric but I enjoy her sassy, tough girl lyrics. Some of it puts me in mind of a young Kirsty MacColl, and I can't think of much higher praise than that. It's good to see girl with attitude being courted by the media at last, I can't even remember the last time that happened.

Check the album out on her website, then go and buy it from a shop.