Surfpunk wrote:
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For what it's worth I'm resigned to the fact that 'traditional' music retail outlets are ultimately doomed.

The fact that it is doomed may have much more to do with the Internet competition than say Napster. I may have only bought 10 mainstream CDs in the last two years, but I bought them on the Net instead of the local retailers. Now I may not be that typical (what was your first clue? ;), but I suspect that the buy-it-on-the-Net trend will only go up over the years. I only see the larger, nationwide retailers surviving. I do at least see them surviving.

Why?

Because a large percentage of the music buying public is rather stupid. Here in the US, most of our malls have CD stores which have astronomical prices and have lousy selections. These stores survive because mall shoppers will pay for the store's convenience (instead of stopping at the Best Buy/Circuit City which are located near the mall and which have the best prices). I never see these mall stores going away (or the Best Buys for that matter).

With the advent of broad band where everybody can have at least a T1 connection, retaill CD stores will be capable of buring CDRs and inserts on the fly making each store its own little CD manufacturing plant. CD retail stores then will no longer need to sink any money in inventory, which should allow them to lower their costs per CD. CDs also would no longer go out of primt in this scenario, which would be music to Jack's ears.

BD