Print is Dead: Books in Our Digital Age

I was in Los Angeles a few weeks ago for BEA, and during a day off as I was driving around the city I couldn’t help but notice some pretty big changes. It’s been over a decade since I lived there; I moved to LA in 1989 and moved away in early 1997. In the intervening years I lived in the Fairfax, Larchmont Village and Silverlake sections of the city (to this day I miss my phone number with the 666 prefix). And since — during those years — I was a rabid music fan, the biggest change I noticed as I drove down Sunset Boulevard was the empty building where Tower Records used to be. Tower, of course, was one of the biggest record store chains in the country, and the fact that they’re all out of business — while iTunes, something that didn’t exist six years ago, is now a major player — shows just how much the music industry has changed.

In addition to Tower, I was upset to learn a few years ago that my favorite record store in Los Angeles, Aron’s, had also closed. While I had occasionally gone to Tower for music, Aron’s was where I really spent most of my time. Once a week I would wander its aisles for at least an hour, either perusing the used CDs to the left of the entrance or else checking out the new releases lined against the far wall opposite the front doors. I even remember when Aron’s, in the late ‘80s, used to be on Melrose in a much smaller location. But now it, too, is out of business. At the time of its closing, Aron’s management was placing blame on our digital age, saying that “People simply aren’t buying CDs like they used to; they’re downloading, burning their own CDs, or file-trading online.”

On my final day in California, I went with my brother to a movie at the Cinerama Dome (itself now part of a big complex called Arclight). While killing time before the film, we went across the street to Amoeba Records (which was the only record store I happened to see while in LA; the Music Plus that used to be on Fairfax is also — like Tower — closed and out of business). And while Amoeba seemed like a really great store — huge space, great selection — it’s pretty much off the beaten path for most music buyers. For instance, I asked my brother, while we were standing in line to buy something, “How does someone just pop in here to buy something?” He said he wasn’t sure; he only went there when he was killing time before a movie. We had parked at the garage for the theater, and on Sunset there are precious few parking spots. Aron’s, back in the day, only had a small and chaotic parking lot, but at least it was in an area where you could park on the street. But Amoeba is on one of the busiest streets in the city, and seems more like a tourist attraction than a record store. It probably has its own nearby parking garage, but shopping for records shouldn’t be like going to Disneyland; you shouldn’t have to remember in which lot you’ve parked just because you want the new Wedding Present CD.

Of course, as much as I lament these changes and the closing of those stores, I wonder how often — in this digital age — I would have visited Aron’s or Tower if I still lived in Los Angeles. For instance, when I first moved to New York in the late ‘90s I used to go to what I considered to be Manhattan’s equivalent to Aron’s: Other Music on Fourth Street (which itself used to be across the street from a Tower Records location). And while Other Music is still there, now that Amazon and iTunes exists, I never really go there. Why should I when I can instantly download stuff, or when even Amazon has stuff that I want, including semi-obscure stuff? There’s now no need to go across town to pay more for records at Other Music (not to mention I also don’t have to have one of their hipper-than-thou salespeople smirk at me for not buying vinyl). In fact, in talking about this similar phenomenon in the California book world, Chris Anderson said last year, ““A lot of our affection for bookstores is based on a romanticized notion. The fact that we’re not patronizing them speaks more loudly than our words.” So it’s behavior like mine that led to the demise of both Tower and Aron’s records, not to mention it’s the same behavior that is continuing the threaten bookstores across the country.