Music
Megabash in Times Square
Peter Phillips
MEGASTORE OPENS ON TIMES SQUARE, BUCKS TREND. So the New York Times headline might have run, announcing the opening of the largest record store in the world: 70,000 square feet of Virgin retailing. The ceremony itself was, as expected, a megabash, the traffic in and around Times Square disrupted for several hours, a prominent space cleared for the arrival of Richard Branson. Last time, in LA, it was from the ceiling of the new Megastore dressed as Errol Flynn playing a buccaneer. This time he arrived on the Times Square New Year silver ball. Thus the British are currently taking Amer- ica by storm.
Nonetheless, though true to form, this is a supremely risky undertaking. The scale of it is almost unimaginable when one consid- ers how small a CD is and how large 70,000 square feet are, to say nothing of the com- petition. Tower Records and HMV have been trading in New York for years now, with steadily dwindling profitability. Tower recently had to close one of its East-side outlets. Indicators worldwide are suggest- ing that CD sales, both of pop and classical music, may have peaked and that people are beginning to tire of the whole concept of compact discs, preferring to spend their modest sums of spare cash on other icons of contemporary living. Why, then, did Branson choose this moment to open another oversized store?
One answer is the location in Times Square, which may turn out to be a god- send for Branson just as he may turn out to be a godsend for it. Not long ago, Times Square was a badly depressed area. To revive such a place, especially one with a significant place in the history of a city where everyone feels they have the right to interfere, takes patience, money and good luck in attracting high-profile businesses to invest in it. Then the word goes round that exciting new things are happening in lovely old buildings. Branson was involved early in the process with Times Square, which may explain how he got hold of so much central Manhattan real estate. Possibly it was not overpriced. Now it seems that Madame Tussaud's is interested, as are a number of organisations associated with the theatre, Disney and Sony among them. The district is dotted with famous old halls: to be part of the reinvention of Broadway's Golden Age is quite a draw.
However, none of this will work in the long run for Branson if the very existence of this vast new outlet does not actually create a new market for CDs. The Think Big mentality has traditionally had more appeal in the United States than in Europe. I have recently been shopping here in the most spacious, apparently best- stocked book retailers of all time. Each city rivals the next to have the larger store; each chain — especially Barnes & Noble and Waterstone's — hopes to build it; and this is an age when we are repeatedly told that declining educational standards are leading to a decline in literacy. These stores cost money. To make them pay peo- ple need to transfer to them their patron- age on a very grand scale. It seems to me this can either happen when small local shops are swallowed up, or when fairly new superstores are found to have less of a buzz than very new megastores; or when the very existence of the megastore persuades people to buy when otherwise they would not. Branson will be relying on the people in the third category.
It is predicted that the New York Virgin Megastore will make its money on pop sales. No doubt the Three Tenors and discs entitled 'Adagio' will feature large in the classical section; whether there will be any important increase in sales for the serious stuff remains to be seen. But this store rep- resents the best chance for classical CDs at the moment, potentially a giant electric shock to the system. If it fails, classical music, at least, can go back to being a bou- tique market.
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