High street shops still have vital part to play in music sales

Independent record shops were in the news this week as the Entertainment Retail Association (ERA) announced numbers had risen to a ten year high of 461 compared to 339 in 2014 with 35 shops added in 2023.

ERA was originally founded to represent record shops but now covers all sellers in the music industry from HMV and Amazon to all the digital platforms, and news elsewhere showed a contrast in fortunes with the total number of physical outlets selling music falling dramatically from 10,391 to 2,486.

While the independent shops now have 23 per cent of all music outlets compared to 3 per cent ten years ago it is important to remember that they now have a larger share of a much smaller market that now only represents 8 per cent of all music sales. Much of the news focused on the vinyl revival as a big factor in the resurgence of the independents and credited as being the biggest part of that was Gen Z females. While I knew what was behind this I had to check exactly what age group Gen Z covers which is those born from 1997 to 2012 so those currently 12 to 27.

Of course what we really have here is yet another example of Taylor Swift’s hold over the whole music industry. Independent shop have been credited with embracing pop music in a way not done before and while Taylor leads the way by a country mile others such as Lana Del Rey and Mitski also appeal to the same demographic and have healthy sales too if not on the same scale.

Nothing is quite what it seems with the independent shop numbers bolstered by many small shops that in no way replace some of the important big independents that have been lost over the years, and physical music sales being distorted by the Taylor Swift phenomenon but even so the general trend is positive though more precarious than the music industry would like to admit.

I’m well aware that Avalanche is in the unusual position that shop sales alone are enough to sustain it and other shops tell me online sales are vital to their survival but shops that are just a front for massive online selling clearly don’t represent success for the high street. I’m obviously biased but I have always believed high street shops have a vital part to play, but most artists and their labels have relegated shops to nothing more than a small part of their marketing strategy when shops offer a far longer exposure for an artist than the initial rush for sales.

Even Harry Styles, pictured, now regularly makes his exclusive music releases available to shops once his website sales have slowed. While the future looks promising for independent record shops my concern is that continued success for many is not in their hands.