As an independent record label in NYC, news about the closing of independent record shop Other Music hit us hard. You can read the article in the New York Times here and our thoughts below:

I was interviewed about the state of record stores a few times and I’d always say most of the stores that were closing were closing for a reason. Some weren’t operated well or were too afraid to markdown product that wasn’t selling and some just wouldn’t make the conversion out of the primarily CD market back into vinyl.

Other Music is different. Other Music is an extremely important store, not just in it’s functionality and location, but it literally broke a whole slough of new bands and was a lynchpin in a lot of rediscovery of older music for tons and tons of people, not just in NYC, but all over the world. 

As Manhattan continues to become more and more the Vacation Island for wealthy Europeans on a cultural tour of a place which is losing it’s cultural value day by day, Other Music has continued to be a place whose tastes you can trust that has singlehandedly broken a new band more than SXSW ever could or a new reissue revival more than MOJO ever could. Other Music sometimes even accounts for 20-25% of worldwide (!!) sales on some releases we have issued that they are passionate about. 

So, say what you will about the closing of the doors of a brick and mortar whose viability in the most expensive real estate in the country is an inevitability, the fact is what it represents is far more brutal for people with a more varied taste in music. 

We’re supposed to be in some kind of Golden Age, where you can listen to whatever you want whenever you want. Every artist gets a chance and even older music can be freely accessed. The reality is far different. We’ve become narrower in the amount of information we take in and enjoy. Fewer artists are becoming popular, even on a subcultural level and Top 5 music (not Top 40, that would be a huge leap in scope) dominates every avenue that can afford to pay a staff to report on it.

Other Music was named Other Music because they carried music that wasn’t in Tower, Virgin, or Blockbuster. Or at least that’s what I’d always assumed since I was a customer when I was at college in 1996, spending my meager income in their weird sections (which for a while was just “In” and “Out.”)  It’s where I got turned on to The Go Betweens, Kevin Ayers, Syd Barrett, Electric Eels, Os Mutantes and about a bajillion other things.  Other Music closing basically cements the reality that the space for music outside of what is being crammed down your throat is shrinking faster than affordable retail spaces in the Boroughs. 

Perhaps physical music retail no longer has a space in Manhattan. A lot of the people who buy music have moved out of the borough anyway. But, with Other leaving, we lose a lot more than just a store. It was a place that you found out about good music. Where you talked to people who shared your taste and turned you on to new shit that would blow your mind. I’m not sure if that exists in a lot of places anymore, in a physical space or online. Websites can learn something about Other. People come to you to seek something new, not for quick access to something they already know they want. That’s what Amazon is for. I’ll miss going into Other and stores like it for the sense of the unexpected. Whatever the staff was into, I would at least check out. The idea of bins and bins worth of music I know I’ve never heard before was super exciting to me when I was younger and it’s something that I guess younger people are going to miss out on.  I fear it’s only going to get worse for the types of music that store championed. 

– Mike Sniper