I know we are all way used to news like this by now but I always find it very sad when a record store closes.
From the news release: 1989-2009 - Reptilian Records is dead, LONG LIVE REPTILIAN! The rumors are true, REPTILIAN RECORDS is CLOSING to the public.
THE BIG PICTURE- In the last few years, we music lovers have lost literally hundreds of independent record stores all across the country. Stores closed, labels died, and music distributors crumbled or merged. Shifts in format (CDs are the new cassettes), major shifts in popular music and marketing dividing the underground scene into little pockets of narrow conformity, economic factors (gas, food or a CD...hmmm...), the dreaded piracy of file sharing, and the legitimate digital downloads and on-line shopping have all contributed to the death of the local independent music stores. It's a shame, but that's the way it is. We at Reptilian aren't crying or dying, we shall adapt and evolve.
WHAT THIS MEANT TO REPTILIAN- Bottom line, the store has been hurting for the last few years. Business was already declining before the collapse of the roof of our original store. Moving hurt us, we were closed for months as we begged, borrowed, and stole to buy and renovate a Baltimore crack house for our new HQ. We've been here two years, and no one noticed. The storefront started to lose money steadily, with our eternal tax problems, rising costs of everything, public apathy, and paying employees to stand around when they could be doing something productive broke our bank. We make 75% of our income from mail order and internet sales. It costs too much to be a real store.
WHAT NOW?- Reptilian will continue as a record label, a book publisher (Scapegoat Publishing), and an ever-growing on-line interweb store. Our websites will be getting a major overhaul, with many new items and special features. Stay tuned and bookmark those sites for the coming uncanny and spectacular changes! Our headquarters will remain here at 2545 N. Howard St (next to The Ottobar). Our phone number will remain 410-EAR-NUKE (327-6853). We have secret plans for a new business to open downstairs, and our offices and stock will remain upstairs. (ooooh, what will be downstairs? tattoo parlor? strip club? guitar/amp shop? car wash? INS office?) In a few months, we may start opening up on weekends to let the few remaining music buyers peruse our vinyl vault... We'll see about that. We will soon make most of our label catalog available as mp3s for
your little iPods. We will still release vinyl, and have several projects planned for the second half of 2009. We will still publish
books, and again- big projects lined up. We just need to trim the fat and then we can concentrate like never before on amazing projects- exposing you to truly unique music, writing, and art for the discerning and adventurous!
I want to seriously thank all of the people who have shopped at Reptilian over the years, it has been the stuff of legends!
Keep an eye on our web sites and bulletins, many new things coming from Team Reptilian in the future!
Thank you and goodnight-
Chris X
http://www.reptilianrecords.com
http://www.scapegoatpublishing.com
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