saltlakemusic
Media Play Gone? Duh · Dec 14, 04:54 PM
Recognize this guy? His name is Kirby Heyborne, a recording artist and actor, who appeared in such LDS films as “Saints and Soldiers” and “The Best Two Years”. When Kirby’s not busy making momovies he’s busy opening for NSync at the 2002 winter olympics. Christian Vuissa, Kirby’s producer, describes Kirby’s style as “alternative pop with intricate rhythmic guitars and warm vocals.” This guy’s frickin golden grahams on tape, which translates to bonus CD sales, that’s after the stores get their cut. Heck yeah, all the big names got their hand in this pot o gold Kirby Heyborne. Borders, Deseret Book, Seagull Book and Tape, Hastings. But not Media Play, not any more, not as of 2006 when representatives say they’ll be saying goodbye to the entertainment retail biz, leaving local artists with even fewer consignment outlets than before. When Kirby finds out he’s gonna be frickin PO’d!
See, Media Play announced yesterday that they’ll be shutting their doors for good. They were bought by Sun Capital Partners back in 2003 when they first shaved off sister media stores Suncoast and Sam Goody. Since then, the Valley Fair Mall in West Valley City is pointless, why would I even go there now? Oh yeah, Deseret Book, where its never too late to listen to some Kirby Heyborne (or “k-h” from the street), is still doing well over there. But seriously why would I even wanna go there now? Most consumers know Media Play for it’s pricey music, bins of Playstation 1 games, and books that are never in stock. What most consumers may not know is that Media Play has acted as a major buffer for consignment albums by local musicians since before buffering was cool.
Media Play befriended local artists like K-H since day one. Punkadelic got started pushin discs up at Media Play; Jesus Rides a Riksha, Insipid Brown, Runway*, Expression, The Osmonds: the Next Generation, don’t forget those harmonious satanists Jericho Road, and the list goes on and on. But not really. We’ve all seen whats-his-name doing shows up there under the wall of televisions with his expensive Casio keyboard. One of us even bought the CD, maybe. Anyone who’s anyone once upon a time had a merchandising deal with the folks at Media Play…back in the wild west of 1997 that is, before we started downloading our shit for a microscopic fraction of the cost from sites like itunes, Napster and Pitchfork. Software, games, movies, they all became free almost overnight, it was a serious blow to entertainment based retailers. To top it all off, Sam Walton’s chain of retail stores (who’s name we dare not utter) started “rolling back prices” on their software, games, movies and music, making high markups on retail music extinct. Ipods may have been the last straw, MP3 music became the new standard and very quickly at that.
K-H is furious now, Media Play was his feeding tube to the counter culture! All the hip kids new they could get another hit o that sweet Kirby Heyborne over at ‘da Play. While inside they enjoyed coffee and yummy popcorn for 2 dollars a bag, caught a poetry reading by some emo person, and purchased blacklights and 311 t-shirts. What a combination! How could it have failed? Duh. Maybe they should have thought about that when I first put in an application, got an interview, was told by Carol that I’d be recieving a call “very shortly”, never happened. I hated Media Play, but they were the only crappy music store in town for a long while, and gave alot of good local musicians a chance, regardless of the music/books/video market shift, to lose a ton of money on album sales but boosting their receptiveness and popularity. Especially you Kirby. I am told that ‘da Play recieves less than 10% of the retail price for sales on consignment goods.
First of all don’t mess with K-H, and secondly: join me as I witness the inevitable fall of the non-electronic music store, and along with it: the inevitable takeover of Sam Walton’s superstores’ electronics and music, along with the gaping hole where local music used to go. I call it “The Nothing”, its this stormlike thing from The Neverending Story that’s slowly consuming every aspect of retail music.
Valley Fair Mall: the millenium. First the Suncoast disappeared, and along with it all their great anime, yours at $20-40 per video. Do you know how much it’d cost to collect the saga of Dragonball Z episodes at that price? A billion dollars. We waved bye-bye and never missed that softcore porn peddler afterwards.
Next it was Sam Goody’s (aka Musicland) turn to take a dive in 2003, leaving the mall barren of every last copy of Akira, not to mention belts buckles with marijuana leaves. It was devastating. Who were the people to turn to for last minute gift CDs marked up almost 30% Dorks were infuriated. “No more!” they cried.
Since 2005 the Nothing has spread up the streets of West Valley to Starbound Records, where we attended every new Metallica CD release party like real troopers since they cut their hair. Starbound was a generation old, privately owned Utah record store with extremely rare imports and hard-to-find 45RPMs, just blocks away from the mall (at least is used to be). The guy who owned this store had the finest daughter, goddamn she was definitely fine, finer than even a young Sara, wife of Abraham. Starbound finally went belly-up and died early Summer of ‘05, leaving a trail of pissed off Smashing Pumpkins fans at its wake. Then it got Media Play yesterday, as of 2006 that old, rickety War Horse of a retailer is no more. They even had coloring contests for the kids, shame shame. Get ready to go pick up your EPs and start selling them from your trunk again; it’s The Nothing, not the kind of thing you can fight or outrun. You, or Media Play.
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