Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Another One Bites The Dust

It's another sad day for all music and movie lovers everywhere.

Virgin Megastore is closing shop.

In memoriam: The above photo was taken last year on happier times.

50 comments:

Visual Velocity said...

Sad day indeed! Mejo nakaka-pikon na 'tong recession ah.

Haven't been to a Virgin store yet... Para rin bang Tower Records yun? Galing ng Tower Records sa UK: may books, magazines, posters, CD singles...

Raft3r said...

andy briones, I know. It sucks. Una Circuit City. Tapos ito. Not a good time to be in the States. Hehe. Yeah, parang Tower. Pero the store in Times Square is HUGE. Paborito ko yon. Sobra.

Visual Velocity said...

I like CD stores abroad: ang daming puwedeng pag-pilian. May mga CD singles and remixes pa; galing rin ng mga movie posters na binibenta nila.

Ilang floors yung Virgin sa Times Square? Sarap siguro mag shopping dun.

Raft3r said...

andy briones, 3 floors of heaven!

Visual Velocity said...

Panalo! Dude, I wanna go there! Sayang, sarado na pala...

Is that in New York, the one in your picture?

Raft3r said...

andy briones, Oo. Yan yon. Halos katabi ng TRL studio ng MTV. Hehe. They close this April kaya pwede ka pa umabot.

Visual Velocity said...

I love New York and I really wanna go there. Wait, so they close this April? That gives me less than a month to save for that trip. I don't think that's possible. Patay, ehehe.

Raft3r said...

andy briones, Two words. Charge it. =)

Visual Velocity said...

I checked my credit limit; kaya naman yata ng credit card ko.

Teka, huwag na lang kaya. Baka mamatay ako sa kaka-bayad ng utang niyan, ehehehe!

Raft3r said...

andy briones, Hehe. Habang bata, go!

Jerick said...

akala ko naman kung sino na ang namatay. but i love your blog.

Raft3r said...

curbside puppet, Hehe. You have to admit, it's a big loss pa din.

Anonymous said...

Please accept my condolences. As a person who purchased countless CD singles, this truly saddens me as well.

Raft3r said...

ganns, I know. Remember our CD Warehouse days?

Anonymous said...

hmmm... siempre neva pa ako napadpad diyan pero sad nga... kasi ang pagsasara ng isnag negosyo may ibig sabihin...

naalala ko tuloy ang tomas morato... bihira ako magawi run. pero nung nakaraan nakita ko... paunti-unti na rin ang mga kainan. wahhhh

pano ang dream business ko... wahhh. charot!

Wendy said...

Ay so sorry for your loss:) Curious pa naman ako dyan sa Virgin Megastore because of your raves.

Raft3r said...

hitokirihoshi_kawaii, Libre naman mangarap. Kaya pwede pa rin! Hehe

wendy, Yun nga lang. Hanggang raves na lang tayo ngaypn. =(

Anonymous said...

oh my. how can this be happening? nakakatakot na pala talaga ang recession na ito. walang safe!

eden said...

my heartfelt condolence. now is the best time to buy for they sell it for less.

Raft3r said...

prinsesamusang, Sinabi mo pa. Tsk, tsk.

eden, You got that right. Hehe

Judayski said...

my condolences. so ano, in lieu of this, toys r us o Wicked? LOL.

Raft3r said...

judayski, I doubt na mapipilit mo akong mag Broadway. Hehe

Anonymous said...

kelan kya makabalik ulet sa tate at makapasyal naman sa east coast bago magsara pa ang ibang magagandang tindahan ... balita ko star bucks medyo tagilid na din ... yahh

Anonymous said...

pahirap na talaga ng pahirap ang buhay, dami ng nagasasara.

Raft3r said...

vhincent, Times are hard. Indeed.

liza, Sad news talaga. Hay.

escape said...

the M1 in alabang town center mall is also closing. maybe due to crisis and piracy.

Anonymous said...

Oh well, some good things never last. :p

laieesha said...

akala ko it's all virgin stores. sa NYC lang pala. whew! i go to the one dito sa downtown SF.

i thought there would be long posts... di naman kailangan speed reading eh hehehe ;-)

Visual Velocity said...

The music industry is going down... Movies and Hollywood mejo tagilid rin, pero lumalaban pa rin maski papano.

Raft3r said...

the dong, Oo. Piracy talaga ang problema.

len, Parang lovelife ba? Hehe

laieesha, Maikli lang naman talaga ako magsulat eh. hehe

andy briones, Sad but true.

Anonymous said...

Oo, Raft3r. :p
Pwede mo ring kantahin.

Raft3r said...

len, Nyahaha. Sintunado ako. Hehe

Anonymous said...

How sad! I know (rather, read somewhere from this blog)how love music and all. Although, di ako maka-relate. Ahehehe. Sensya na. Matagal na akong walang know sa music ngayon. Gosh! Ganito ba talaga pag ika'y naging isang uliran na ina't ang alam mo nalang yung mga kanta nung single ka pa. Hahaha! Isama mo dyan ang mga contemporaries and standards, kasi yan ang naririnig mo sa bahay ng magulang mo. Ayayay! Hehehehe.

Ay! Anong ulirang ina ang pinagsususlat ko dito. Bwahaha.

Anonymous said...

At kahapon naman si Kiko Magalona.

Raft3r said...

bisaja, Oo nga. Nalito rin ako sa ulirang ina remark mo. Hehe. Pero no doubt, ulirang ina ka talaga! =)

j, Yeah. Cold Summer Nights na! ;)

Oman said...

Hala akala ko nasa YM ako hehehe. Naaliw ako sa exchanges nyo ni Andy (usyusero ba hehehe).

Anyways, i must agree na if you are being asked, there should be no gray area. dapat yes kung yes or no kung no.

weekend almost over na naman. have a nice week ahead rafter.

wait, yung sa tanong mo sa place sa baguio. i always stay at bloomfield or veniz. meron naman single rooms there at about 2k.

Raft3r said...

lawstude, Salamat. We're leaving this Sat na. Still no hotel. Hehe

Coriander Dreams said...

I remember reading about all those Circles from Dante's! Apparently it is coldest in the innermost circle where the darkest sinners are! :X

Think happy thoughts.. Inspite of all that sad news...Hehe...Happy monday!

Judayski said...

did your two posts merged themselves?

anyway, indecisions...kaya idol ko na ngayon si Rorschach. watch or read watchmen. either black or white lang, no shades of grey!

Raft3r said...

coriander dreams, Wah. It's sad. Lunes na naman.

judayski, Looks like it. Hehe

Anonymous said...

go to bangkok, dami ding music stores dun. kaya lang mas maraming murang CDs sa palengke at sa red district dun :D

dito sa alemanya parang walang music stores dito na markadong US

Anonymous said...

its unfortunate that i've only heard of it now and i won't even have the chance to visit it.

Raft3r said...

kengkay, Sikat si Janet sa Germany!

carol, Sayang talaga. Hay.

TM said...

No, it's not just the recession. The downtrend in record sales has been going on for the past two years. You can google the Lefsetz letter and learn a lot about the industry.
Here's one:

www.rhino.com/rzine/StoryKeeper.lasso?StoryID=653

Here's what John Mellencamp has to say:

"Over the last few years, we have all witnessed the decline of the music business, highlighted by finger-pointing and blame directed against record companies, artists, internet file sharing and any other theories for which a case could be made. We've read and heard about the "good old days" and how things used to be. People remember when music existed as an art that motivated social movements. Artists and their music flourished in back alleys, taverns and barns until, in some cases, a popular groundswell propelled it far and wide. These days, that possibility no longer seems to exist. After 35 years as an artist in the recording business, I feel somehow compelled, not inspired, to stand up for our fellow artists and tell that side of the story as I perceive it. Had the industry not been decimated by a lack of vision caused by corporate bean counters obsessed with the bottom line, musicians would have been able to stick with creating music rather than trying to market it as well.

During the late 80s and early 90s the industry underwent a transformation and restructured, catalyzed by three distinct factors. Record companies no longer viewed themselves as conduits for music, but as functions of the manipulations of Wall Street. Companies were acquired, conglomerated, bought and sold; public stock offerings ensued, shareholders met. At this very same time, new Nielsen monitoring systems -- BDS (Broadcast Data Systems) and SoundScan were employed to document record sales and radio airplay. Prior to 1991, the Billboard charts were done by manual research; radio stations and record stores across the country were polled to determine what was on their playlists and what the big sellers were. Thus, giving Oklahoma City, for example, an equivalent voice to Chicago's in terms of potential impact on the music scene. BDS keeps track of gross impressions through an encoded system that counts the number of plays or "spins" that a song receives. That number is, thereafter, multiplied by the number of potential listeners. SoundScan was put in place at retail centers to track sales by monitoring scanned barcodes of units crossing the counter. A formula was devised whereby the charts were based 20% on the SoundScan number and 80% on BDS results. The system had changed from one that measured popularity to one that was driven by population...


Constrained by the workings of SoundScan/BDS, music now came from the top and was rammed down people's throats.

Complete article here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-mellencamp/on-my-mind-the-state-of-t_b_177836.html

Raft3r said...

tm, Sad but true. Si Britney, Miley at Jonas Brothers na lang and hindi apektado dyan. Hehe

Visual Velocity said...

Ehehehehe, oo nga! Dagdag mo na si Charice Pempengco sa listahan mo. Teka, may CD na ba yun? :p

Raft3r said...

andy briones, Hehe. Teka sino sya?

Visual Velocity said...

Siya yung batang palaging laman ng Philippine Daily Inquirer. Andun nanaman ata yung litrato niya ngayon. Ehehe.

Bela said...

dude, pwede na talaga sabihin ni dale na di sya nag daan sa virgin mega store sa next punta nya sa US...

Raft3r said...

andy briones, I haven't read the papers in the longest time. Kakahiya, diba? Hehe

bela, Yan ay kung bibigyan pa sya ng visa. Nyahaha