Road Records Closing
Dervla | January 21, 2009I’m so sad to hear that Road Records is closing its shop on Fade St after 11 years. Well known as an outlet for independent musicians and local Irish releases, it also hosted many single launches and live performances. Many of which I attended. According to the statement on their website downloading (legal and illegal), online below cost sellers, decrease in footfall, increase in rent, insurance etc, are some of the reasons for the closure decision.
The reasons for the downturn are many and varied and if there was just one then we could try overcome that in some way but its no longer possible to pinpoint just one.
I will try list some of the reasons I see for the death of the small shop and I really do hope I am not right in thinking that many more will go the same way, I have always been optimistic that this city can sustain a couple of smaller indie shops but I no longer believe that to be true, again, I really hope I am wrong with this opinion but the way people go about buying their music these days does not instill me with too much confidence.
It really is the end of an era. I’m not even sure if there are any remaining Indie music stores open in Dublin.
[...] January showed us that the recession is in full swing, as Dublin indie institution Road Records was forced to close its doors (which thankfully re-opened later due to massive support from many a [...]