J&R has undergone another major contraction. A good one-third of the CD and DVD bins have been emptied out. I overheard one staffer tell another "What are they gonna do with the building? Don't they own it?"

I asked the cashier if this was the end of their CD business, and she replied "I don't know how to answer that question."

We'll be lucky if they're only moving the stock to a smaller storefront, and still at least offer the new releases for sale.

The end is near.

That's real bad news for people who like to at least browse a CD section. One of life's little pleasures was spending an hour or two going from the A's to the Z's and always finding something new along the way. Those days are over in NY.

Another sign of the times?
Usually Steven Wilson has a fan meet and greet at J&R but even he is passing by NY without a signing (he's doing them in other cities).
Bet J&R said no.

This is amazing in a very sorrowful way, the greatest city in the world and there are no indie record stores that can provide Steve Wilson a signing oppt and to meet fans. WOW!

Steve W. spends time in Tampa and used to have a house in Clearwater. I need to have my indie invite him to his store for a signing.

Rick A.

The indies in NYC just wouldn't be appropriate for Steve since many are vinyl only these days and very tiny. Don't think they even stock Porcupine Tree or his solo material.

It is shocking he's bypassing NYC even though he's playing Times Square that evening. Wonder where the band is eating dinner.?

Couldn't we just take him out to a diner?

Back in the day, I worked at Turtle Records & Starship Records in Savannah. Both have long since disappeared.

I haven't been to J & R in years but I used to stop in if I was down there for work. They always had a good selection. I'm sorry to hear about this, though I don't suppose that it's unexpected.

J&R easily equaled Tower in its day. What a great 12" single record area they had back in the day. Bought Madonna's first big hit there as a 12". One of the most fun stores ever. They had everything including stereos and speakers (Tower never did have audio equipment).

It's really sad. In the age range of 14-22 the record store was such a major part of my life. When I got my driver's license I would go and pick up my two best friends and we'd swing by the two main independents in town pretty much every weekday. Then in college one of those two independents hired me and I worked while going to school. It was so cool just to talk to the various customers who were into different types of music, especially the ones that were older than me who could give the first hand accounts of what it was like when the first Led Zeppelin album was released, or what a big deal The Dark Side of the Moon was in 1973, etc, etc, etc. It's hard to think of a world without the record store.

While NYC is nowhere near what it used to be, there are still some very good stores.

Other Music on 4th St,
Kim's on 1st Av........smaller than when on St. Marks, but has a great garage/60s CD section
Generation Records on Thompson
Sounds on St Marks is still there
Forgot the name, but Williamsburg has a good small CD store in the middle of town center on Bedford

Go visit these places while they're still there.....it's not like the old days or the current record store greatness still out west, but NYC isn't dead yet.

That's a good idea Linda. I just ruin the dinner though by asking too many questions, the poor fellow won't get a bite down.
Example, he said remastering "Aqualung" was one of his most easiest assignments. He said the recording was so well done that all he had to do was apply tweeks.

Rick A.

I was under the impression that Sounds had closed. Charles, have you shopped there recently?

I was there last summer.....don't know if it closed recently.
I did a Google search.....no mention of it being gone, and a Yelp review from someone who was there 2 months ago.....so I believe it's still open.

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Venus used to be my favorite.....more when it was on 8th off of 6th Av then when it moved to St. Marks.

Thanks for the update...I'll get over there one of these days.

Venus was a great store. I used to shop there all the time.

I believe Sounds is not open every day. Here's a link to their Facebook page, so you can ask them yourself: https://www.facebook.com/pages/St-Marks ... 3185272126 .

Odd a store that isn't open every day.

J&R update: they've consolidated music, video, and some other departments into one "Superstore" in Building1 (corner of Park Row and Ann St.) DVDs and Bluray on 3rd floor, CDs on 4th and 5th floors. Good news: they had plenty of back stock in the CD racks already, and lots of boxes still waiting to be unpacked. The situation may not be as grim as I feared.

To celebrate, I bought the new Simple Minds 3-CD import best-of, Celebrate.

Any idea what's going to happen to the rest of the J&R properties on Park Row?

It does sound strange you have to climb up to a fifth floor to find CDs. Usually they are on the ground or second level. So this isn't where the CDs were always traditionally sold?

One of the stores here, Eide's, just did something like that. On Record Store Day, they had a band in to play and do a signing. I walked back to where the CDs are, and it seemed a little more open than usual because that's where the band was going to be. Then I realized it wasn't where the CDs are, it's where they were. They'd moved them all up to the third floor. Which leaves the main floor pretty empty. I haven't been back to see what, if anything, has filled that space.

The Barnes & Noble in Sarasota got rid of their entire CD/DVD area in the back of the store and used the floor space to...sell Nooks.