28MusicWeek 30.03.12 RETAIL BM Soho


25 D’Arblay Street London, W1F 8EJ t 0207 437 0478 wbm-soho.com


Co-owner: Goldie (not that one)


www.musicweek.com


Give us a brief history of the store… We took over the shop in 1989/90 and I became manager around ’95. We were the first dance music retail store in the UK, really, and have been supplying DJs for the past 20 years both through the shop and our online store.


How’s business these days compared to 20 years ago? It was similar to this in the early Nineties before DJing started to take off, at which point we built the business up. We were one of the main shops that any DJ from anywhere in the world would come to when they were visiting. Now, with digital, the majority


of people are buying downloads. We didn’t set up a digital shop because we’ve always believed in vinyl and we’ve stuck with that. It’s been a tough few years and


it’s never going to get back to how it was. The whole model has changed. What you find with vinyl, especially in the dance market, is


that it gets very limited pressings but there are more and more labels. They tend not to rely on digital quite so much in the dance market because they make peanuts from it. DJs doing their own stuff tend to have their own small label so they’re not like a big band who have a major behind them. Now, people in the dance


market use digital to get gigs before doing a limited run of vinyl and the club nights. They make a living from all three things. It means that, for us, it’s harder to get stuff because the major shops and online retailers have better buying power. If there are only 300–400 records, they’ll snap them up. So even though vinyl has


become more niche and underground, it can be a pain because people are careful about pressing stuff up. But, if you look at the indie


market, they’re saying that physical product is going back up. Indie fans buy into the bands and


INTERNET vs HUMAN


collecting, which dance fans don’t do so much, but things do start to trickle down. Pressing plants are generally making more vinyl so there’s more of it around and people are aware of that. It means people on the dance scene are starting to want the physical product again rather than a file online.


How much does Record Store Day help? It’s great because we were literally the first UK dance store to celebrate it around four years ago. The problem is there are a lot of indie releases that come out for it but no dance stuff. We do a lot of in-stores with


American DJs, dubstep and drum and bass anyway so we thought we’d just make a day of it: get a whole load of people in with some wine and cheese and just have artists playing.


“We didn’t set up a digital


shop because we’ve always believed in vinyl and we’ve stuck with that” GOLDIE, BM SOHO


ERA are behind it now and


they’ve taken it a step forward meaning more and more people are getting involved. Ram Records, who are the biggest for drum & bass, are doing a release this year and we’re getting them to do an in-store. So, we do get really involved but not so much as far releases are concerned. If there were more dance releases then that would be great for us. We’ve got something to release


ourselves by Headhunter as an exclusive this year. It’ll be great when labels in the dance fraternity start thinking about releasing something on the day


How confident are you about the rest of the year and the future generally? I wish I could say. We still believe in what we’re doing and I think it’s always going to be there, no matter what people say. We’re seeing it getting more popular. We’ve just started a vinyl-only


night, which gets a great response. There are more and more labels that have gotten fed- up of digital and are becoming vinyl-only again as well. In the underground world, at


least, people are enjoying being able to get back to physical.


This week’s High Street Hero Goldie takes on his digital rivals ...


but so far there haven’t been many people aware of it. The indie market really


embraces it because they know it’s a day where you can get people into the shop. They must make about three months’ worth of takings on Record Store Day.


WE SAID WE LIKED... DAVID GUETTA Nothing But The Beat


AMAZON RECOMMENDED... LMFAO Sorry For Party Rocking


GOLDIE RECOMMENDED... MADEON Icarus


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