32 MusicWeek 07.09.12 RETAIL TOOLBOX RECORDS
30 Rue St Ambrosie 75011 Paris, France t +33 148 05 80 16
wtoolboxrecords.com/fr
www.musicweek.com
Give us a brief history of Toolbox Records... Toolbox records was created in Paris 1998 and is now one of the biggest vinyl specialists for underground electronic music distribution in Europe. Our main genres are techno,
drum & bass, dubstep, industrial, dub music and breakcore. We stock hard electronic sounds of all kinds really. We are supporting musicians who produce their own music and distribute their sound worldwide.
How are independent record retailers doing across France? Record stores in France are closing one after the other. To survive, most of them become more general, selling rock’n’roll and second hand records or clothing lines in order to survive. The problem is, it becomes a
bit “n’importe quoi” [anything and everything] and you have to ask, ‘What are we doing this job for if not for the passion of music?’
How is business for you today compared to when you first opened and previous years? DJs saved vinyl in the Nineties but digital DJ tools changed everything again and, now, the format is in danger once more. Vinyl has become a collectable
thing and so has developed a kingdom of re-presses. New styles like trap music and the like tend not to come out on vinyl. It’s the first time in the DJ story that this has happened –most DJ styles are now only available on digital. Dubstep was the last genre on vinyl for DJs. Sales are down as you’d expect and that won’t change for a while.
How can retailers combat the rise of digital downloads and what many high street stores consider tough times at the moment? The mutation of the music business hasn’t finished yet. There are still opportunities in things like second-hand records, clothes and collectables as I’ve said. Running a website,
INTERNET VS HUMAN
Manager: Christophe Brunel
“The French government provides some help [to independent retailers] in that they actually pay a part of your rent for the first three years of business” CHRISTOPHE BRUNEL, TOOLBOX
producing records and organising events can also provide extra avenues for business. I think vinyl itself will always
remain, however, because it’s the best representation of what music is: the size of the sleeve, the smell of the disc, the physical contact. It’s a package that’s full of sensations, and what is art if you suppress the sensations? So, I’m confident that vinyl
will survive, but it will do so in too small a capacity for record shops to be just record shops anymore.
Do you participate in Record Store Day at all? Record Store Day came to France in 2011, but it only really reached the public’s attention this year. Most of the Record Store Day
products come from major companies, and we can’t always get them so we participate by doing our own special releases. The public reaction is very
different on Record Store Day. While they usually get their music fix on Discogs or Soundcloud, they all of a sudden find out that a record shop is actually a good way to discover new sounds.
Is there anything that you think the music industry or government could be doing to help indie retailers? The French government provides some help in that they actually pay a part of your rent for the first three years of business. The main problem is that digital music is
cheap (or even free) and, while people are getting poorer, and food prices are becoming more and more expensive, fewer people can say, ‘I’m going to buy more and more vinyl.’
If you could change one thing about the music industry over night, what would it be? There is an old initiative in France which changed VAT from 19.6% to 5.5% on vinyl, CDs and the likes. I think it would be a good idea to do this right across Europe.
How confident are you about the future – the next year and then further beyond? I’m more concerned about the global political and ecological future than I am about the future of record shops alone. I think we have to fight and resist the pressure, because we provide something really true in this consumer world.
This week’s High Street Hero Christophe Brunel takes on his digital rivals ...
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