As you said it's a niche market - When your customers can buy the soundtracks directly from the companies producing them on line (Intrada, Varese, SAE etc) how do you compete with that? How do you pull a profit in purchasing from them then selling out your store? Do you have a place where you have 'lots' of soundtrack fans (with no internet access)? Considering so many B&M stores (that do not cater to niche sales) are closing what would make you unique? You have to realize that many of these companies produce their own CDs. Intrada does it, SAE does it, Varese does it - Intrada no longer has a B&M - I don't think Varese ever has - and I don't know if SAE does. Having your own soundtrack store would be cool - but I don't see how you could make it/survive unless you had something unique that no other company had...

hammon, October 17, 2011; 4:03 PM

I dont think you can pull it if you sell only soundtracks. As a retailer on internet there is not very much to do, unless you are in a different part of the world and help customers there to get imported material for lower prices.

The best could be merging the store with related materials, like DVDs and Comics and Action Figures.

Still......who knows it will be reasonable? USA is the main client of Utorrents and Piratebay.org and is not a surprise AMAZON, the biggest retailer in the world, is offering CD-R copies on demand in USA (for titles already pressed in europe, asia or south america)

I dont think you should open a soundtrack store in USA :-)

nicolas28, October 18, 2011; 10:44 AM

IMHO it's a pointless notion to even consider, especially in this day and age of online retailing and digital downloading, etc. Look at how many retail stores for music in general have closed and gone out of business...they can't compete with the online retailing and downloading.

kriegerg69, October 18, 2011; 6:43 PM

In the era of the Web, I would have to say a miracle! There is just way too much competition & when it's time to pay the rent or even if you own the site out right I would not see there being huge profits in it.

You only have to look at actual web sites that drop their prices on older titles to shift them, LA LA Land do it a lot to the slow movers, Intrada have changed their way to LTD cds, but larger pressings to meet demand on an add hoc basis.

There would be only 1 small way I could see it work & that would be like The Cinema Store in London UK, they sell such a huge diverse range of film & TV related stuff, not just cds, but they can be a bit exspensive, but then they have huge UK rents to pay I bet?

Nice idea, but I think unless you have millions & are looking for a tax right off, it's a better idea than a reality.

but whatever you do, good luck

andy b

ajbjmdb, October 19, 2011; 10:08 PM

What does it take to open a soundtrack store?

a time machine

bugoobiga, October 26, 2011; 3:45 AM

Well if you wanted to make some extra money "on the side" or make some extra money to feed your habit then there are a few things you can do.

I'm not sure how easy it is to buy some of this stuff at wholesale prices and that may be half the battle here (trying to find out where and who to buy at wholesale) but if you can find a way then concentrate on buying limited editions. Things that are stating that they are only pressing 500 - 1000 copies etc.

Try to buy a few (I would say no more than 10 of any single title) and then sit on it. And wait. And wait. And wait. Actually in many cases you probably will not have to wait long.

Then when it goes out of print ... list it at a price above retail on a site like eBay or Amazon.

You'll make a few bucks. Probably not enough to live on but enough that you can keep one of every CD you ever buy/sell like this and still make money ... money that you can use to buy more CD's for your personal collection and/or to sale.



johncoleman4829, October 31, 2011; 6:42 PM