Record Dealer Bitter As Store Closes

One of the Pittsburgh area’s last independent record dealers says he’s bitter about the state of the recording industry that’s forcing him to close his doors.

Paul Mawhinney lamented changes in the music industry as well as with consumers as he locked the doors for the last time at his Record-Rama Sound Archives store in Ross Township, Pa., the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported Friday.

“I’m sick of it. I’m sick of the whole industry,” said Mawhinney, 68, who owns a massive, 41-year collection of 500,000 albums, more than a million 45 rpm singles and thousands of cassettes and eight-track tapes.

“I’m frustrated. Broken-hearted. I can’t make money at it anymore,” he told the newspaper. “Why are there three record shops in this city when there once was 167?”

Mawhinney then answered his own question, saying, “I loved this business. But 15 years ago, the industry started dropping out from the independents and going with the mass merchandisers, Best Buy, Circuit City and Wal-Mart. And those three places sell CDs below cost.”

But he also blamed young music buyers, who prefer the convenience of digital downloads over the superior sound reproduction of vinyl records, the Post Gazette said.