I wanted a ticket to Monday night’s Trampoline Hall, the arty, esoteric lecture series, so that necessarily meant a trip to Soundscapes, the one and only outlet selling the passes. Soundscapes owner Greg Davis doesn’t sing, dance or paint (at least not for money) but he is undoubtedly a culture worker. In the decade since it opened on College Street, in the heart of Little Italy, Soundscapes has become a cornerstone of Toronto’s indie music scene, the first legitimate place many emerging artists peddle and promote their music and concerts.
Likeable and clean-cut, Davis (above) is the opposite of a High Fidelity-style music snob. “There’s definitely a stereotype that independent music stores have somewhat of an attitude,” concedes Davis, “and my personality is much more about being nice and wanting to share my knowledge about music rather than wanting to hoard it. Some people come in expecting the stereotype and we really strive to be approachable — hopefully when you come in you get the sense that this is a place where the people really LOVE music and if you LOVE music then you’re in the right place.”
Aligning itself so solidly with the city’s indie music scene has resulted in a fiercely loyal customer base that has buffered Soundscapes in a shrinking market. The digital music revolution has wrought earth-shaking change on the industry and music retail has been among the hardest hit: Sam’s, Music World, Tower Records are just a few of the high profile casualties. When Soundscapes opened in 1999 the internet was just catching on, Napster was nascent and Apple had yet to unleash its “Rip, Mix, Burn” credo.
Soundscapes, too, has seen business erode: “2005 was our best year and sales have been dropping since,” confirms Davis. “There are many reasons for that though; at that time people were really excited about music, there was Arcade Fire and Feist and Broken Social Scene. Since then there hasn’t been as much excitement. Our sales have been decreasing marginally each year but we’re trying to offset that in other areas, like we’re carrying vinyl now and our ticket sales have increased significantly.”
When the Toronto Public Library decided it was time to expand its local music collection it turned to Soundscapes for recommendations and supply; the relationship has been a win for both parties. About 15 TPL branches showcase special collections of alternative Canadian music. Soundscapes and the Library have also teamed up to present a concert series called Make Some Noise, a rocking departure from the otherwise hushed atmosphere of most branches. “The relationship with TPL has helped to cushion the slide in sales,” acknowledges Davis.
“The next few years will certainly be challenging but I don’t believe that record stores will disappear entirely,” says Davis, hopefully. “As with all businesses, we will have to add value. The digital revolution is disrupting all sorts of industries, not just music. And if we don’t adapt, we won’t make it. I hope that at some point people will realize that trading music for free has a negative impact. Creating art takes a lot of resources — creating a film costs millions of dollars, music can also be expensive to make if made well (it can be very cheap, too, which is why there’s so much of it and why so much of it’s not that great).”
Soundscapes carefully curates its international selection but places no such gatekeeper at the local indie section. “We don’t filter out local music,” says Davis. “We promote only those artists we’re really excited about but we accept everything that comes in.”
“Our number one seller last year was the local artist Timber Timbre; we actually sold more copies of his record than we did of the Wilco record. We were really excited about the CD so we recommended it to our customers, we put in our listening posts, we had him here for an in-store performance. And it obviously helped.
“The volume of music that gets released today is somewhat intimidating,” says Davis, “so people are looking a filter, for guidance to help them narrow the field a bit. People are overwhelmed by the volume of new releases. It’s our job to listen to all of it and hopefully steer our customers to something they’ll like. We’re always happy to make recommendations.”
Photos by Christopher Jones
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nice piece. this is my favourite music store by far. not only is indie represented but their world, blues and roots music offering comprehensive. i also drop in to check the dvds, books and magazines, even their web site is helpful, as are the staff. very happy to see greg being covered… -derek andrews