Packed Selectadisc is too little, too late

IN the week since Selectadisc's closure was announced, the place has been packed.

For owner Phil Barton, it's gratifying to see... but too late.

Phil bought Selectadisc two years ago when it was on the brink of closure and for two months pumped money into a business that wasn't making any.

Finally, he said, he couldn't do it any longer.

As he prowled the aisles with a meticulously written note of everything he was looking for that day – a shopping list that included everything from Place Vendone to Saxon – Steve Perenyre said he was running out of options.

"My regular shop in Derby shut about eight months ago," the Derby resident said. "I've been coming here for about 25 years. I've always supported the local retailer.

"My option now is HMV in Derby or Amazon on the internet."

At 20 and 17, Alasdair Ambrose and Florean Hodgkinson fit neatly into the demographic that apparently gets music almost solely off the internet. But as they stood in the Selectadisc queue waiting to pay for their finds, they weren't buying that logic.

"I don't really buy off the internet," Florean said.

"I first discovered [Selectadisc] when I was about 11. It's the selection of CDs – you can always get really obscure things.

"You can look for them everywhere, but you'll probably find them here. It's more of a personal experience."

But not one that enough are willing to have, it would seem.. Phil has heard that as much as 95% of traded music is now traded free on the internet. Tough to compete with that.

As she waited to buy CDs from Death Cab for Cutie, Counting Crows and the Ben Folds Five, Nottingham Trent University student Chelsea Lovell, said she'd miss Selectadisc.

"It's good to be able to look through it and all," she said. "You can ask them their opinions."

And she said she pays for her music. But she doesn't go to music stores much.

"I buy CDs, but I buy them online more," she said.