AS TOLD TO CHRISTEN McCURDY FROM ’84, WHEN I STARTED working at Music Millennium, all the way up to 2000, every year we had increases in business. In 2000 Napster came along, and Napster changed the landscape. There seemed to be a little bit of tension out there with a certain amount of music buyers, because the record industry had moved a lot of new-release CDs to $20 list price. A lot of people were looking into the manufacturing cost of a CD, and they were going, “We’re getting gouged.” What they weren’t taking into consideration in the cost of doing business as a record label: For every Madonna that came along, there were 20 artists that lost money. But $20 was kind of sticking it to the public at that time. I felt that if they were $5 cheaper, the mood of consumers would have been different. When Napster happened, there was this whole group of people that just put it out LIVE WORK PLAY there and encouraged their friends to get it — especially the youth marketplace. It was free, and when things are free, people make concessions: “No, it doesn’t sound as good, but it’s free.” In those first seven years of the 2000s, we weren’t getting any kids, and our older customers were either downsizing or ⁄Storyteller-in-Chief⁄ The owner of Music Millennium talks about how indie record stores came together to get out of a years-long slump — and why younger generations are embracing physical media. passing away. I walked out in front of the store in around 2007 and thought, “Well, if record stores aren’t here tomorrow, this would make a good bar or restaurant with a music motif. We can talk about the great days of record stores and stuff.” But 2007 became a revolutionary year. PHOTOS BY JASON E. KAPLAN Terry Currier’s Weird Ride Music Millennium owner Terry Currier The line to enter Music Millenium on Record Store Day 2025, held April 12, stretched down the street. 46
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