Another business bites the dust in College Park.
After serving the community for more than 30 years, local record store CDepot closed its doors on Friday. Since the late ’80s, CDepot has sold a collection of CDs, DVDs, Blu-rays, books, video games and vinyls in its store.
Nowadays, customers can easily purchase these types of physical media at a large department store or general retail spot like Target or Walmart, but these companies can never match the charm of a record store.
While the aesthetic of owning vinyl records and collecting vintage knick knacks seems to have made a comeback in recent years, the ever-growing digital age continues getting rid of what used to be staples across the country — record stores.
CDepot is not the only local record store that has gone out of business recently. Last summer, the Record Exchange in Silver Spring closed after more than 26 years. Towson’s Record and Tape Traders — in business for more than 40 years — officially closed in 2019. And Kemp Mill Music in Temple Hills closed its last location in 2017.
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Vinyl records were popular for most of the 20th century as the main medium for listening to your favorite hits. Then came cassette tapes, CDs, MP3 players and cell phones — which brought with them major streaming platforms such as Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube.
How are stores supposed to compete with these accessible options?
As digital formats gained dominance, vinyl records and CDs became less practical for everyday listening, making it increasingly difficult for physical music stores to attract a fresh audience.
Even though CDepot is closing, there’s still hope for college students to expand their music taste from just being in a physical store, be it vintage or a Walmart.
Owning a physical copy of an album can be about self-expression and collecting over convenience. Not everyone owns a record player, but many artists release limited-edition vinyls of their new music, leaving fans scrambling to buy one before they’re sold out.
But nothing quite beats browsing through the aisle to find your favorite artist or discovering something new as an unfamiliar but pleasant song plays over the speaker. Like libraries for book lovers, record stores offer a sense of familiarity and warmth that you can’t find anywhere else.
[‘Deepe Darknesse’ challenges contemporary dance expectations]
But we tend to take things for granted. Had I known CDepot would be shutting down, I probably would’ve visited more often. Still, the era of vinyl isn’t over.
Seen time and time again, whether it be flare jeans, Polaroid cameras or vinyl records, nostalgia finds its way back to everyone’s heart.
As a kid, I hated going into thrift stores and buying used clothing. Ironically, one of the best jobs I’ve worked was at a thrift store and getting the first pick at timeless pieces. As people’s shopping habits change, their growing appreciation for physical media and a good throwback will continue to evolve, proving that record stores still have a place in this ever-changing world.
For the most part, record stores are not going away any time soon. People are always looking for the next hidden gem that a store like CDepot provided to the College Park community, because that’s what record stores do: they bring music lovers together.
