By Erin Delmore

On Washington, DC’s ritzy M Street, where up-to-the-minute trends and name brands mean everything, sits a small, independently owned music store.  Shelves stocked with those now passé commodities known as CDs fill the shop window, and many albums bear titles unknown to most window shoppers.   

“We’re on the most expensive street in the city, in the most crumbling industry out there, and we’re still here,” store owner and founder John Sproul said.  

The corner of 30th and M has been home to CD Warehouse for the past eight and a half years—and the independent music store is still thriving.  With its racks of popular and obscure titles in genres such as electronica, international, and dance, coupled with a stylish interior, CD Warehouse has never had trouble keeping up with the likes of Coach and Lacoste on the District’s most sought-after retail property strip.    

Co-owners Sproul and Richard Swaine remember when the Georgetown neighborhood was peppered with independent music stores.  There were eight on Wisconsin and M streets when CD Warehouse opened in October 1998.  Before the millennium, before the rise of Napster and other P2P file sharing systems, and before CD burners became a home commodity, each of these stores had steady business.  But in the past eight years, Sproul and Swaine have seen the doors shut on every one of the other indie stores, while welcoming a steady stream of customers through their own.  

“We’ve always separated ourselves from a typical music industry-type store.  We cater to our customers.  We don’t pander to them,” Sproul said.  “And we make our prices fair.” 

“We’re not trendy, because trendy implies short-lived.”  Sproul said.  He explained that the store is patronized by a large, stable, and loyal customer base and that it also receives a lot of business from the transient foot traffic that travels down M Street, especially in the pleasant weather.  The inventory caters to the diverse trends and posters advertising indie artists Belle & Sebastian, Bloc Party, Amos Lee, Thom Yorke, and Lily Allen line the cash register counter.      

Sproul and Swaine returned home to America to start up CD Warehouse after they spent the majority of their young working lives in Europe.  The co-owners brought the European atmosphere into the business by carrying an extensive collection of imported music, especially dance and electronica.  Latin and reggae sections round out the international influence.   

“Europeans love this store because it’s small.  It doesn’t go with that big-box mentality that you see all the time in the U.S.,” Sproul said.  When an older man paused in his walk down M Street to stare through the store window, puzzled at the tiny establishment, Sproul laughed.   

“People, tourists, stop here all the time and say, ‘CD Warehouse?  You call this a warehouse?’”  He said that their quick product turnaround can leave some shelves looking thin.  CD Warehouse sells about 60,000 pieces per year with 50% of sales derived from used goods. 

And that’s not bad business for an indie record store—especially one that is located across the street from a sprawling, three-floor Barnes & Noble.  Sproul said that the two stores have a very cooperative relationship. 

Adisa Walker, supervisor of music at the Georgetown Barnes & Noble, said, “Many of the individuals that work [at Barnes & Noble] shop [at CD Warehouse] as well, and vice versa.  There are many things we can’t get that the guy over there has access to.  They’re very vital to the community.  If I know that a person needs a CD immediately and doesn’t want to wait for us to order it, I tell them that they can get faster across the street.  It’s about the person getting the product, that’s all.”   

The past few decades have brought about drastic changes in the way music is marketed.  For Sproul, the biggest problem with the music industry today is that the major labels are “very unprofessional and very out of touch with the consumer.”  Sproul said that promotion through the Internet has given consumers more choices and that the major labels now have less influence dominating trends.  The Internet has made self-promotion easy for artists and fans can easily purchase music.      

Muriel Brown, a 14-year employee of Olsson’s independent music store in Dupont Circle, said that Olsson’s has certainly been affected by new music purchasing options.  Despite the rise of media giants and the Internet, Olsson’s has been thriving for twenty-three years.  “I guess I think our selection tends to be unique.  You’re more likely to find staff that knows what you’re looking for when you come in because they’ve read a review or heard it on NPR.  Chains can’t replicate that reputable staff,” Brown said.  She doesn’t fear that the store will go out of business any time soon.  “I think it will continue to exist the same way bookstores exist because people like being in an environment and just browsing, a tactile and visual thing that you don’t get on a computer screen.  [Independent music stores] will survive, but there will be less of them,” Brown said.   

For co-owner Swaine, the difference is in the familial quality among the store’s employees.  He attributes early success to having had the same staff for the first for years and said that everyone’s input makes the business thrive.  “It’s just like having children,” he said.  “In the second round of the interview, you learn about girlfriend trouble, boyfriend trouble, they want to borrow money, a shoulder to cry on.  It makes a tight ship.  There’s a level of trust we have here that I don’t believe exists in a larger corporation.” 

Sproul and Swaine agree that the music industry is heading toward an all-digital future.  They believe that CD Warehouse can thrive by staying suited to their market and by operating efficiently.  Sproul expects that literary and media giants like Barnes & Noble, Borders, and Best Buy will gradually stop selling CDs for more profitable use of the valuable floor space.  After all, he says, vinyl stores are still successful at catering to a specific clientele.  Sproul and Swaine standing their ground—and listening to a few good tunes while they’re at it—as the music industry undergoes dramatic changes.