Morninglory Music to close final store

BY COLBY FRAZIER
DAILY SOUND STAFF WRITER

For the past 38 years, Morninglory Music has promoted what longtime employees call the “culture of music.”
It is a concept that goes beyond product, something they say can’t be found online, inside the mega-storage of an iPod or within the broad walls of a big-box entertainment store.
And so it’s tragically fitting that Stan Bernstein, owner of Morninglory Music, has decided to close his store at 1014 State St. He said shifts in the demographics of music lovers who still shop in stores and illegal downloading on the Internet are behind his decision to close.

“It’s kind of sad, really,” Bernstein said yesterday. “We needed to have the younger people and they basically bailed out on buying music because they think it’s supposed to be free.”
Bernstein, who doesn’t own an iPod, said he saw this day coming. He closed down the flagship Morninglory location in Isla Vista, which he opened as a UC Santa Barbara student in 1969, six years ago. Last December, he shut the doors at the Morninglory in Lompoc.
Now, the Santa Barbara location — the only one left — will shut its doors in August after 13 years on State Street.
Over the years, Bernstein, said he’s watched his clientele grow up. And as the faces got older, few new ones came along to replace them. Couple that with the current economic climate in the U.S., and it’s a perfect storm that seems to be waging war against small, independently owned music stores.
“If the country is in a recession, the music business is in a depression, so that’s what’s happening,” he said. “There’s definitely a slow-down.”
Bernstein’s not the only one closing his doors. According to the Almighty Institute of Music Retail, 3,100 music retailers in the U.S. have closed since 2003, 1,400 of which are independently owned.
While the trend toward Internet sales and downloading began years ago, Bernstein said it is the illegal aspect that bothers him the most. He said regulation of illegal Web sites like Napster in 2001 did little to stem the bleeding of small stores like his.
“It just kind of spread to a bunch of smaller, illegal ones,” he said of online downloading. “It’s affected retailers, record labels, publishers, songwriters — everybody in a negative way. It’s just the way it is.”
If illegal downloads were taken completely out of the picture, Bernstein said he believes stores like his would have fighting chance for survival.
“That’s at least legitimate and possible to compete with,” he said of legal online operations. “You can’t compete with free.”
Though illegal downloading is a large part of the problem for Bernstein, Morninglory Manager Vincent Thomas said it’s also difficult to compete with legal online music outlets like iTunes, which sells individual songs for 99 cents. He said the ability to purchase a couple of songs from an album is enticing when the alternative is to spend about $20 on the entire CD.
“You can’t really compete with 99-cent songs,” he said.
But to some, establishments like Morninglory are more than just a store.
Seven-year Morninglory employee Jamal Andrews said everything from the posters that hang on the walls to the face-to-face conversations that take place allow the customer as well as the employee to broaden their musical knowledge. It’s the “culture” or soul of the store that Andrews said is an important element that’s falling by the wayside, primarily because it hinges on actual people.
“It’s the soundtrack to your life,” he said, attributing the quote to Bernstein. “[The store] takes you back in time kind of. I think that’s what really sets us apart here.”
Though Andrews said stores like Borders serve a purpose, he said few establishments, small and large, offer the kind of service Morninglory does. He cited the store’s liberal return policy, which allows customers to return a CD for any reason at all, even if they simply don’t like it as much as they thought they would. He said Bernstein was one of the first music storeowners to buff used CDs, repackage them and guarantee quality.
Andrews also said experiences like having a smoke with Carlos Santana, which Thomas once did in front of the store, or meeting the drummer from the band Tool — his favorite — can’t happen online.
Also not online in one convenient, hand-held package is the feel of a record or CD. The artwork on the album cover. Information about who wrote the songs. The lyrics. All of the things any record collector will say is an integral part of the well-rounded music experience.
One regular shopper at Morninglory, who asked to remain anonymous, said he’s sad to hear the store is closing, but isn’t surprised.
“They’re all closing down,” the man said. “It’s disappointing to me.
“The artwork and feel [of a record] was as important as the music. Sometimes you can’t get that from an iPod.”

Editor's Note: A closing sale will begin Aug. 1 at Morninglory. Bernstein said the store will close later that month.