How are the music shops doing now? (video)

Even a decade ago the music shops were swarming with melody lovers, what has now turned a worn down business struggling to cope with the modern world.

Today, people have not abandoned music, but instead has ditched the record shops which back in the old days was a euphoric hobby for most enthusiasts.

“Customers used to queue outside our gates long before the shop opened in the morning,” said Mozammel Hoque, a proprietor of Shoor Kallal at Shahbagh’s Aziz Super Market.

A record player at Geetali music store in Elephant Road in Dhaka. Photo: STAR

He recalled the glorious past of the music industry when it started back in the 1970’s with records, evolved with cassettes, made it to the peak with CD’s and faded away after the internet.

“Back in the 1980’s, we used to make Tk 25,000 – Tk 30,000 a month. Now, we are barely hanging on – mostly spending our lazy times with this deary shop,” the septuagenarian said.

For him, the availability of music over the internet free of cost is responsible for the withering state of music business.

“Until the early 2000’s, we used to sell cassettes to meet the demand of our customers. Then the CD’s came,” Md Moklesur Rahman Mukul of Rainbow music store in Elephant Road.

The music shop attendant fears these music shops will close soon. “Because of the internet and the availability of music via a single click, people rarely wish to visit music shop for collecting CDs, cassettes and discs. We are barely surviving with a handful of evergreen customers.”

A client is searching for some lyrics at a music store in Elephant Road in Dhaka. Photo: STAR

Md Akhtar Hossain, recording master of the once popular Geetali told The Daily Star he sees bleak future for the music business and fears that there is no way to make a recovery.