Another one bites the dust

Well, the best record store in Helsinki, Tunnelin Levy, is closing its doors after being a fixture for music fans for 40 years. In other words, pretty much as long as I have been alive.

It’s not surprising as such – digital music and other forms of media are steadily eating away at “regular” CD sales, and it’s hard for a small store to compete. Tunnelin Levy has tried, for years… they’ve always had pretty reasonable prices, an excellent selection which also contained a ton of eclectic stuff, and usually very knowledgable staff. You could go there and ask about some pretty obscure bands, and even if they didn’t stock them the guy behind the counter usually would know what you were talking about.

…but all that doesn’t help when the bottom line is continually in the red.

I can see that trend in my own music shopping. Even though Tunnelin Levy has pretty much always been my “go to” place for CDs, during recent years I haven’t bought all that many physical CDs. I get most of my music via eMusic nowadays, and the CDs that I do buy end up getting ripped to high-quality AAC immediately. I don’t listen to CDs, as such, at all. Physical “containers” for music, be they CDs or records, are slowly on their way out. The future for music is digital – it’s hard to fight against that, even if you wanted to.

But damn, it’s sad to see Tunnelin Levy go. It was a great little music store, and I’ve bought a ton of music from them over the years – including some stuff you would never find in a “normal” chain music store: the Camper Van Beethoven “Cigarettes and Carrot Juice” box set, lots of non-standard alternate editions of CDs, stuff like that.

“Thank you for the music”, as ABBA would say.

  1. Avatar

    By WM 3 days later:


    For them’s what don’t do Finnish and the excellent Rumba article…

    http://www.hs.fi/english/article/Farewell+Angelina+for+Tunnelin+Levy+-+Helsinki+musical+institution+shutting+its+doors/1135252548564

    R.I.P.

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