Today, in music news that, really, comes as absolutely no surprise to anyone who's ever bought or downloaded an mp3, Dallas-based company Crystal Clear has announced the closing of its distribution department.
"At the end of last year, we deleted about 90 percent of our catalog, or 450 titles," explains Chelsea Callahan, who books the Double Wide and headed the now-defunct department. "That was the big blow, since we've been in business for so long. We decided to keep our Top 50 titles... which amounted to about 90 percent of our business. But even that has declined now. It just doesn't make sense for us to continue."
The good news is that, of the company's many departments (bandwear, production, online distribution etc.), it's only the old-fashioned, traditional, physical hard-copy distribution department that's closing. The rest of the company remains in tact, and Callahan will now head up the company's online store fulfillment department.
Paired with the closing of CD World earlier this week, I think its fair to say that the negative effect the digital music world has had on brick-and-mortar record stores nationwide has finally hit home in Dallas. Not that this market change hasn't hit the area before, but this is certainly two big blows in one short week. --Pete Freedman
