If you’ve seen the movie High Fidelity you probably understand what a record store is meant to look like.

Using a headphone, a boy listens to songs from his favorite singer.

Music buffs and others drool when they see the massive inventory at Championship Vinyl, the fictional record store featured in the film, which seems to have thousands of records from some of the most obscure indie bands like the Beta Band, Stiff Little Fingers and Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band, as well as mainstream performers including Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell and R.E.M.  

It is also fitting that this film is set in Chicago, the biggest city in the Midwest, which is known for its thriving music scene and, yes, it is also home to some of the best independent record stores in the US.

High Fidelity also successfully portrays the quintessential record clerk: music snobs who often look down on customers who have pedestrian taste in music. One of the most memorable scenes is when Jack Black’s character, Barry, tells off a customer who asks for Stevie Wonder’s single I Just Called to Say I Love You.

“Go to the mall,” Barry yells, driving the customer away.

For almost two decades Jakarta had its own version of Championship Vinyl in the form of the Aquarius music store. Ask any music fans or even Indonesia’s leading musicians about it and they will share fond memories with you.

Aquarius also reached beyond Jakarta, with outlets in other cities where the music scene thrived including Surabaya and Bandung. These stores also helped shape music trends in these cities.

All of its stores in fact became icons in the music scene, if not cultural institutions. For most music lovers, the addresses of these stores — Aquarius on Jl. Dago in Bandung, on Jl. Sutomo in Surabaya, on Jl. Pondok Indah and in Mahakam, South Jakarta — became shorthand for quality music.

But all good things must come to an end.

After almost two decades in the music industry, Aquarius could not keep up with the competition from online music stores, and just like many other bricks-and-mortar music stores around the world, Aquarius was forced to close some of its flagship outlets.

Late last year, Aquarius closed its store on Jl. Dago with little fanfare. At about the same time another store on Jl. Sutomo was also shut down.

Earlier last month Aquarius made another shocking announcement that it would close its Pondok Indah outlet. The Pondok Indah store is currently holding a closing down sale to offload some of its inventory, which will end on Sept. 1. Aquarius management says it will maintain the building as a recording studio and it will only operate a store on Jl. Mahakam in South Jakarta, as its flagship store.

The company said the Pondok Indah store was no longer viable based on revenue from record sales which has declined steadily in past years.

“We cannot afford the operational costs of Aquarius Pondok Indah, which is the same reason we closed Aquarius Dago and Aquarius Sutomo. You know that running a place in Pondok Indah is very expensive,” says Josephus Iswanto of Pondok Indah Aquarius.

While music fans may get a consolation prize in the form of bargains from the sale, they will no doubt also be sad to have to let go of one of their favorite haunts.

All they can do now is ruefully recall the good times they had at these stores. Arian Arifin, the lead singer of heavy rock band Seringai, had some stories to share about Aquarius.

Arian had fond memories of the Dago Aquarius outlet, where he went first as a customer and later as a supplier.

“When I released an album with Pup-pen [Arian’s legendary first band] I bugged the management of store, asking them whether they stocked it. And when they told me it was on their shelves I asked them how many copies had been sold,” Arian recalled.

When the curtain finally fell last year, Arian shed tears for all the clerks who were loyal to the store until its very last day.

“It was sad when it closed. There were old familiar faces there until the very last time I visited that store. They were with the store until its very last breath,” Arian said.

More than a record store, the Dago Aquarius outlet was also a supporter of the local independent music scene. While many major music distributors had second thoughts before stocking music from independent artists, Aquarius scouted for them.

The fall of the Pondok Indah Aquarius store hit music fans in Jakarta particularly because it is a sign of how bad the problems are affecting the music industry today.

The record store also doubled as a recording studio for some of Indonesia’s biggest stars — from former Dewa lead singer Ari Lasso to teen pop sensation Agnes Monica.

The closure of the Pondok Indah store hit music fans hardest because it was arguably the best music store in Jakarta, with the most complete inventory — albeit only mainstream music.

“Among the four branches we once operated, the most complete collection was in Pondok Indah,” Iswanto said.

Those who frequented the Pondok Indah Aquarius store know how massive the two-story shop was.

Aquarius management, however, have refused to go down without a fight, and the company now has a new plan up its sleeves. Like many other vendors who believe the future of the music industry is on the web, the company will soon open an online music store.

“We see opportunities from selling music online … not in a digital format mind you. We will stick to physical formats so you can order CDs from us using our website,” Iswanto said.

The company expects to have the online store up and running in October. At present, the management of Aquarius is promoting the online store on Facebook.

The closure of most of the Aquarius stores is in fact part of a global trend in which the rise of online music distribution has rendered bricks-and-mortar music stores obsolete.

In the United States major retailers including Tower Records have filed for bankruptcy, while Virgin Megastore has closed some of its biggest flag stores in the country’s major cities. Even retail giants such as Wal-Mart and Best Buy have cut back on space allocated to music. Meanwhile, none of Virgin’s 125 stores in the UK remains open today.

Before Aquarius, a number of local music retailers also raised the white flag. Stores operated by major retailers such as M-Studio and Bulletin Music are now few and far between in major cities since these companies consolidated their businesses. In Jakarta, the Duta Suara store (a local institution) on Jl. Sabang, Menteng, is currently being renovated, apparently to make it more cost effective.

In the developed world, the threat to bricks-and-mortar music stores comes from online stores such as iTunes, Amazon, ebay and Rhapsody, but here the problem has a lot to do with piracy.

“The market is different now. We have to deal with piracy,” Iswayanto said. To make matters worse, traditional stores have had to catch up with the ever-changing trends in how music is enjoyed.

“When the ipod and MP3 were invented, we knew we were facing a different kind of problem,” he said.

In the end, Aquarius realized it was fighting a losing battle — particularly against the younger generation who prefer to have their music portable, who don’t want to have to drop the needle, or hit the “play” or “rewind” button — people like 19-year-old college student Aisha Natasha.

To listen to countless tracks by some of the world’s best musicians, all Aisha needed was an Internet connection and enough space on her hard drive to store the MP3s.

“To be honest, I don’t remember when was the last time I bought a CD… it was probably more than a year ago. I mostly just download music now,” she said.

For someone who liked to tune in to foreign music, the inflated prices of CDs imported by local music stores were another complaint.

“[Imported CDs] are super expensive. I would buy them if I had the money. You know, they charge Rp 175,000 for an imported CD! I just cannot afford that,” she said.

“I don’t have to spend a dime to download music from the Internet,” she said.

And people like Arian, music hoarders who buy music in its traditional formats — cassettes, compact discs and vinyl records — are a rare breed these days.

“I believe people like me who still buy music in a physical format are now a minority. People just don’t buy CDs any more,” he said.

The old ways of distributing and enjoying music are now obsolete and a new era has dawned. Music retailers have been forced to change their ways of doing things.

“The world is changing: A completely different era is now upon us,” Iswayanto said.

— Photos by JP/Nurhayati

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