This interview with Eric Lanzillotta, co-owner with Randy Staula and Tanith Lanzillotta of the experimental/noise/black-metal emporium Dissonant Plane and former head of Anomalous Records/current boss of Ri Be Xibalba, didn’t get completed in time to make it to the print or online versions of this week’s double-fisted story on Seattle record stores. But his observations deserve to be read by anyone interested in how small indie-shop merchants are faring in this difficult economic climate.

The Stranger: How's business?

Lanzillotta: It is down from a year ago. It didn't really hit me until I compared sales figures from January 2009 and January 2010. Our sales in 2010 were about half what we did in that month in 2009. Surprisingly, December was slow for us. Usually that is a good month in retail. People still come in, but seem to have less money to spend, or just feel less like that can afford to spend.

What strategies have you implemented to deal with the current realities of music-consumer behavior?

We maintain a presence on MySpace and Facebook, and more importantly send out a weekly email update listing what is new here and what shows of interest are happening around town. In-store performances are helpful, too. But to start making up for the difference, we are also selling stuff online via Discogs.

How do vinyl sales compare to CD sales? Have you noticed a significant increase in the former versus the latter?

Vinyl is popular, but still the majority of our sales are CDs. I haven't noticed a shift in the proportions.

Many studies show an increase in vinyl sales nationwide. Are you surprised by this resurgence of interest?

Not really. In my experience, vinyl never really went away in terms of people's interest. I think vinyl has been getting a lot more press recently, but most die-hard fans have preferred vinyl and stuck with that through the years. I think what is really changing is that CD sales are really dropping for the majors, so people are seeing vinyl make up a greater percentage of sales. But vinyl sales were strong throughout the 1990s and into current times for independent releases. Reissue labels like Get Back and many others were cranking out LPs more than a decade ago. I think an increase is sales is probably partly due to a backlash against the crappy sound fidelity of MP3s.

On a scale of 1-10, with 1 being the highest, how freaked out about music retail's future are you?

I can't say I am really freaked out about music retail, per se. The economy is a bigger worry for me these days.

Music retail has big competition from the internet in the realm of selection. You can find much more online than you can in one store. That said, there are a lot of things you will only find in a physical retail store. I think there will always be die-hard collectors who don't want to give up the thrill of physically flipping through records. But because of the internet, and a lot of people turning to downloads, there is less of a market to support a lot of record stores.

If you look at the number of record stores and book stores that have closed in this town in the last six years or so, it is quite depressing. But I don't think this will kill the industry any more than VHS tapes killed movie theaters. The real threat right now is people who want the music not being able to buy it. We've had a few regular customers move out of town to some place else where living costs are less. One of them because he couldn't find a job after a really long time searching. Obviously, when it is hard to pay the rent, records come pretty low on the budget.

What inspired you to open a music shop in this dire economic climate?

We opened up here because there was no other record store stocking the sort of things we like and know people are interested in. There is a huge noise scene in Seattle, but no place was really offering a selection of that music in town. Likewise, black metal was just available in pockets here and there. There is a lot of great music that we weren't seeing anywhere else and knew there were people interested in. One of our advantages as a retail store is to be able to interact with people and turn them onto great music. It gives us a way to talk to and meet music fans with similar interests and introduce them to music we have discovered and vice versa.

It is a difficult time to get a new business jump started, but we have gotten a lot of really positive response so far.