I recently found out that my favorite music store in Madrid(Madrid Rock)went out of business sometime last year.Too bad,they offered a wide selection of Pop/Rock music(English and Spanish)as well as "hard to find" oldies and discounted cd's.

I always stopped there while walking along the Gran Via and ended up buying something.The store looked chaotic and in disarray at times but they made up for it with lower prices and wider selection.Well,I guess next time I will have to settle for the crowded FNAC and tackle those nasty escalators.

NO TO MUSIC PIRATERY!

Madrid Rock closed down when the owners realised they were sitting on one of the primest pieces of Madrid real estate and sold out, there is now a nice big Berksha clothing store there (just what was needed).
The story they put around about being put out of business by piracy was denied by their own employees.

Monito,my guess is that one thing is tied to the other don't you think?

Sure,the owners of Madrid Rock were able to cash in on the skyrocketing price of real estate in downtown Madrid.But at the same time they left a business that is facing serious competition from rivals FNAC and El Corte Ingles(around the corner)and also from the widespread sale of pirated cd's on the streets of Madrid (TOP MANTA)at considerably lower prices.

You add to that the ability to download music from the web nowdays,the increase of online buying of music merchandise and finally the absolute refusal of many people to pay 15-20 euros for a cd of questionable quality.And what you got left is very little margin for profit.

They were very fortunate to be sitting in a hot piece of real estate and this seems to have bailed them out of future misery.