Fans Bemoan Loss of Other Music

Last Monday, Harvard Square lost yet another store that didn’t quite fit into the cookie-cutter mold of national chains.

Other Music, which closed last week after one year in business, had catered to aficionados of underground and independent rock and pop.

The store—located on Winthrop Street in the Crimson Galeria shopping center—was an offshoot of another going by the same name in New York City.

David Day, the manager of the Cambridge store, listed three primary reasons for its failure—the “prohibitively high” rent of Harvard Square, online music sharing and CD burning and the events of Sept. 11.

Day said he often overheard conversations among the shoppers about downloading albums or burning CDs, as opposed to purchasing them at the store.

Due to the high rents and the lack of sales due to online music sharing, Day said the Cambridge branch of Other Music never made any profit and needed to be financially supported by the New York branch to stay afloat.

Last year’s terrorist attack on the World Trade Center turned out to be the true crippling blow to the Cambridge location. Due to the New York store’s proximity to Ground Zero, it had to close for several weeks, preventing it from supporting the Cambridge store.

According to Day the music store industry is now in a broad decline.

“For anyone to open a record store in today’s environment would be silly,” he said.

While the store did not cater to mainstream music tastes, the store was for the fans of underground independent rock and pop their only source of new music in Harvard Square.

Harvard students who frequented the store described it fostering both companionship and community.

Alexis C. Madrigal ’04 said that although he would often walk into the store and not recognize a single song title or band name, he could always leave the store with a CD that he liked.

One particular strength of the store was its sales staff according to Madrigal. He called the staff “irreverent and ridiculously knowledgeable” and noted they were always very helpful without being too aggressive.

The sales staff also lined the walls with descriptive reviews that educated the shoppers as to which bands would best suit their tastes.

Also saddened by the store’s closing was regular custom Winthrop J. Ruml ’04.

“Harvard Square lost a unique store...there’s no substitute for Other Music,” Ruml said. “My taste in music improved after I started shopping at Other Music.”

Simeon M. Zahl ’04 similarly applauded the store, claiming that he had never been to a better independent music store.

The closing of Other Music may also affect the WHRB’s Record Hospital, the late night underground rock show on Harvard’s student-run radio station.

A former WHRB DJ said that Other Music was quite essential to the show’s repertoire. He explained that often within a week of the arrival of some new obscure CD at Other Music, it would become an essential part of the collection of the Record Hospital.

However, Zachary I. Baron ’04, the head of the Record Hospital, downplayed the importance of Other Music to the radio station, merely saying that “there’s probably some stuff we won’t be able to get anymore.”