Music store adapts in digital age

SMITHFIELD -- Selling music in a brick-and-mortar store used to be a good business. But piracy, big-box competition and digital evolution have taken a heavy toll.

Now, CD Warehouse in Smithfield, with its three employees, is the last freestanding record store in Johnston County.

"I don't know where the future lies," co-owner Preeti Rangar said as she stood behind the store's counter. "The music-store industry is becoming obsolete."

In years past, the store might have brought in 100copies of a new release. Now, its owners will order just 10. Those other 90 customers are on the Internet, where they can download illegally for free or pick songs from iTunes, or they're buying the most-popular releases at a cheaper price from a Wal-mart.

But DJ and Preeti Rangar have held on in Smithfield by diversifying their business and impressing their customers, the couple said.

The business has found success selling movie discs, and the Rangars recently added books to their inventory.

Mostly, they pride themselves on keeping a deep catalog of classic and semi-obscure music. In total, the shop has 6,000 to 7,000 CDs and albums for sale, Preeti Rangar said.

"It's about selection," DJ Rangar said. That's how he gets repeat customers like Ron Kuhre, 57, who just completed his Judas Priest collection with a purchase from CD Warehouse.

He hates computers, and bigger stores don't have the music he wants.

"I'm a dinosaur," Kuhre said. "I've got a feeling the only place [my music is] gonna be available is something like CD Warehouse."

Kuhre comes back every other week. The Rangars have a corps of repeat customers, including a Canadian family that pulls off nearby Interstate 95 every year.

The Rangars hope change in the music industry will bring a drop in prices for CDs that could draw more people to the store.

Meanwhile, vinyl records have started to sell better at the store, and the store has cut its staff to the married couple and a trusted manager.

Even in a digital age, the owners hope that an affinity for the physical will keep customers coming.

"There are always people who want to collect things," DJ Rangar said. "It's part of human nature."