“You have to walk past the Beanie Boo stuffed animals and up a flight of stairs to find the last vestige of recorded classical music in the city, but you’ll have to hurry,” writes Peter Dobrin in Friday’s (7/29) Philadelphia Inquirer. F.Y.E. “is closing its flagship store at Broad and Chestnut Streets. After Aug. 31, the Beanie Boos will be gone, and so will the nicely curated collection of new and used classical CDs, DVDs, and vinyl.… With the closing of F.Y.E., Center City may be without a brick-and-mortar store selling new classical releases for the first time since the dawn of the recording era…. For years after [F.Y.E.] took over from Tower in 2007, the store was a place where you would bump into other classical lovers…. You might spy a pianist performing that night for the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, or get seduced by a clever bit of album art…. Of course, stores can’t exist in the age of no longer having to plunk down your money. Someone, somewhere has put up on YouTube your favorite recording … and it’s yours free.”
Posted August 1, 2016
