Glen Ward had his eyes on Boston for a long time. “Boston has been on our list for 10 years,” said Ward, the CEO of Virgin Entertainment at a recent cocktail party to celebrate the grand opening of the newest Virgin Megastore. “We knew Boston was a music town we had to be in. It was just finding the right location. Two years ago we heard that [Tower’s] lease was expiring here, and the landlord chose us to come in.”
From the outside, the building at 860 Newbury St. looks similar to the Tower Records that previously inhabited the space, but the inside looks strikingly different. “I think Virgin is perhaps a slightly more modern version of what Tower was in the ’50s and ’60s,” said Sir Richard Branson, the evening’s guest of honor and chairman and founder of Virgin enterprises worldwide.
“What we try to do is have the best selection of music of any store and to have staff who are interviewed based on their musical knowledge. Unlike any other store, the Boston Megastore has over 300,000 albums in the listening booth. So that’s 2.4 million tracks. This is the only store where you can listen to virtually every album that’s ever been released before you buy it, so you’re not going to be pulled by one good track on the radio and find the rest of the album to be trash.”
Ward is a lawyer by trade, but it was his love of music that led to his involvement with Virgin Entertainment. For the past 20 years, he has been working in a field he is passionate about. He cites Lou Reed, The Smiths and Joni Mitchell as his old time influences. “Jonathan Richman is one of my all time heroes. So opening a store in his hometown is great for me,” he said.
Ward compares the new Boston megastore to the first store he ever shopped at. “I use to get on a train and travel 80 miles to Oxford [England] to go to a store above a shoe shop because of the experience,” he says. “To go in that store in Oxford and sit on a beanbag with the headphones — there were probably only about four albums and a cardboard box on the counter — but that was ‘different’ at the time. Virgin stores are still ‘different’ now. And that’s what motivates me when we open these stores in North America and across the world,” he said.
Those who lament the loss of Tower Records last fall will be relieved immediately when they set foot in the new store. It’s bigger, cleaner looking and seems to be even more stocked than Tower. The first floor features a large selection of DVDs, complete with plasma monitors showcasing new releases in crystal clear video quality. On the second floor is the bulk of the pop, rock and hip-hop CDs, with the addition of a live DJ booth. Finally, on the third floor there is a café, a large selection of jazz and classical music and a few rows of books and graphic novels. In addition, scattered throughout the store are listening stations where anyone can scan the barcode on the back of a CD and listen to the entire album before they purchase it.
Many of the CDs at Virgin tends to be pricey, but it’s difficult to find a larger number of CDs anywhere. Ward says Virgin will do their best to please the local and indie music scene. “We see [indie and local bands] as the lifeblood,” Ward says, “At this store we’ll be having a lot of in-store performances. That’s something we get very excited about. We’ll mix it — we’ll have big artists coming through town to do signings or a playing session … and we’ll welcome anybody.”
“[Newbury Comics and other small stores] are great competitors,” Ward continued. “They’re good at what they do but they don’t have the breadth. What they have is a very good local, indie feel. We want to be strong on customer service, we’re very keen on that, and we want our staffers to be as much into the indie music as our customers. Likewise there are classical customers, and people in the classical department share that passion,” he said.
Newbury Comics still has the edge with slightly more obscure CD releases, and their regular nonsale prices tend to be significantly lower than Virgin’s. However, the Virgin store also has quite a few specials, such as a large selection of 2-for-$25 CDs and 2-for-$20 DVDs.
“There’s that push and pull where we need to be supportive of the local music industry and the environment of the local town,” said. Ward. “That’s the whole point for us, we share the passion for music.”
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