Sunrise Records to close both Toronto downtown locations

I know, I'm just saying the property was never leased to Sunrise.
The guy who owned Sunrise Records owned the property before he sold it to the developer.

Similarly the Sam The Record Man owners own (or owned) a bunch of property on the block north of Dundas.

 

I miss going to that Sunrise at Yonge & Dundas.... their selection of cult/horror/foreign DVDs was always pretty decent, while the HMV flagship store across the street seems to carry fewer and fewer of those titles all the time.

 

A year and a half later, Vortex has closed (they closed in December 2015), and the Yonge & Bloor HMV is in the process of closing.

I went into Soundscapes around Christmas. They used to be a great store with decent prices -- the last time I was in there (2010 or so). Lots of off-the-beaten-track garage and psych stuff. But they're kind of in an out of the way location for me so I didn't get back there until a few months ago. The selection has been completely gutted -- they have about 1/5th of what they used to stock.

Sonic Boom was great when it was at Bloor and Bathurst. But then they had to move to Honest Eds and then they had to move again...and it got in the way of them getting in any new stock, so I gave up on them.

 

Although I never found them to be snobby like Johnny99 did, I do agree that it is no longer the great store it once was.

When I returned to Toronto 4 years ago it was my go to place. Actually my work colleagues in the UK had a whip round for a present and they bought me a gift certificate from Soundscapes. The store held onto it for 4 months until I arrived in the city.

But these days, I don't bother. My friend who buys only cds has been complaining about the dire cd store situation in this city in general but especially Soundscapes and Sonic Boom because of how great they used to be. He's started ordering from Amazon not by choice but because he can't find stuff locally anymore.

I'm not sure what's going on with Soundscapes but I do no know they lost quite a bit of staff. I did hear that BMV Books hired away some of their staff last year to help them revamp their used music section.

They used to have in store gigs quite often, way more window displays and generally it felt like they were more active.

My guess is that they lost the people who were really behind all the great stuff that was going on which probably compounded the already bad situation with declining cd sales. Just a guess on my part. But it is sad that they are in the state they are in. I loved that store. Even when I would visit I always paid a visit. Now not so much. It's a real shame.

 

This is the position I've found myself in too. Atelier Grigorian in Yorkville is, IMO, the last great CD store in the city, however, they essentially only sell classical and jazz (with a small amount of pop/rock). Their prices are all over the place, though. Otherwise, I buy almost all of my music from Amazon -- about 90%.

Interesting information about Soundscapes and BMV, I didn't know that.

 

I did visit Atelier Grigorian once and when I saw the store I wished I was way more into classical and jazz. Great store over all though and I agree about the prices. I'm surprised it exists but my guess is that their clientele are old enough to still prefer physical media

Re BMV just a rumour I was told. Not sure how true it is, but I do know that Soundscapes has lost staff.

Even though I mostly buy lps, I generally stick to used older pressings. For newer releases, I split my buying between lp and cd depending on the title. For example those Ace Records C'est Chic! French girl singer comps are available on cd and lp but the cd has twice as many songs so of course I opt for the cd. The cd is also cheaper than the lp...twice as many songs for less money? I'm in!!

I would rather buy local even if it costs me a dollar or two more but often you have no choice so ebay and Amazon get more of money as a result.

 

In all seriousness, I would say that I am at least 10 years younger than the next youngest person I have seen shopping in that place. And I'm 31.

 

I think they've started to go downhill a little bit lately... I just made a post a few days ago in another thread about how, on my last visit to that store, I was unable to find a single CD from my entire jazz wishlist. I don't know if it's because their selection has decreased in size (which is a possibility, since the size of the store itself was reduced a couple years ago), or if the titles on my wishlist are all just too obscure and/or OOP... but it's disappointing nonetheless.

 

I think there are indications that they are struggling to some degree, and one of those indications is that they don't get as much new stock in as they once did. Not sure how long they'll keep going after the senior Mr Grigorian retires (not that I think that will necessarily be soon), although I gather it's the son that does most of the work. Credit to them, though, for continuing to run a beautiful store in one of the most expensive-to-rent areas in the city.

 

FWIW - the employees who used to be involved with Sunrise downtown now own/run Dead Dog Records on Bloor @brock

 

Nice folks too! (Steve's a great guy!)

 

I haven't been to the store yet. What's it like?

 

I haven't been back since their official opening one Saturday last fall (?) (only because the store is located in the west end which is really out of my way most of the time)
Also, they haven't got anything there in terms of a new release that I couldn't pick up downtown at HMV for probably the same price or less (and I'm getting really picky with 'used' CD's as I now have more discs than I can reasonably manage, so I'm not buying as many anymore)
It's a nice, small store, kinda what Sunrise was like, although on a much smaller scale.
You can't beat the friendly folks in there, however, as they're really a nice bunch (Steve and Macy were always my 2 favourite employess at Sunrise/Yonge & Bloor)

Go say Hi!

 

Good on new releases - decent used selection. Nice, friendly staff. It's in my hood so I drop by every once in a while.

 

Another thing I miss about the Yonge & Dundas location is that they were the only store I've ever been to that carried DVD-R titles (eg. Warner's "Archive Collection", Universal's "Vault Series", MGM's "Limited Edition Collection", etc). There are a couple dozen films on my wishlist that are only available in this format, and no other store seems to carry them. Sunrise always had a pretty large selection of these titles (even though they were a little pricey).