With more than six music merchants within four blocks from each other, one might think of East Lansing as a warm and welcoming home for music store owners.
But area music fans and entertainment vendors don't always make beautiful music together.
Lower Level, a new and used record and CD retailer, is calling it quits after more than three years of business at 611 E. Grand River Ave.
The store's owner and primary employee, Dan Falconer, cites an upcoming marriage and plans to move as well as a not-so-hot market among his decisions for closing the store.
"It just didn't fly here," he said.
"I didn't go into it to compete with anyone, I just always think a city could use more record stores."
The lease for the Grand River Avenue property - a prime location for businesses - does not end until the summer.
Falconer said he hopes to stay open periodically until that time and plans to have various sales to clear out some of his inventory which includes mostly independent rock music.
Relaxing in one of the many comfortable couches around the store, Falconer had an expression of disappointment as he looked around at rows of alphabetized music.
"I tried to carry a different selection of music, and I may have taken too small of a corner of the market, but it's no big deal," he said, as his black lab chewed on a rawhide behind the counter. "But I wasn't in it to make tons of money anyway, I just wanted to sell music I liked."
In an effort to increase patronage, Falconer began inviting students to the store to study between classes and even began booking nationally-recognized bands to perform on the stage in the back of the store.
"The greatest praise was when bands I admired would show up at my store and say this was one of the coolest record stores around," he said. "They used to say if I moved to Chicago or someplace, it would do great."
Falconer said he hopes to open a store online where he could potentially sell the rest of his inventory.
Rick Pniewski, manager of CD Warehouse, 228 Abbott Road, said it takes a great deal of work to keep a music store alive in East Lansing.
CD Warehouse opened downtown in 1998, Pniewski said, and it has seen fairly steady business since.
"There's always going to be the hard-core music fan who, no matter what technology comes around, is always going to love music and want to buy it," he said.
"In East Lansing, it's pretty much just the independent music stores left, but it's the independents that drive the industry."
Pniewski said he isn't familiar with Falconer's philosophy of owning a music store or what kind of audience he was trying to attract, but said it's sad to see any independent music store leave.
Kendra Hughes, a junior at East Lansing High School, said she had never heard of Lower Level and rarely shops for music in East Lansing.
"I go to the Lansing Mall or Meridian Mall; they have more of a selection," she said.
A hip-hop and gospel fan, Hughes said she only visits East Lansing's music stores if she wants to sell a disc.
But having music stores in such close proximity to a university with more than 43,000 students is a must, Hughes said.
"You have the opportunity to just go across the street and check out all these stores," she said.
"But first, you have to have more advertising to get people hyped to come to your place or do something like have a big sale as incentive."
Okemos resident Don Jeon also said most people assume a mall has more of a selection of music and East Lansing's independent music stores need to better promote their existence.
"I think the music stores around here are dying," he said. "I'm transferring to MSU soon and with the Internet connection we have in the dorms, people don't always want to buy. In just two clicks, you can download recent music and music even before they release it."
Still, independent music store owners such as Falconer maintain it just takes the right place and the right people to allow their businesses to flourish.
"It didn't quite pan out the way I wanted, but it was fun while it lasted," he said.
