Robert Steven Williams

These are the last days of Virgin Megastore. On Friday I walked through their Union Square 50,000 square foot location. The place had been slashed to a single floor – everything was for sale from the cash registers to the lights. The downstairs was already a construction zone. The loud clang of shelves being dismantled competed with the DJ's voice-overs: everything must go.

In the early 90's I was flying around the world, playing a key role in a three-way race to open music super stores – HMV, Virgin, Tower. I went to Paris, Tokyo, Sydney, Berlin – I was also researching such exoctic locales as Moscow, Budapest, Buenos Aires, and Mexico City. I had a hand in opening amazing stores in NY, Montreal, Toronto, Tokyo and Sydney.

Virgin's Champs Elysees may have been the most dramatic store anywhere; Tower’s Sunset had that Hollywood cool.

We all knew one another well, but the competition was keen. HMV’s chairman forbid us to fly Virgin – which was too bad because they were way cooler than British Airways or American.

I had an insane night of drinking in Budapest with the guy who ran Tower International – it was a 24-hour truce in the global war for record dominance. There I was drinking and eating with the enemy – discovering we had a ton in common. BTW: HMV came very close to buying Tower in 1998; that was another interesting project I worked on.

If someone had told any of us that in less than ten years the game would be over, nobody would have believed it. And yet, I was on a digital downloading taskforce in '90 with EMI and Phillips. Everybody understood where it was ultimately going. But no one figured piracy would become this pervasive.

Although HMV is still doing well in Canada and the UK, and music is as popular as ever, there’s no doubt the days of physical product are numbered. But that doesn’t mean the game is over, it just means the rules have changed.

This week I also attended the first annual Billboard Music and Advertising conference. It featured ad agencies, brands, and independent musicians. To be honest, I had mixed emotions, given that when I was growing up, the idea of my favorite artists aligning themselves with toothpaste or a car would have turned my stomach.

The conference was packed. And yet conspicuosly absent were most record labels, music publishers, and the performing rights organizations ASCAP and BMI (SESAC was around). There were, however, a lot of bewildered indie artists walking around trying to figure out how to get someone to listen to their music.

Today bands showcase at ad agencies and labels fall all over themselves to get their artists a shot at writing a song to sell deodorant. I don't believe much gets done at these conferences, but for those on the outside that aren't bashful, it is a way to establish contact, and with the right follow-up, anything is possible; truthfully though, you might have a better shot with a lottery ticket.

At the conference I learned that Proctor & Gamble have started their own record label (pause to puke). And yet, I’m not shutting off the possibility that brands and bands can coexist with integrity.

The key is for everyone involved to keep it real. Artists should work with products they use. Brands should only work with artists that really believe in what they stand for. Forcing a relationship will ultimately feel contrived and the fans will know.

‘My Drive Thru’ produced by Pharrell Williams, and written by Pharrell, Julian Casablancas (The Strokes), and Santogold, for Converse worked because the artists had worn Chuck Taylors long before they did business with the brand. There was also no requirement by the company to force a tagline or even mention the product name in the song. What’s most interesting about this track is that a brand became the catalyst to bring an artistic collaboration together that never would have happened otherwise. According to those involved, Pharrell may just do something else with the Strokes in the coming months.

Now that’s a future worth sticking around for. In the meantime, hats off to Virgin for making it as long as they did. With Tower gone, they were the last in NY.

No matter what anyone says, you can't replicate wandering the aisle's of a great record store on-line. Let's hope Amoeba in California can hold on.