A long-time prog shop, Kinesis CDs is going out of business.  I first started shopping with them in 1997 and have been a regular customer ever since.  My first order included Rocket Scientists' Brutal Architecture and Iluvatar's Children, still two of my favorite prog albums from the 90s.  I noticed over the past few months, there hasn't been much in the way of new releases on the site and in the past two weeks there have been none.  And then this morning, I saw this on their website, and I don't think it's an April Fool's prank. 

Clearance Sale, and The Reason There Is a Clearance Sale

If you were wondering about the dearth of new releases on this site, and even if you weren’t, the time has come to pull the plug on this business. There were several reasons for this decision, but it was really only a question of when. One clue:

Kinesis began as a CD label in 1991, on the thrilling left side of this bar graph. The far right side of this graph has been considerably less gratifying.

There are a couple new titles still in the pipeline that should appear before May, otherwise we’ve halted new purchases. However, this site will remain in operation indefinitely as there’s a lot of inventory here. To do something about that, we’ve reduced the prices of hundreds of titles, on all pages of this site. In most cases, those now priced $9.99 or lower have SALE! next to them, so you can do an in-page search on “SALE!”. On the United States page, where CD prices tend to be lower to begin with, the vast majority of CDs are now $9.99 or below (and the SALE! tag is probably more annoying than useful). So to see the many sale titles, you’ll need to browse every page because every page has some. There are far too many to move to a single sale page. We may reduce a few more prices after the carpal tunnel pain subsides, but many titles are down to 1-2 copies and will not be restocked.

We’re also putting numerous one-copy-only CDs from the “Kinesis archives” up on the site as time permits. It’s slow work, but it means more titles will appear. They just won’t be on the main page because we can’t put a title there if only one copy is available.

I guess illegal downloading is taking over the music business.  That's sad.  Either that or people just aren't as into music as they used to be. 

Yeah, the death of rock music is something the wife and I talk about quite a bit.  Music has gone downhill.  In fact, aside from prog, there aren't really many new bands worth listening to.  I think I like a couple of hard rock/metal and a couple of retro classic rock sounding bands that came out after 1995, but that's about it, aside from prog.  I think probably most of the music isn't interesting enough to really draw people in, at least the mass produced stuff.  And the underground stuff doesn't have the exposure I guess.  So people are losing interest in music, unless they're fanatics like we are. 

But, it is sad to see a prog dealer go out of business. 

Wow, this is terrible news! Larry has been really good to me over the years. Thanks for posting this as I had no idea this was going on.

I would think that too, and I kind of hope you're right.  But, the fact that there hasn't been much in the way of new stock coming into his shop make's me think this probably isn't.  And if you look on the first page here: http://www.kinesiscd.com/storeframe1.htm and click on the words "clearance sale" at the top it will take you to the page I copied and pasted.  We'll see.  Maybe I'll check tomorrow and he'll have "April Fool's" posted.  And I'll breathe a sigh of relief.  But I'm not holding my breath.

To january:  Yeah, I've been a customer since 1997 and go to his site 3 or 4 times a month to check to see what's new and end up ordering several times a year from him.  Will miss that. 

I found it peculiar myself.  I guess tomorrow will tell the tale. 

Very sad indeed!
I LOVE cds. I bought a ton of them from Larry.
I guess I am glad that Greg Walker is still around - THANK GOD!!!

kenethlevine wrote: I suppose I am guilty of contributing to this with my $10/month spotify subscription.  I decided it was a better way to spend $120 than to by 6 CDs.  I'd be curious to see the same graph but for vinyl.  I sold almost all of mine in 2012 and I bet that was just as it was about to make its big comeback.  waaaaah!

Every day an online store, a brick and mortar store or a label closes is a sad day for music. The music business is evolving every moment of the day. As a label I find myself asking why I would do this in the current music climate and my answer is always the same, its because of the music and we have always fought for the underdog to be heard.

progmatic wrote: I've received no emails from Greg Walker for many months and his website hasn't been updated in a long time. Does anyone know if Greg is OK?

Funny you should mention that.  I just got an email from Greg this morning.  His newsletter has been rather sporadic though.  And I just ordered from him back in March.  And he mentioned in today's newsletter that he's going to one of the prog festivals this weekend, so I'm guessing it's all good there.