News

Stores take a new stand on music buying

December 19, 2004

Denver Post: Inside the colorful, jam-packed environs of Denver's Twist & Shout record store sits a sleek white podium that could change the way consumers shop for music and the way retailers track their customers.

TouchStand media kiosks resemble the computerized kiosks that have graced record shops for more than a decade. A familiar touchscreen monitor lets shoppers browse titles, product information and cover art with the flick of a finger.

But TouchStand represents the next generation of interactive buying, and its maker is betting it will help traditional brick-and-mortar music stores stay competitive in an increasingly online marketplace.

Denver-based Synergy Media Group designs and produces the kiosks, which have been test-marketed in stores like Twist & Shout and Independent Records since October 2003.

"We built this thing for the indie-music guys," said Michael Fitts, chief executive of Synergy and co-creator of TouchStand. "We figured big companies would build their own because they have the resources to do it." But Fitts said Synergy has yet to see any real competitors.

"We've found that bigger companies haven't done it yet," he said. "The only competitor we have out there is Red Dot, the ones at Borders. They're a listening station, but they have maybe 2 million audio samples and under 200,000 titles," as opposed to TouchStand's 3.9 million audio samples from 307,000 titles.

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