Fox 411 gossip Roger Friedman has a crackpot idea for stopping the tide of record-store closings, and he can at least blame some of the genesis for it on the guy who helped shepherd Michael Jackson’s career back in the day: “Frank DiLeo, Michael Jackson’s former manager, recently suggested that the labels get together and open a ‘state’ store, one in each big city, to carry their catalogs and new releases. It’s not a bad idea. Otherwise, the record industry will soon have no public face at all.” Well, first of all, the record industry does have a public face–although it resembles that of a snarling, wild-eyed lawyer–and second of all, I don’t know if a “state-run” store where only product from and distributed by the major labels would really help that perception so much, given that said idea is pretty much in line with the “bumbling cartel” front they’re currently presenting to the world. (Although I have to admit that watching it get launched would probably be great fodder for future blog posts.) [Fox 411 via Coolfer]
