Plan 9 Music, a fixture in Carytown since 1981, is looking for new space.
The music store expects to move — it is not sure when — and hopes to remain in Carytown.
"The lease is coming up and we're looking to downsize," said David Sullivan, manager of the store at 3012 W. Cary St.
The store had been inundated with phone calls Thursday after a picture of a "For Lease" sign in its window went viral on the Internet. The space has been up for lease for several weeks, but the sign joined flyers for concerts and albums on Plan 9's window Tuesday.
Sullivan said no definite time frame for the move has been established. "It could take a few months. It could take a year and a half."
The decision to move is based on size. "Because of the nature of the business, we don't need a space this big," he said.
Plan 9 hopes to remain in Carytown, where it has been since first opening in 1981. It has been at its current 6,300-square-foot location since 1997.
"This is where we'd like to be," Sullivan said.
Plan 9 made a similar decision to downsize last year at its Charlottesville store, closing the location in the Albemarle Square Shopping Center and moving into a smaller space in the Seminole Square Shopping Center. The new store opens Saturday.
Not all of its locations have fared so well, though. The music store retailer has closed several stores — in Williamsburg and Winston-Salem, N.C., last year and stores in Roanoke, Harrisonburg and Lynchburg in 2009.
Only the Carytown and Charlottesville stores remain.
Other independent record stores across the country are closing or consolidating locations as consumer behavior shifts.
"Competition from big-box stores and Internet music sales and streaming will continue to dominate the market for music, with consumers placing an emphasis on convenience and price," research firm IBISWorld reported in an industry study released last year.
Even with the economy rebounding, the study found "the outlook for the record-stores industry is not looking up."
LLLovio@timesdispatch.com
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