In rotation: 10/20/16

Exile on High Street: Over the past year, the last two record stores along the campus stretch of North High Street closed. John Petric, the owner of one of those shops, reflects on the end of an era. “I wanted to do this forever.” That’s what I told close friends of my record store in its final months. As the first decade turned into the second and then third, even when Herculean efforts couldn’t stop the progress steamroller, I still wanted a store in my life. For all the headaches and heartaches and financial risks, there is nothing like it. It was better than being in a band—no lead singers to babysit.

The world’s best record shops #041: Hear Records, Singapore: Founded by Nick Tan in 2013, Hear Records is a new kid on the block. Like the city’s vinyl scene, the shop is small but vibrant and full of personality. From GZA’s Liquid Swords to Steve Reich’s Four Organs to the Old Boy OST, the stock includes over four thousand records with fresh shipments coming in from the States, Europe and the rest of Asia every month. Tan posts sleeves of his imports on Facebook and sends out email updates to regulars. He also encourages his customers to send his special orders and requests.

Record Collecting: Everything You Wanted To Know But Were Afraid To Ask….Part 3: Looking After My Vinyl Record Collection: Whether you’ve dedicated your whole life to the pursuit of records or whether you’re a relative newcomer you still need to be able to know how to look after your collection and how to store them properly. Here’s a quick guide to how to care for you records (thanks to the US library of National Congress) followed up with some of the different storage solutions that are out there…

Thunder Bay record shop gets new lease on life, New owners of New Day Records want to continue building a community around the store: New Day Records has been taken over by new owners Jason Wellwood and Scott Arnot, and both are determined to continue fostering the St. Paul Street store’s community of music-lovers. Record stores like New Day are “a gathering place, a place where people would get together and talk about music, talk musical ideas, and share with each other,” Wellwood said. “I’ve always loved coming in here and spending time here. It’s a very comfortable place to come and hang out.” “It was a no-brainer. We both love this place, we love spending time here.”

Is a CD revival possible? They’re being written off now but vinyl once was too: Once the shiny “au courant” music medium of choice, CDs are now, at least in terms of hipness, the audio format equivalent of disgraced Olympic swimmer Ryan Lochte – even while remaining the best-selling physical medium by far. In 2015, new CDs accounted for $1.5 billion (with a “B”) in sales while new vinyl accounted for less than a third of that, $416 million, according to The New York Times. But there’s no question which is the hottest physical format. Vinyl sales surged a whopping 32 percent last year while CDs dropped 17 percent, down a staggering 84 percent over the last 10 years.

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  • SUPPORTING YOUR LOCAL INDIE SHOPS SINCE 2007


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