Vinyl Sales Aren’t Dead: The ‘New’ Billion Dollar Music Business: Vinyl records are projected to sell 40 million units in 2017. This will bring the past seven years’ collective sales to the $1 billion benchmark for the first time this millennium. This impressive milestone has been untouched since the peak of the industry in the 1980s. While explosive by today’s standards, according to Deloitte, in its heyday (‘81), total vinyl album sales topped $1 billion in just that year alone.
Radio Wasteland Records opens Friday in Midland: Break out your turntables and get ready for a blast from the past because a record store is opening in Midland on Friday. Radio Wasteland Records, located at 718 George St., will offer an extensive assortment of vintage vinyl and new releases for young and old music lovers alike. “What we have, as far as an offering goes, runs the gamut. If you can think of an interesting genre for vintage vinyl, I think we can represent it here,” owner Jim Gleason said. The store, located just four blocks north of Dow Diamond, will host a collection of genres ranging from rock and roll and soundtracks to radio shows and even a few area recordings.
Tunbridge Wells pop-up vinyl shop owners want to reopen elsewhere in town: A pop-up vinyl record shop in Tunbridge Wells has closed down, but the owners want to reopen in town, saying the business “exceeded all expectations”. Vinyl Revolution, which was based in Camden Road, had opened at the end of October but only had plans to be open at the venue until January due to a proposed redevelopment of some of the shops on the edge of the Royal Victoria Place centre. “For an idea that literally only came to us three months before we opened, the shop has exceeded all our expectations – a large part of that is due to being in Tunbridge Wells,” co-owner Rachel Lowe told Kent Live.
Re-covered in Vinyl: Fully half the modern world seemed to be covered in vinyl back in the ’50s and ’60s, and of course these days everyone is collecting vinyl records again. They might indeed sound better than their digital descendants, but there’s no denying the vintage appeal of all things vinyl. So it’s vinyl on centre stage as the collector’s collective Made by Legacy, which specialises in organising American-style flea markets, mounts its latest funky retail extravaganza tomorrow and Sunday on the roof of Bangkok’s Fortune Town mall. This is the eighth edition for a dazzlingly diverse flea market that has previously evoked nostalgia for Vietnam-era GIs, childhood toys and classic cars. This year’s 150 booths will be piled high with vinyl stuff – and a whole lot more besides.
Music’s Weird Cassette Tape Revival Is Paying Off: For Andy Molholt, there’s something oddly special about hitting play on his boombox at the beach. The Philadelphia-based musician tours frequently with his band Laser Background and, between that and the many shows he helps book back home in Philly, he winds up seeing a lot of bands perform in bars, basements, and warehouses. If he likes them, he usually buys a tape. “It’s nice to only be able to listen to what’s in front of you, instead of having the entirety of music at your fingertips with Spotify and all that,” says Molholt of his growing tape collection. “There’s also something warm and fuzzy about tapes to me, maybe in a nostalgic kind of way.”
