Sainsbury’s gets into the groove with new record label: Sainsbury’s is to launch its own record label as the supermarket giant looks to capitalise on the resurgent popularity of vinyl. The company will join forces with Universal and Warner Music to publish exclusive records under its new Own Label imprint, which will be available in more than 160 Sainsbury’s superstores. Two vinyl compilation albums will kick off the launch: Hi Fidelity – A Taste Of Stereo Sound, and Coming Into Los Angeles – A Taste Of West Coast, featuring Cat Stevens and Sir Elton John…Sainsbury’s began stocking vinyl in March 2016 for the first time since the 1980s and claims to account for almost 70% of the total grocery vinyl market.
Business Snapshot: Into the Abyss: Brad and Jenni Germain’s just-opened vinyl and clothing store is a reflection of their personal tastes. “We’re here because we wanted to create a different type of record store and wanted a shop in the Locke Street neighbourhood. It was important for us to have a shop that had new and used records, clothing and a bit of a counter-culture experience on Locke Street which may have not existed before. We wanted to carry different types of records compared to some of the other shops in town wanting to focus on some lesser known artists and hidden treasures. We also wanted to have an event space where we could have live music.”
Smithsonian Anthology of Hip-Hop and Rap Kickstarter: Smithsonian Folkways has launched a Kickstarter campaign for a major boxset, ‘Smithsonian Anthology of Hip-Hop and Rap’. Created in collaboration with the National Museum of African American History and Culture, the 9-CD, 130-track, 300-page book is a landmark collection of music spanning from Sugarhill Gang and Roxanne Shante to Kanye West and Nicki Minaj, powerful stories and stunning visuals from Def Jam’s founding creative director Cey Adams and extensive photos, including below of artists like Tupac, Eazy-E and many more. You can learn more about the Kickstarter right here.
Put it on replay, Local record store Replay Records stays true to its roots after 28 years, even in the era of digital music: In an ever-more-digital world, it’s easy to forget the comfort that comes with once common activities. Whether it’s sealing a letter to mom or dusting off some old records, there’s something about these tactile experiences that’s missing from their digital counterparts. Replay Records in Hamden makes the latter simple to relive. Replay, located at 2586 Whitney Ave., is a quintessential record store. Walking through the front door, customers are greeted with stacks of dusty records, the sound of 80s rock played over a crackling Pioneer stereo and an intangible quality that screams “authentic record store.”
Your next old-new favorite record might be found at Brookline’s Village Vinyl: The resurgence of vinyl has been a homecoming for those that remember spinning a 45 or 33 ½ record in their day. For today’s youth, the media-labeled “Generation Z,” it’s another realization that even listening to music was a simpler and more thoughtful event. “The return of vinyl makes sense because things go in cycles. Even if there is a little snap, crackle, pop! from records, it’s the fullness of the sound compared to an mp3,” said Jonathan Sandler, owner of Village Vinyl & Hi-Fi, Brookline’s newest and only vintage vinyl record shop. “And I came back to this on my own. I wanted to get back into my record collection.”
Play it again: The firm saving vinyl: Whether gathering dust in your loft or currently spinning on your turntable, it’s a fair bet that at least some of your vinyl records came from a small factory in the Czech Republic. The facility in question is the headquarters of GZ Media, based in the small town of Lodenice, 25km (16 miles) west of the Czech capital, Prague. GZ is today the world’s largest producer of vinyl records, of which it expects to press 30 million this year, for everyone from the Rolling Stones and U2, to Lady Gaga and Madonna. The success of the company is a far cry from the early 1990s, when vinyl records appeared to be on the way out, with music fans having switched en masse to compact discs.
