Polk County, FL | Vinyl Record Sales Surpass CDs Amid COVID-19: The love of vinyl is coming back around, but this time, the owner of Jesse Carl Vinyl shop in Lakeland says, it’s intentional. “People aren’t just coming in to browse, they are coming to buy,” said owner Jessi Zilka. “There’s a sound quality to records that you just can’t get in any other format of music. I think that’s something that can reach younger and older generations. Unites one frame of mind.” Records are outselling CD’s for the first time since the 80’s. In fact, record sales are up 4% in the nation while CD sales are down 48%, according to the Recording Industry America Association. “We’ve seen a 30% increase in sales,” said Zilka. “I think listening to music is something great to do with your family, especially during the stay-at-home order.” Zilka has been spinning records for over a decade and she told Spectrum Bay News 9 that the best part of her job is educating people on music, adding that music is a universal language.
Kuala Lumpur, MY | CMCO: Indie record shops in the Klang Valley bank on regulars to keep the music going: It’s been a quiet few days at work for Crossroads Records co-owner Anne Marie Cheong since the conditional movement control order (MCO) came into effect in the Klang Valley on Oct 14. The family-run independent record shop in Kota Damansara is usually noisier with Cheong’s husband/shop co-owner Hafeez Rashid greeting customers, recommending music and also playfully scooping up the couple’s two young daughters who visit the store. Even with Crossroads’ strict SOP compliance and “by appointment only” visiting hours, the couple are now making alternative work arrangements, taking turns to manage the shop while their children are kept home. “The whole family can’t be together at the shop now. At the moment, if we get a call for an appointment, we will open the store for a few hours… thankfully, we still have regulars who continue to support us,” says Cheong, adding that Crossroads is also actively marketing its used records online.
Hopkins, MN | Record Store Day 3 + a cool giveaway for vinyl lovers: This weekend, join The Current for another celebration of vinyl and the culture of record collecting! Saturday is the third and final Record Store Day drop of the year, giving you another opportunity to add exclusive releases and reissues to your collection. Kick off your day of shopping with an all-vinyl episode of Teenage Kicks, hosted by Jim McGuinn. Then, tune in from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. (CDT) as Bill DeVille and Mac Wilson debut some of these exclusives and spin crate-digger classics. Meanwhile, you can show off your record collection with a photo tagging @TheCurrent on Instagram — and if that’s not all, you can enter for a chance to win a gift card to Mill City Sound to grow that collection! Find the entry form below to enter for your chance to win. Record Store Day with The Current is supported by Mill City Sound.
There’s a 30th anniversary edition of Alice in Chains’ Facelift coming: Get your version of Alice In Chains’ classic debut as a vinyl, or ultra boxset… Alice In Chains’ classic debut Facelift recently celebrated its 30th birthday. To celebrate, the Seattle grunge legends have announced two special re-releases. If you’re a more restrained, thrifty type of person, you can go for the stand-alone vinyl edition, released on November 13. However, for the fan who has to have everything in the biggest and most sprawling version possible, wait ’til January 29, and you can get the deluxe version which features (deep breath)… In other Alice In Chains-related news, guitarist Jerry Cantrell revealed back in February that he’s been working on a new solo album. “I’m working on a new record myself, so generally when I’m in that sort of a mode, I pretty much don’t listen to anything until I’m done, so nothing creeps in there,” he said.
Clutch launch mammoth limited edition box set for Record Store Day: The Obelisk contains double LP’s, three 12″ LPs and three 12″ picture discs, and does not come in a watermelon-shaped box. Maryland rockers Clutch are the latest band to clamber gleefully aboard the Record Store Day bandwagon, announcing the release of The Obelisk, a multi-disc set due to land on the third of this year’s “drop days”, October 24. The Obelisk will include of all of Clutch’s vinyl releases for Weathermaker Music, chronologically kicking off with 2002’s Live At The Googolplex and climaxing with 2018’s Book Of Bad Decisions. The 12 albums are presented as six double LP’s, three single albums and three 12″ picture discs. It’ll arrive in a box that also includes contains a Clutch-branded turntable mat and a square, artist signed lithograph. What’s more, there’s only 2000 of them.
10th anniversary of Halestorm’s ‘Live In Philly’ gets vinyl release: Each month, RUN OUT GROOVE allows fans to vote on the label’s next high-quality vinyl pressing, chosen from selections of unreleased material, reissues of out-of-print titles, titles that have never seen a vinyl release or brand-new collections compiled from the Warner Music vaults. In cooperation with Atlantic Records, the very first worldwide release of Halestorm’s “Live In Philly” will be released on vinyl, 10 years after the original album was recorded. It is available for preorder here. Halestorm is comprised of Lzzy Hale (vocals + guitar), Arejay Hale (drums), Joe Hottinger (guitar) and Josh Smith (bass). Together, they have toured extensively, clocking a staggering 2,500 live performances to date with a diverse variety of artists including: Eric Church, Joan Jett, Avenged Sevenfold, Alice Cooper, ZZ Top and Evanescence. Most recently, the band scored a 2019 Grammy nomination for Best Rock Performance for its song “Uncomfortable,” featured on the 2018 LP “Vicious.”
Off the record: A vinyl revival: There is good news for analog audiophiles. For the first time since the 1980s, vinyl record album sales have surpassed the sale of compact discs. According to the Recording Industry Association of America, for the first half of 2020, sales of vinyl albums accounted for $232.1 million in revenue as compared with CDs, which sold $129.9 million. Sales of vinyl records have been on the rise since 2005 while CD revenues are down 48% so far in 2020. That being said, physical sales are down across the board thanks to COVID-19. We all long for the coming days when we can load up for a concert road trip or a casual visit to our favorite record store. Meanwhile, streaming music continues to dominate with 85% of revenue for the music industry coming from compressed digital files. Services such as Spotify and Apple Music have pushed music industry sales to $5.7 billion the first half of 2020, a 5.6% increase over the same period last year.
