Author Archives: TVD HQ

Lowenstein Complex helping to turn area into booming real estate market, Owner says the record shop isn’t going anywhere: Twist & Shout isn’t going anywhere and it isn’t expanding, Epstein said. The Lowenstein is the fabled record store’s third home in Denver. Epstein said he only plans to sell the real estate. “I’m tired of being a landlord,” he said, “I just wanted to be a retailer.”

Back into the groove: Resist the temptation to pack that dusty old turntable and send it off to The Salvation Army because it hasn’t been used for decades – this might be the time to hook it up again…Ironically, it is probably easier now to find Adele’s new album on wax than on CD, thanks to a new wave of vinyl record shops that have been opening – and expanding – over the last couple of years. Vinylicious Records kick-started the trend when it opened in Parklane Shopping Mall in early 2013.

Light sleepers need not apply! Music lovers can spend the night surrounded by records in New York’s Rough Trade store: Record lovers are in for a musical treat. Audio company Sonos and famous record store Rough Trade have teamed up to list a one-night stay at the iconic New York shop on Airbnb. The once-in-a-lifetime experience is the prize in a competition for two winners and their guests to retreat to their own private haven at Rough Trade’s new Listening Room.

The greatest record sleeves – as chosen by the designers: What’s the best-designed album sleeve? Richard Hamilton’s sleeve was really radical and ahead of its time and it still looks contemporary. By contrast to Peter Blake’s vivid artwork for the Beatles’ previous album, Sgt Pepper’s, it was a plain white sleeve with the band name just embossed, almost invisible. There was a stamped number, which made each one unique. My parents had it first, but I thought it looked boring until I studied art. Once you understand the context, it gets really interesting.

Plugging musical knowledge gaps with vinyl: …I wanted to buy a turntable and listen to vinyl again. I am slow to the party on this one. For some time, there has been a worldwide resurgence in the popularity of vinyl. And here, in lil ol Northland, the consequence is a shortage of second hand turntables. Searle Electronics in Whangarei specialises in selling good quality second hand audio gear, as well as new equipment. They have a waiting list of people who want to buy a decent second hand turntable.

Brooklyn Flea Record Fair Returns to Williamsburg Saturday, The Brooklyn Flea Record Fair brings together dozens of labels, collectors and DJs Saturday, Sept. 24, at the East River State Park: One of the year’s largest vinyl record fairs returns this weekend to Williamsburg next to Smorgasburg, in case you work up an appetite from all of the crate digging. The Brooklyn Flea Record Fair Is happening Saturday Sept. 24 from 11 a.m to 6 p.m. at the East River Sate Park. The fall 2016 edition of the record fair has over 50 vendors, labels and DJs, and vinyl collectors and sellers.

Joe’s Record Paradise Grand Reopening: We are having our Grand Reopening on Saturday the 24th and everyone is welcome. There will be Food from Anabel’s food truck at an almost free cost(subsidized by Joe’s) and 7 Locks Brewery from Rockville will have a table with some tasty treats and also some coffee from the local spot Bump n’ Grind. Along with that there will be several free raffles with prizes from the 9:30 Club, the Fillmore Silver Spring and from Joe’s itself (swag including pint glasses which are back, stickers, chip clips, CD books, gift certificates, etc).

Not So Fast. Vinyl Records May Not Be Going Down: In this writer’s opinion, I would only cautiously warn that we take a closer look at the full results of 2016. Vinyl sales do appear to have slowed down, but not enough to dismiss the format yet. I would actually be more inclined to believe that the CD may be wiped out before vinyl based not only on these numbers, but also financial reports from other countries. But I’ll leave you with DMN posters’ thoughts.

Does Anyone in the World Still Buy CDs? Granted, music shops are rarer than they used to be (RIP Virgin Megastore, Tower Records, Zavvi, and all the forgotten soldiers), but many of them still exist. The fact they are now even harder to find means there must be people who are leaving their houses and getting the bus to Fopp to drop actual tenners on CDs. What’s going on? What are these people buying? To find the answers to such questions, I spent the afternoon at select stores meeting CD buyers, so I could interrogate them about their frankly freaky life choices.

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Record Companies’ U.S. Revenue Up 8.1% in First Half of 2016, A huge jump in music streaming fuels strongest growth in the industry since the CD boom of the late 1990s: The streaming boom easily offset steep, continuing declines in sales of CDs and digital downloads. Revenue from CD sales fell more than 16%, while revenue from digital singles dropped nearly 22%. Vinyl sales fell 6.3% to $207 million on 8.4 million records, though in dollar terms that represented a sizable chunk—about one-third—of the total $632 million in physical music sales.

All Things Must Pass: New Vinyl Sales Sinking: The rebirth or rejuvenation of the vinyl disc has been a blessing for main street music stores, so if the latest figures hold true the push behind Record Store Day is in trouble, and the pay-day for owner-operated music shops is even more so. Which isn’t to say that the format is dead. US-based Discogs reports a whopping 23% increase in vinyl album sales in the first six months of 2016; however, the online retailer doesn’t break down how many of the records purchased are used–which is a big ticket for the Internet store that facilitates transactions between collectors and sellers.

Tunbridge Wells set for only exclusive vinyl shop in west Kent: A Tunbridge Wells music shop is looking to hit the right note and revolutionise the way we buy music. Vinyl Revolution is the brainchild of Simon Parker and Rachel Lowe who will imminently launch their new business pop up record store on Camden Road. The innovative duo spotted a gap in the market for an independent music store which is accessible for all music-lovers. Co-owner, musician and vinyl collector Simon Parker originally had the idea for the online shop and store while working in Oxford and wanted an unpretentious way of selling vinyl to the masses.

Keep on spinning: Caring for your vinyl collection: With the resurgence of vinyl in recent years, record sales are on the rise as music lovers across the world eagerly build their collections. As record lovers embrace vinyl, they also know that it takes more than keeping your record in its sleeve to ensure your growing collection stays in mint condition. Read on as we explore how you can keep your vinyl spinning for years to come.

The Making of a Music Town: A few police vehicles sit down an alley, lights swinging, less than a block north of West Broad Street downtown. No one else is on the street. And no one, other than Marty Key, is at Steady Sounds on this Saturday morning. Soon, a handful of people are milling around Key’s vinyl record store, digging in bins, mining for gold. “It’s really dangerous to live so close,” a customer says, looking down at a hefty pile of used records. “Every time I walk by, I wind up dropping $20.” “Today, you’re dropping $23.17,” the record-store proprietor says.

You Can Book a Stay at the Rough Trade Record Store on Airbnb, This fall, you can spend a weekend night in the Brooklyn branch of the legendary record store: This fall, on select weekends, competition winners will be able to book out the entire Rough Trade record store in Williamsburg for an overnight stay. In collaboration with Sonos, the record store is opening up a new Sonos Listening Room, and will offer the listening room as a unique listing on Airbnb, which grants a renter access to the Rough Trade venue space and record store.

Vinyl record store to open in the Elk City District later this fall: Phil Melick can often be found thumbing through old records, in the basement of his home. But, the thousands of records sitting in bins, aren’t just collecting dust. Melick has plans for them. Soon, he will be taking all of them to his new store on the West Side. “I’ve always one day wanted to be in the position where I could semi-retire and open a record store,”said Melick. The former lawyer is opening Elk City Records on Washington Street West this fall.

Watch: New vinyl record store opens in Rugby town centre: Vinyl might have had its obituaries, but ‘old fashioned’ records are making a comeback. And nowhere more so than in Rugby where the newest shop to open for business sells nothing but vinyl. Just For The Record, located above Hunt’s book shop in High Street, fulfils a long-held dream for owner Sally Wolanski, who has been an avid record collector for much of her life. Sally is augmenting the stock at her new business with some of the 6,500 records she has amassed as a collector over 30 years.

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Record store finds vinyl niche in downtown Fairbanks: When Megan and Max Frost moved to Fairbanks a little more than a year ago, they planned on getting “real jobs,” and for a while they did, but it wasn’t long before their shared love of music and art pulled them back to their passions. Before they packed their bags for Fairbanks, the two operated a small record store in the Florida tourist destination of St. Augustine. In what seems to be a time-honored Fairbanks tradition, when faced with a void in the Golden Heart City, they set about to fill it themselves.

It’s a record…the unstoppable rise of vinyl in Scotland: In the 1960s and 70s they were called LPs, not albums, and were the cornerstone of music culture. Back then groups of excitable teenagers would gather around Dansette record players listening to their favourite artists with reverence. Or check out the latest releases in a booth in a local record shop wearing headphones. But with the massive popularity of CDs in the Naughties vinyl seemed set to die out. Records were boxed up and put in the attic, or sold off to collectors, factories closed down. But, over the last decade, sales of records have been steadily growing and we are now seeing a vinyl renaissance.

Czech businessman leads vinyl revival: Nowadays you can’t call yourself a true music fan if you aren’t curating a collection of vinyl records. Vinyl can be bought everywhere — from independent record stores to Urban Outfitters and even Whole Foods. “Nothing’s final til it’s vinyl,” says the old music business saying — but it hasn’t always been that way…Vinyl makers across the world stopped production, but In the Czech Republic, Zdeneck Pelc — CEO and owner of GZ Media — did not follow suit. His company kept its 45-year-old equipment and is now the world’s biggest vinyl supplier.

Vinyl Fest ready to spin in Penticton: Vinyl lovers rejoice. The Okanagan Vinyl Fest annual record fair is ready to spin some tunes and talk everything vinyl on Sunday, Sept. 25. The event is a major fundrasier for CFUZ (Peach City Community Radio) and puts many audio lovers in touch with the medium that they love. This fifth anniversary year will feature 34 enthusiastic and knowledgeable vinyl vendors – most of whom have attended since year one. The event has grown over the years and now takes place in the Great Hall at the Penticton Senior’s Drop-In Centre on South Main Street.

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Thank You For Zia Records, Brian Faber: If you’re a music lover who has lived in Arizona (or Nevada) for any period of time, you have no doubt made yourself familiar with local record store chain Zia Records. Even if you didn’t realize it, a man named Brian Faber was very much responsible for whatever joy Zia sprung forth, whether it was creating a space where you could still dig through record bins, watch a beloved artist perform in-store, or get some quick cash by trading in old records. Sadly, Faber, vice president and owner of Zia Records, passed away Sept. 4. He was 45.

The world’s best record shops #37: Honest Jon’s, London: Honest Jon’s has been serving west London’s most vibrant community, in more ways than one, since 1974. Sociology lecturer John Clare was researching gang membership in Paddington at the time, but he leapt at the opportunity to start trading jazz records when an old butcher’s became available on Golbourne Road. “It never completely lost its identity as a butchers shop,” Clare says. Meat hooks adorned the back room, walls were ensanguined and Clare traded records over a giant solid marble slab. “For two years a young customer who drove a meat lorry called in twice a week and paid for his entire record collection with raw meat; mainly beef.”

Record Sleeves Tell South African Music’s History, Sometimes, album cover art reveals more about the society it sprung from than the music: Perhaps the most intriguing narrative shows how a common visual language around jazz coalesced among the community of black artists in 1970s Johannesburg. Some of these painters became famous. Some are barely known outside collectors’ circles. But just as the official history of choral music has erased the tradition of workers’ choirs from its syllabus, so official art history seems to have little place for these artists or this genre of subject matter.

Bins and Needles: When your interest in music is a borderline addiction, you’ve probably entertained the idea of opening your own record store. You could hang out, listen to music and maybe change some poor sap’s life through the power of Rock ’n’ Roll (or whatever the kids listen to these days). In November of 2014, Steve and Verna Haynes pulled the trigger on a long-time fantasy and opened the vinyl-centric Obsession Records. The shop, which is located off Lake Otis and Tudor, carries new and used vinyl, turntables and used CDs. They also stock local music, which is featured prominently near the register. It’s about the size of a two car garage, but the cozy space harkens back to a time before digital downloads and streaming services.

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How The Vinyl Record Value Chain Is Being Digitally Transformed: Artists and labels can finance the production of their vinyl through Qrates’ crowdfunding platform, or they can use other platforms like Indiegogo or Kickstarter. For production, the company has made agreements with high quality pressing plants located in Europe and Asia, developing supply-chain processes that shorten order-to-delivery from typically four-five months to six-eight weeks. Qrates is planning to start production in the U.S. this fall.

Erika Records Brings Specialty Vinyl to the Masses: From the time Erika Records cut its first record, nothing about the company fit the mold of a typical vinyl-pressing plant—especially not its founder. Determined to enter the business on her own in 1981, Liz Dunster—a 27-year-old, bleached-blond mother of two—found most plant owners and manufacturing executives didn’t quite know what to make of her.

This Guy Found 50,000 Records in the Trash—and Kept All of Them: Taylor Wallace doesn’t remember the record he saw first. He’s pretty sure, though, it was one of the following: Lionel Richie’s Dancing on the Ceiling, Jane Fonda’s Abs, Buns and Thighs, the soundtrack from Zorba the Greek or something from Kris Kross. What he does know is that he decided to keep each of them — including all 10 copies of Dancing on the Ceiling. And that he’s kept everything else he discovered on that June afternoon and the days that followed. Legendary stuff from Sinatra, The Beatles and Ray Charles. Not-so-legendary stuff from the Booty People, John Travolta and Jabba the Hutt’s band from Return of the Jedi. And something called Bob Wiseman Sings Wrench Tuttle.

From the Bee archives: Swan song for last local Tower store: The Bee originally published this story on Dec. 22, 2006…Tower Records played its last song in Sacramento on Thursday. As employees snapped photos, Elk Grove resident Thomas Stevenson purchased 15 jazz and rap compact discs at the Tower store on Watt Avenue. As he headed out into the rain, an employee locked the door, and Tower said goodbye to the city that gave birth to the legendary music retailer 65 years ago. Closing one day after its fabled sibling on Broadway, the Watt store was the last Sacramento outpost of a company that once defined an era in American retailing.