Author Archives: TVD HQ

Denver, CO | Vinyl Sales Explode During Pandemic: With live music shut down for more than a year, fans have turned to albums, and vinyl collections have boomed. Leading up to Christmas 2020, for the first time since 1991, the record for most vinyl sales in a week was shattered twice, according to the Recording Industry Association of America. Nearly 1.5 million LPs were sold between December 10 and 17, and in the following week, nearly two million were sold. While vinyl sales have been growing since 2007, they increased in the United States by almost 30 percent in 2020 alone. There seems to be no sign of sales slowing down, either, says Jordan Wiggins, who works at Vinyl Moon. …“We’ve doubled in subscribers in just the first three months of 2021,” says Wiggins. “Though spending habits have changed for many consumers in light of the pandemic, a subset of spending has actually gone up, particularly when it comes to leisure and home entertainment.”

Santa Clarita, CA | New Indie Record Store, Gray Skull Vinyl, Opens in Canyon Country: A new independent record store, Gray Skull Vinyl, has opened in Canyon Country, where local music fans and collectors have suffered without one for years. Located at 19983 Soledad Canyon Road, the shop is stocked with new and used vinyl records, 8-tracks, cassettes, CD’s, VHS videos, DVDs, posters, framed photographs, t-shirts, caps, guitars, amps, music magazines, books, and more. Victor Torres Jr., a 25-year Canyon Country resident and lifelong record and music collector, and his family opened the retail shop in early April in the small strip mall anchored by the Oak Tree liquor store at Soledad and Langside. “Customers come in and they’re like, ‘Wow, I could spend a good half a day here going through all these records and talking about music,’” Torres said in an interview at the store last week. “That’s what I want when people come in and just enjoy the record store. “I want people to walk in here and feel like they’re 15 years old again, see a favorite record or a poster, and say, ‘Oh, I had one of those! I don’t know what happened to it,’” he said. “But if they find it here, they could buy it again.”

Simply Analog has released a Vinyl Record Cleaning Boxset Woodedition in a wooden case: Vinyl Record Cleaning Boxset Woodedition in a wooden case has been added to the catalog by Simply Analog, a specialist in vinyl accessories. The kit includes two different record brushes, a piece of cleaning cloth, record spray and a needle cleaner. According to the manufacturer, all these accessories will allow you to take care of the records in the best possible way and without damage. The included brushes should remove even the tiniest dust particles. Simply Analog recommended the kit for daily use. As for the wooden case, this design is offered as an alternative to the usual Vinyl Record Cleaning Boxset in a cardboard box. In Europe, the cost of the new Vinyl Record Cleaning Boxset Woodedition was 60 euros.

Margo Price Launches Rarities Vinyl Record Club: Margo Price has launched a mail-order report membership, A Sequence of Rumors. The primary tune from will probably be “Lengthy Dwell The King” which is able to seem because the B-side to the Rumors spotlight “Hey Little one.” Additionally a part of the primary cargo bundle is “Twinkle Twinkle” b/w Worth’s tackle Bobbie Gentry’s “He Made a Lady Out of Me” and “Letting Me Down” b/w “I’d Die For You” (Synthphonic). The primary set of data will ship now, and subscribers will obtain their second/third deliveries in June/July. Some are misplaced songs from That’s How Rumors Get Began periods at each Hollywood’s East West Studios and Nashville’s Butcher Shoppe; others are from pre-production periods in Texas with Band of Heathens, or lockdown recordings with Worth’s band The Pricetags. Over three month-to-month shipments, A Sequence of Rumors members will obtain a restricted version, an autographed field of seven-inch vinyl data that includes music from Worth’s 2020 album, That’s How Rumors Get Began, backed with unique B-sides, covers and unreleased collaborations.

Chicago, IL | Bob Koester, known for his famed Jazz Record Mart and founder of Delmark Records, dies at 88: Bob Koester, founder of Delmark Records, the oldest indie label for jazz and blues in the U.S., died Wednesday from complications from a stroke. He was 88. Koester also ran a retail space, the Jazz Record Mart, that was a fixture and destination point for music lovers, occupying several different downtown Chicago locations before closing in 2016. Almost immediately afterward, Koester would open a new store called Bob’s Blues & Jazz Mart on W. Irving Park Rd. “When you’ve spent most of your life in the record business, how do you celebrate your 84th birthday? By opening a record store, of course,” Tribune jazz critic Howard Reich wrote at the time, noting that when Chicago bluesman Eddie C. Campbell arrived for the grand opening, “there was no question that musical royalty was paying homage to a man who has championed blues and jazz for more than half a century.” Born in 1932 in Wichita, Kansas, Koester attended college at St. Louis University before moving to Chicago in the late 1950s and opening his first store.

London, UK | Here are four – yes, four – new record shops that I’m excited about: The streets of London run black with wax. Like most clichéd London men, I love record shopping. Pawing at all that dusty cardboard. Not finding anything I want and then impulse purchasing a random Sonny Rollins album based entirely on its cover. There’s nothing like it. Luckily, there are enough tragic people like me that London’s vinyl scene is in fact growing. Quite a few record shops have opened in recent months, which, when you think about the virus-addled context, is remarkable really. What follows is my four favourites. First up is Next Door Records on Uxbridge Road, Shepherd’s Bush. This is a kind of booze-coffee-and-music hybrid (which started life as a crowdfunder campaign) that’ll probably horrify decrepit purists but thrill everyone else. They’re mates with entertaining food person What Willy, stock very good wine and have a bit of a focus on electronic music. Personally, as a QPR fan, I’m just glad something like this has finally opened in that bit of west London. Oh, and they have outdoor tables.

Melbourne, AU | After a difficult 2020, Thornbury Records has relocated to High St, Northcote: We chat to Thornbury Records owner and manager Clayton Pegus about the tough journey to his new store. Thornbury Records launched in the early months of 2011. At the time, Thornbury wasn’t quite the bustling locale of cafes, bars and boutiques it is today. Although it mightn’t be accurate to give T-Recs all the credit for catalysing this evolution, it was definitely one of the earliest examples of High St Thornbury’s rising hipsterdom. Earlier this year, Thornbury Records celebrated its tenth anniversary. It was a bittersweet occasion, however, as owner and manager Clayton Pegus had recently been forced to abandon the shop’s original location. “We had our ten-year anniversary without a shop, which is kind of crap,” says Pegus. The obvious supposition is that COVID overwhelmed the business’ financial viability, but T-Recs actually withstood any major pandemic-induced damage, largely thanks to its online store. Pegus had also started offering free local delivery and cheap postage to anywhere within Australia.

Walmart Vinyl Mania Week Is Live: We all love a good shopping deal, but for vinyl lovers, those are sometimes hard to come by. The folks at Walmart have stepped up their game as today they launched Vinyl Mania Week, with exclusive deals on records all week long. To be clear, there’s absolutely no replacing the greatness that is walking into a local record store and getting your hands on the vinyl you love most. But Walmart is doing a good job of supplementing that with some exclusive releases and special vinyl colors all week long. The Walmart Vinyl Mania Week deals kicked off today at Walmart.com with a batch of Monday special releases. Virtually every genre was covered with today’s releases, including both modern and classic favorites. Every day this week, a new batch of exclusives will be released.

Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN | Best of the Twin Cities, 2021: It’s been a hell of a year—yet there is much to celebrate. So get out there, Twin Cities, and let’s make the best of it. …While 2020 was like a bad scratch in your favorite album, Electric Fetus will persist, thanks largely to a pandemic bright spot: Folks fell in love with browsing vinyl again. “People are responding. It feels like this is driven by the passion to support local, appreciate old friends—and old stores—and make the most of the time at home,” says Aaron Meyerring, co-owner of the 53-year-old retail icon. And the Fetus is not alone. All three locations of both Down in the Valley and Cheapo, Roadrunner Records in Kingfield, and Eclipse Records on Wabasha Street in St. Paul are among the other indie vinyl shops who managed to survive the pandemic. June 12, this year’s Record Store Day, can’t get here fast enough.

Read More »

Stamford, UK | Popmaster winner to open vinyl record store at The Maltings in Oakham: The resurgence of vinyl among music fans has prompted a husband and wife to follow their dream and open a record shop. Dean Poole is stepping down from his role as care manager for Rutland County Council to open Rocka-Buy Records in Oakham with wife Gaynor. The shop, based in the Maltings, will open on Saturday, May 29 to buy and sell new and second-hand vinyl records, without a CD in sight. The business will be a real family affair involving all three sons and daughter Elsie. Chris will help run the shop alongside Rutland Guitar School, while Daniel will create artwork and help with the digital side of the business, and Jordan will promote the shop on social media. They collected the shop keys just last week, but the idea has been a lifelong goal put on fast-forward by the pandemic. “This has always been on the cards for us, but it’s come sooner than we thought because Covid has kicked everything into touch,” said Gaynor. “It has made people look at life differently. Life is too short, and if you’re in a position to make a change there’s no use in waiting.”

London, UK | London’s record shops in the spotlight: Peckham resident Garth Cartwright has been fascinated by record shops for years, so much so that he wrote a book called Going For A Song: A Chronicle Of The UK Record Shop in 2018. This led to him getting a deal with The History Press to write a book solely on London’s contribution to record outlets. So, available very soon is London’s Record Shops, writes Michael Holland. ‘After my first book,’ says Garth, ‘I was aware that I didn’t have the space in that book to document how lively the current London record shop scene is. I got Tina (Quintina Valero) along to photograph Supertone Records in Brixton – the oldest reggae shop in South London – and her photos were so striking I was determined we should do a book that celebrates those shops still standing in the capital.’ The author negotiated a deal with The History Press in 2019 but soon after when he and Tina began putting the book together Covid came. Tina went back to Spain for a while but on her return in the summer the work started up again: ‘Essentially, I guided her to all the shops I believed should be included and she got busy taking photos,’ recalls Garth.

Porto, PT | Scrape Needle: The new record store in Porto even has a garden: It’s the perfect hideaway for vinyl lovers and organizes music events. When we think of the pandemic we just seem to see a series of cases, patients, hospitals, detention centers and everything we can remember. While this is the harsh reality that Covid-19 has brought us, the truth is that there is still some interesting news that we can remove from this less-than-good period. A good example of this is Scrape Needle, a record store that opened in Porto in April. More than just a place to buy new and used discs, there is another site worth exploring. Located in a house on Rua Antero de Quental, it attracts attention through its garden where you can rest and listen to good music in a comfortable chair or even in a hammock. This is a place where events like showcases or autograph sessions take place. The idea to create this project arose when Josefina Fonseca, daughter of a Fado singer and passionate music lover, discovered that the city “lacks niche businesses within alternative music that focus more on the national and international underground scene” explained, quoted by “Time Out”.

Forbes: Revolutionizing Main Street: How Shopping Hubs Are Changing: What becomes of Main Street when all of its retail traffic is redirected to Dot-Com Avenue? El Centro knows. El Centro is an example of how many retail hubs are evolving to keep pace – we mean literally, as in foot traffic – with a customer base that has grown accustomed to shopping everything online. The residential and retail complex, on Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles, California, has recently added Amoeba Music, the world’s largest independent record store, as an anchor tenant. The choice is both untraditional and natural – meaning opportunistic. Amoeba has a long history in Hollywood, but it closed shop nearly a year earlier due to the Covid-19 pandemic. By courting Amoeba to open at El Centro, developer DLJ Real Estate Capital Partners brought the comfort of nostalgia and “normalcy” to a community holed up for a year. After all, if there is one thing many of us can relate to, it’s browsing vinyl albums in the bins.

IE | How the gramophone came to influence Irish music: In 1900, New York’s Third Avenue bustled with activity. Horse-drawn carriages and the occasional motor car moved below the street’s elevated train lines. It was here that Leitrim native, Ellen O’Byrne, chose to set up her Irish music shop. Nestled between pet shops and hardware stores, below balconies and bedsits, she built a mecca for Irish immigrants. According to Professor Roxanne O’Connell, it would have been a place where new arrivals could meet friends and neighbours, while settled members of the community could drop by for news and a cup of tea. Of course, they could stock up on music too. As New York’s population began to explode, O’Byrne saw more and more customers come through the door. She stocked the shelves with Irish flags, instruments, sheet music and any Irish recordings she could get her hands on. But, by 1916, she couldn’t keep up with demand. Dance tunes, like Stack of Barley, sold out very fast but only a limited selection were available. To make matters worse, one of the only stockists decided to stop making Irish records. According to The Irish in the Atlantic World, this was when O’Byrne decided to take action.

New York, NY | Following seven successful years in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, Rough Trade NYC is excited to make its much anticipated move over the East River… Our new Rough Trade NYC will be located at Rockefeller Center (30 Rockefeller Plaza, on Avenue of the Americas between 49-50th Streets), just steps from the iconic Radio City Music Hall. “Following the impact of COVID-19, Rough Trade’s decision to relocate reflects a wider reimagination of cities worldwide”, says Rough Trade Co-Owner, Stephen Godfroy. “Manhattan has a glorious history of great record stores. Now there’s an exciting present as well. The opportunities afforded by the pandemic in the reconfiguration of central city districts have brought us, counter-intuitively, to the heart of New York, an area barren of record stores for years. But Rough Trade’s instinct has always been to surprise! …We loved our amazing Williamsburg store, but thousands of gigs and vinyl sales later, we couldn’t resist the opportunity to move over to Manhattan, downsizing on scale but upsizing on ambition and reach.”

Walmart to host its first online ‘Vinyl Mania Week’ Tapping into a growing trend where old is new again, Walmart will host its first online Vinyl Mania Week beginning Monday, May 10 with exclusive and limited editions of vinyl records for music fans of all genres. The five-day event on Walmart.com/vinyl-records, will include color vinyl discs from artists such as Machine Gun Kelly, Johnny Cash, Halsey, Post Malone, Keith Urban, KISS, Frank Sinatra and John Denver. More than 150 titles — ranging from pop, soul and rock to country, folk and jazz — will be available, with new selections popping up each day. Prices vary. A vinyl version of Journey’e greatest hits, for example, sells for $32.23, while AC/DC’s “Back in Black” album is listed at $18.97. “As vinyl continues to make a big comeback and become the preferred music format, Walmart is committed to offering customers the albums they want at everyday low prices,” the company said in a statement.

Barrow, UK | Barrow’s TNT Records named Shop Of The Month by Record Collector: A Barrow record shop has been named ‘Shop Of The Month’ by hit music magazine Record Collector. TNT Records was the winner of the prestigious title for the magazine’s May edition. Owner and founder Dave Turner revealed he was ecstatic that Record Collector honoured his business. He said: “We’re overwhelmed with it. “They have been going for over 40 years, Record Collector and they are an iconic magazine and they are the biggest music monthly out there. “To even have a mention in it is a big deal, but to be highlighted as Shop Of The Month is just crazy. “We are really proud of it. “We are just blown away by it. “We stock the magazine every month, but to be in it is a completely different thing.” The shop, which opened in 2019, has proved to be a huge hit, with customers coming from across the country.

Huntsville, AL | Find the best music at Alabama’s 40th Annual Record Show: If you spend your weekends perusing yard sales, thrift stores and record shops for some good vinyl, we’ve got a good show in store for you. It’s the 40th Annual Record and CD Show. If you’re feeling inspired to do some shopping and talk with other music fans and collectors, the Alabama Record Collectors Association is hosting a weekend chock-full of that stuff. Friday, May 14th through Saturday, May 15th, the Gardendale Civic Center will have thousands of records, CDs and tapes for sale. You can find music that dates all the way back to the 1940s, to 2021 from dealers all over the country. We’re not just talking music you can listen to though, we’re talking music memorabilia as well. Think of posters, buttons, photographs and more. You know, the fun stuff you can hang on your walls and slap on that old denim jacket. Alright, you may be asking yourself, when is all of this going down?

Read More »

Inverness, CA | Record store opens this weekend next to Western: The first-ever record store in West Marin is opening on Saturday in Point Reyes Station. Loose Joints Records, next door to the Western, is a venture by musician Dylan Squires and record collector Brian Ojalvo. Their goal is to create a customer-centric outlet for collectors and newbies alike. Their inventory consists of about 1,500 records across the spectrum of price points, genres and time periods, and they plan to keep it fresh. “We really want to engage the customer, find out what they want, what they like, what we think they might like, and make recommendations,” Mr. Ojalvo said. The partners each bring something different to the table. Mr. Ojalvo, 52, owns a boutique wine business in Santa Rosa and has about 8,000 records at his home in Bolinas.

Bologna, IT | Bologna, is a desire for vinyl: so the record shops come back to life: The wind of the pandemic was also felt in record stores. Those businesses that have been trying to survive the decline in sales, e-commerce sites and streaming for years. A difficult period that the owners of some Bolognese stores tell us, while the scratched music of the Clash returns to echo. Pleasant surprises and the will to overcome this period as well. …“Obviously it was a very hard period, – says Emanuele Gambardella – but by now we have turned 17 and our customers, whom I never tire of thanking, have always followed us and allow us to survive”. Discobolandia is a shop that offers used and new and among the most successful titles in recent months is the reissue of Mack Porter “Peace on you”, a very rare record from 1972 with a fantastic cover and Paul Rodgers’ tribute to Muddy Waters with the collaboration of many artists. In fact, it is vinyl that reigns supreme in the store to the detriment of the compact disc, now towards the avenue of sunset.

London, UK | You could live at the Old Vinyl Factory, an exciting new London development with a rich musical heritage: The site has been reimagined and Weston Homes are offering 181 contemporary and luxurious apartments. Once home to the EMI record plant where ground-breaking records by The Beatles and Pink Floyd were pressed, The Old Vinyl Factory has been re-tuned for the 21st Century. The result is an innovative development within the 18-acre site in Hayes, with residential apartments alongside a three-screen cinema and music venue. New investment in the area will see eateries, workspaces, educational spaces and a gym, as well as an EMI photographic exhibition that reveals the history of the area, as part of the wider regeneration. The beautiful collection of 181 one, two and three-bedroom contemporary apartments at The Venue will be built to Weston Homes’ high specification, featuring designer kitchens, cutting edge bathrooms and stunning finishes. Hayes is the perfect location to get the best of both worlds – with numerous green open spaces as well as its close connections to London.

You Can Now Build Your Own Record Player Using a Household 3D Printer: The vinyl revival inspired a lot of companies and the British startup Frame Theory 3D is one of the many to catch the wave. The company created a do-it-yourself (DIY) turntable kit that is 3D printed. The kit is called The SongBird Turntable and you can find it on Kickstarter. Frame Theory 3D already managed to exceed its initial goal of approximately $14,000, as the project got funded immediately and raised over $28,000 so far. And there are still 28 days left, which can only be good news for the startup. The SongBird turntable is a fully functional record player that can be made with almost any domestic 3D printer. The minimum build volume required is 220 X 220 X 50 mm (8.6 x 9.6 x 1.9 in). The necessary electronic parts are completely solderless, to make the building process as user-friendly as possible. Moreover, the kit comes with clear instructions that will guide you throughout the entire operation. The assembly time is 1 to 2 hours, according to Frame Theory.

Read More »

UK | UK vinyl sales surpassed 1 million units in early 2021: Continuing an upward trend from 2020. UK vinyl sales surpassed 1 million during the first three months of 2021, according to data from the Official Charts Company. Vinyl sales were up 16.1% compared to the first three months of 2020, with a total of 1,080,653 records sold. With the UK’s third national lockdown having started in early January, the increase in sales relates to a wider trend from 2020 that saw both new and second-hand vinyl sales increase during lockdowns. Discogs reported a strong jump in sales during the first lockdown in March 2020. The numbers also reflect a more general increase of vinyl sales, with UK sales reaching a record high of 4.8 million records sold during 2020 — all of which bolsters the British Phonographic Industry prediction that record labels will earn more from the sales of vinyl than CDs in 2021 for the first time since 1987. The re-opening of non-essential shops on the 12th April also seems likely to have an impact on this year’s vinyl sales, with HMV recording over twice the number of visitors on its re-opening weekend compared to the weekend after the lifting of the first lockdown in 2020, as The Guardian reports.

Redwood City, CA | Fire at Redwood City record store considered suspicious, investigators say: An early Wednesday morning fire is being called suspicious by Redwood City fire investigators. A popular peninsula record store was damaged in the blaze. Investigators questioned a man near the fire scene to see if he had any involvement. The store’s owner says he’s lucky the flames didn’t wipe out his record collection, and part of the Peninsula’s culture. “Down the road, people many want them, hard copies of the music they grew up with,” said Gary Saxon, owner of The Record Man. Wearing an eyepatch and a western hat, Saxson is part curator, and part record sales guru. The inside of his Redwood City store reflects a time when vinyl, not digital downloads was the way to experience music. “You didn’t just cherry-pick one or two songs, generally, that you liked. You would sit down with a group of friends and listen to that whole album side,” said Bruce Barber, general manager of WNHU-FM, the student radio station at the University of New Haven. For the most part, Saxon’s irreplaceable collection, dating back a hundred years, was spared from the Wednesday morning fire. The resulting second lease on business life means more turns for listeners who are getting younger, not older.

Paris, FR | Alain Marquet and His Jazz Museum: In Paris, after you’ve hiked up many flights of stairs to Montmartre and made your way to Sacré-Cœur, the basilica that overlooks the city, walk a little further. Along Rue du Poteau, you’ll find one of the city’s best kept jazz secrets. There, at No. 68, is a small shop called Jazz Museum, run by Alain Marquet. The oddly named store opened in 2009 and specializes in rare jazz recordings and artifacts. I’ve never been to Jazz Museum and only learned about it recently from Parisian photographer Gilles D’Elia. Gilles frequents the store and was willing to pay a visit last week with his camera. Fortunately, Alain isn’t camera shy. We may not be able to travel to Paris now, but thanks to Gilles, we can do the next best thing. Here’s Gilles on Jazz Museum and its swinging proprietor: “Marc, Alain is so in love with the records he owns that he often regrets selling them to customers. In other cases, he’ll refuse to sell, and for good reason. His collection includes original first pressings by Bix Beiderbecke, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and Django Reinhardt. In 2013, when the city of Paris asked Django’s family for items they could include in the exhibit, “Django Reinhardt, Paris Swing,” at the La Cité de la Musique, Django’s family rushed to Jazz Museum to seek out material. Of course, Alain had plenty on hand.”

Dallas, TX | Dallas’ vinyl heyday brings memories of a record of a good time: Before technology evolved, the only way to buy your favorite tunes was at the record store. For many generations of music fans, the only way to get a hold of their favorite artist’s latest release was to sift through aisles of records. Record shops not only introduced audiences to new genres of music, but were places for fans to gather. While some were national chains, others were local favorites that were run by North Texas music lovers. The Dallas Morning News takes a look back into its archives to remember the joy of discovering new music through a listening booth and the hours lost searching through vinyl. The Melody Shop: The Melody Shop not only held a vast music selection, but it was also one of NorthPark Center’s inaugural stores on opening day in 1965. The store was already an established name in Dallas where they made their debut in 1941 at 205 North Ervay. In addition to records, the store also sold musical players and instruments so customers could experience both being the entertainer and the audience. All of this came together when they opened their fifth and largest shop in NorthPark.

Read More »

Buffalo/Niagara, NY | Record stores in Buffalo Niagara: One doth not need a hipster be to appreciate the superior analog aurality of records. Need a list of record stores in Buffalo Niagara? Vinyl stores have come back in a major way in recent years, and our region’s are rockin’! Find a great record store near you and start the hunt. Some things have such a significant effect on culture that even past their heyday, they can resurrect themselves like a pop-culture Lazarus and continue that wave of popularity like it never stopped in the first place. The vinyl record is such a thing. Vinyl has risen from the dead for a great many years now, and it doesn’t show any signs of slowing down anytime soon, so its reign of influence doesn’t seem to have a clear end in sight. Which is great because who doesn’t love the retro/modern sensibilities of vinyl? So, for those of you out there looking to add a few more gems to your vinyl collection or you’re looking to start one, the many record stores in Buffalo Niagara will indeed have what you’re looking for!

Melbourne, AU | A vinyl lover’s guide to Melbourne’s best specialty record stores: For all your genre-specific vinyl needs. There’s no greater pleasure than an afternoon spent rifling through the stacks at a local record shop. Luckily for wax heads, mild enthusiasts and newcomers just dipping their toes into the rapid, winding river that is vinyl obsession, Melbourne has hundreds of shops to choose from. Whether your eyes are on hardcore, hip hop or funk, you can bet there’s several locations with the expertise, knowledge and – of course – the stock, to guide you to your vinyl Valhalla. While a really good dig is second to none, sometimes we know exactly what we want. Or, at least, the general genre gist we’re after. So, we’ve taken the liberty of collating all of Melbourne’s specialty record stores, selected the best, then divvied them up by genre(ish), for your perusing and pursuing pleasure.

Washington, DC | A City Guide to Record Shops: Why Vinyl? Many people who have never owned vinyl or a record player question their modern relevance. Why pay for music when you already subscribe to Spotify or Apple Music? Why go through the effort of putting on a vinyl when music is mindlessly available at your fingertips? The average record-lover doesn’t collect vinyls based on convenience or economical reasons, rather for the authentic and tangible ownership of the music that makes us who we are. Record players can act a mini time machine, romanticizing and transporting listeners back to a simpler era. As Goodboy Vinyl (Wilmington, DE) says, “In my view, this ties in with claims of sound quality (warmth, crackle, etc.) when people make such claims they’re really asserting something about ‘the way things used to be.’ Which, if you pay attention to current events, may sound problematic and to be sure, it is. But I also get it. If you collect used or “original” records, you’re collecting artifacts.”

London, UK | Grooves in the heart: We investigate the UK vinyl revival, one of the greatest comebacks on record. They are cumbersome and quite faffy to grasp, scratchable to death by uninitiated hands and – unless crackle-doused, bargain bucket specials are your bag – a costly way to hear music. Yet last year UK vinyl records sales increased for the 13th year in a row, according to trade music body BPI, despite streaming now accounting for 80% of the country’s music consumption. In fact, revenue from vinyl sales is set to overtake that of CDs for the first time since the late Eighties. And all this from century-plus-old shellac discs that looked to be rolling out of aural and cultural relevance during the CD-dominated Nineties. Jon Tolley, 43, Banquet Records owner in Kingston said: “It’s quite strange to have an industry which is based on something that in some ways is perceived as archaic but in some ways has almost gone full circle where it’s such a reaction to how modern things are. “And it’s not people who’ve been left behind who don’t understand the digital revolution, it’s people who fully embrace it and are discovering new music.”

Read More »