UK | Inside Record Store Day UK’s battle with the pandemic in 2020: After Record Store Day’s final drop of 2020 gave the vinyl market a welcome boost, organiser Megan Page has appealed to record companies to line up a special selection for next year’s event. Reflecting on the three-part Record Store Day 2020 in a new interview with Music Week, Page attributed a “substantial portion” of vinyl growth to RSDUK. With a second lockdown due to start tomorrow (November 5) record shops will be shuttered once more, but Page has paid tribute to their resilience. Read on to find out how Record Store Day 2020 rolled with the punches and delivered some good news for retail and labels alike. “…We estimate that RSD sales were in the region of 45,000 to 50,000 units across the three days, though it is difficult to gauge due to the volume of independents selling through via mail order which are not tracked. Looking at the individual weeks, overall performance in the first drop showed vinyl album sales were 70,000 units up compared to the same week the previous year (+96%) and in the second drop vinyl sales were 40,000 units up compared to the same week in 2019 (+49%).”
Wilmington, NC | Get groovy: These 5 Wilmington record shops just keep spinning: Back in the late 1970s and early ’80s, Eddie Todd worked at the long-since closed Record Bar music store chain on Oleander Drive, where the PPG Paints store is now. Little did he know that some 35 years later he’d be working at The Record Bar again, albeit a much smaller version a few miles down Oleander toward Wrightsville Beach. Todd, a longtime Wilmington musician and former record store owner (the old Eddie’s Discs in Wallace), just started working at the new Record Bar, which is owned by Wilmington CPA and record collector Tony Stroud, about three weeks ago. Branding itself as “an old name with a new spin,” the cozy nook is a music head’s dream, with wooden bins packed with both old vinyl and new vinyl releases. And the Record Bar is far from the only shop in Wilmington peddling vinyl, a format that’s shown an upswing in popularity among hardcore music lovers in recent years. Pandemic or no, you’ll find plenty people browsing the stacks at the five Port City record shops below.
VT | Soundbites: November Is Local Music Month in Vermont: …a number of local record stores are raffling off five Golden Ticket packages to shoppers who purchase local music or merch this month. The prize includes a $100 gift card to South Burlington nightclub Higher Ground and a one-night stay at Hotel Vermont. (You might have a while to wait before you can use that HG gift card, though.) After you make your purchase of either a Vermont-made album or piece of band merch, share it on social media with the aforementioned hashtag for a chance to win. Participating stores include Barre’s Exile on Main Street; Brattleboro’s Turn It Up!; Montpelier’s Buch Spieler Records; the Queen’s City’s Burlington Records, Pure Pop Records and Speaking Volumes; Winooski’s Autumn Records; and Rutland’s the Howlin’ Mouse Record Store. (Be on the lookout for a check-in with the Howlin’ Mouse in an upcoming edition of this column, as part of my untitled, ongoing series on Vermont’s record stores.) But wait, there’s more! The bands mentioned in said social media posts and represented in your purchases will themselves be entered to win a $400 screen-printing package from Fletcher-based artisan shop Calamity & Crowe’s Trading Post.
Banbury, UK | Banbury records shop sees online sales more than double since first lockdown: A Banbury records shop has seen its online sales more than double since the first lockdown started while the town centre shop remains closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Strummer Room Records, a small record shop hidden away in Church Lane, only just opened a few weeks before the first lockdown. Chris Oakes, the record store’s owner, said: “We opened our doors at the end of February supplying a wide range of (mainly) second-hand vinyl records and CD’s of all genres. We also stock a limited amount of new vinyl and CD’s. “Unfortunately, three weeks after opening, Covid-19 hit and we had to close (like everyone else) for around three months. We re-opened in mid-June and have remained open on a limited basis (Thursday, Friday and Saturday) ever since (until the second lockdown). Chris also runs a growing online business from home, buying and selling vinyl and CD’s all over the world. He said: “Pre-lockdown, we were selling a reasonable amount of records on an online marketplace specific to the vinyl records, cassette tapes and CD market. “However, after lockdown was enforced, the online sales started to increase initially doubling within a couple of weeks and has continued to grow steadily ever since to a point where this side of the business is more sustainable than the physical shop.
Tuscaloosa, AL | Vinyl Vibes: Why some bin-divers choose physical media over streaming: Oz Music is a hotspot for record enthusiasts, both fledgling and experienced. …Despite the ongoing digitization of music, there’s still one sector of the music world that follows a different model of interaction: the world of vinyl records. “There’s a lot of music that has slipped away with time that is not on streaming or online really,” Anna Rahkonen, the manager of Oz Records in Tuscaloosa, said. “There’s a reason crate diggers exist, and that’s because there is so [much] music out there that is just laying around in dollar bins at record stores… It is a good way to discover music that wouldn’t have crossed your radar in another way.” Oz Music, Tuscaloosa’s devoted record store, has an entire left wall and area dedicated to vinyl both used and new. Rahkonen went on to talk about how the algorithms on Spotify or Apple Music are great for finding music listeners like, but records capture a different experience that algorithms can’t replicate. UA alumnus Gabe Rosser spoke of a similar experience when digging through the stacks. “You aren’t steered by an algorithm,” Rosser said.
Yakima, WA | How Much Are Old Records Worth? Here’s What We Found Out. When it comes to selling your old records to make extra cash, don’t get your hopes up. And know this: Condition matters most. Frank Sinatra matters least. “At one time the shelf that held all the Sinatra albums was 70 feet wide,” said Doug Allen, Bananas Records’ owner. “We have way too much of that.” What Bananas Records buys and sells the most are classic rock n’ roll, punk and jazz albums. And that’s for around $5 — if the album and the cover are in great condition. “Records don’t compare to coins and stamps and books,” Allen said. ”There’s not really anything that’s worth $100,000 or more.” Many records that sold in the millions are still popular with collectors and album buyers, but so many copies are still in circulation that they don’t sell for much. On the other hand, records that only sold 20,000 copies — jazz from the 1950s, early punk rock — may be worth more. Allen has seen jazz albums from that era, such as early Miles Davis, go for $500 to $700 a piece, while classic punk might sell for $50 to $100.
