Miami, FL | Miami’s ATV Records announces closure: The beloved dance music venue, which acts as a club and record store, will remain open until July 31st. ATV Records is permanently closing after two and a half years of operations. The Miami venue, home to a record store, nightclub and bar, announced the news via Instagram late on Thursday, June 23rd. No official explanation for the decision was given, with the team noting that they came to agreement following a “long and careful assesment.” ATV (short for “addicted to vinyl”) will continue to host parties until July 31st, its last day of operation. The space, launched by former club Electric Pickle, opened its doors in late 2019. ATV’s intimate atmosphere and four-point analog sound system made it a favourite among local and touring artists such as Danny Daze, Jubilee, Mike Servito, Moxie and countless others.
US | Manufacturers Struggle to Keep Pace With Vinyl Record Demand: Demand for record albums continues to soar in the United States, and the manufacturing base is having to reinvent itself to meet demand. The arrival of the compact disc nearly killed off record albums, with vinyl pressing machines sold, scrapped and dismantled by major record labels. Four decades later, with resuscitated record album sales producing double-digit annual growth, manufacturers are rapidly rebuilding an industry to keep pace with sales that reached $1 billion last year. Dozens of record-pressing factories have been built to try to meet demand in North America—and it’s still not enough. The industry “has found a new gear, and is accelerating at a new pace,” said Mark Michaels, CEO and chairman of United Record Pressing, the nation’s largest record producer, in Nashville, Tennessee.
Tewksbury, UK | Music tastes may vary, but vinyl is forever: Spinning favorite LP’s for hours on end with the volume up just a bit too loud has long been a pastime for many teenagers. Vinyl records have been around since the early 1900’s, offering professional sound quality to the average consumer. Those of us who grew up during the prime of the vinyl LP, from the 1950’s through the late 1980’s, remember spending endless hours at the local record store. Other than the radio, a teen’s record collection was the only access to popular music and worth the investment of an entire week’s allowance. That is not to say that the vinyl record did not go without competition from other music mediums. In the early 1960’s, cassette tapes made their way into the music listening industry. The cassette promised portability with the ease to rewind forwards or backwards. Unfortunately, cassettes also came with the problem of jamming in the cassette player, kinking or breaking the cassette tape, usually from overplay.
Rowsley, UK | ‘Irreplaceable’ vinyl records sold at Rowsley car boot by mistake: A woman has said she is “horrified” after a relative accidentally sold 16 of her sentimental vinyl records for less than £1 each at a car boot sale. Rohan Mellor said the albums she had inherited were being stored by a relative while she moved house. They were sold in Rowsley, Derbyshire, on Sunday, the day after she and her husband got back from their honeymoon. Mrs Mellor said they were first press albums from the early 1960s to late 1970s, and were “irreplaceable”. They included albums by The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, David Bowie, AC/DC, The Clash, and The Who. The 26-year-old said the relative storing them had recently had a bereavement and accidentally mixed her records up with items she was clearing out. The vinyl records had been collected by Mrs Mellor’s father and uncle, and after her uncle died a few years ago her father gave them to her and her sister. She said she was “utterly shocked and horrified” that they were gone.