Monthly Archives: February 2023

UK | Vinyl destination: Can the format’s sales growth continue in 2023? …Vinyl has been a good news story for the music industry, but the format has faced persistent challenges with production capacity. Its continuing success is all the more vital given the collapse in CD sales – physical music did not see its usual gifting season boost at Christmas. In our latest edition, Music Week has spoken to major label execs and Kim Bayley, CEO of ERA. For the first five weeks of 2023, Music Week can reveal that vinyl sales are up 15.6% year-on-year. The format topped 100,000 sales for four out of those five weeks, including strong performances by the reissue of Courteeners’ debut St Jude (10,959 vinyl sales so far), The Reytons’ independently released What’s Rock And Roll? (5,850 vinyl sales across numerous editions) and Taylor Swift’s Midnight’s (a further 4,628 on the format in 2023). According to ERA, 2022 vinyl album sales revenue grew 11% to £150.5m, while CD album sales fell 17.4% to £124m – the first time vinyl outsold CD by value since 1987. That increase is largely due to the format’s increasing prices – £30 is now common for an LP.

Newport, UK | Record shop in Newport sees rise in young people buying vinyl: After fading away some years ago, listening to music on vinyl is very much back – with sales of records in the UK exceeding those of CDs last year for the first time in 35 years. In total 5.5 million vinyl records were sold in 2022 – a massive turnaround since the format was written off by many following the rise of the CD in the 1980s. And for those getting into vinyl for the first time, independent record shops such as Kriminal Records – which moved from Newport Market into the Market Arcade late in 2021 – offer a wealth of knowledge, advice, and recommendations. Owner Dean Beddis said he had seen an increasing number of younger customers show an interest in the format. “I have seen groups of them come in and look through the cheaper stuff and chatting away,” he said. “I had one girl come in and ask me if there was music on both sides, as she was only used to CDs, so there is that aspect to vinyl. “Older people are getting back into it too. We have seen good attendance at record fairs in Newport with more people coming in.

Nablus, PS | Vinyl, record player shop in Nablus preserves fading musical heritage: Jamal Hemmou, who repairs and sells records and players, says customers ‘come from all of Palestine to buy from me’ From Jamal Hemmou’s ramshackle workshop in Nablus’s Old City in the West Bank, classic Arabic songs blare into the surrounding cobbled streets. The 58-year-old is the last of his kind in the city — he runs the only shop in Nablus repairing and selling vinyl records and players. Like much of the world, Nablus is attuned to digital music, but Hemmou told AFP working with vinyl was about preserving Palestinian “heritage.” Elderly people regularly pass by at the end of the day and, “when I turn on the record player, they start crying,” he said. Hemmou began learning how to repair record players when he was 17, listening to the great Arab artists of the time as he worked. “I have more experience than the people with the certificates,” he joked, adding that he is entirely self-taught, and acquired his passion for music from his father. “My father was a singer, he used to sing because he loved those old singers… almost everyone in my family is a musician,” he said.

Toronto, CA | Vinyl records pressed with bodily fluids and CDs packaged with human hair — what makes a Toronto doctor collect these things? Psychiatrist Michael Tau wrote a book about extreme music that covers both sound and outrageous packaging. Dr. Michael Tau works in the Unity Health Toronto hospital network, serving patients at St. Mike’s downtown and Providence in Scarborough. Recently, he wrote a book in which he explores a certain obsessive behaviour that might seem odd if not downright disturbing to the average person. But the book in question probably won’t make a lot of waves in his specialist field of geriatric psychiatry – because it’s about his music collection. And it’s not filled with the typical vinyl LPs that you’ll find at Rotate This or Sonic Boom, but music preserved on cassettes encased in blobs of spray-painted cotton, albums issued on floppy disks, and cigar-tin box sets that came packaged with clumps of human hair.

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Ottawa, ON | Reaching a turning point: The resurgence of vinyl records: The sound of jazz music fills The Record Centre on Wellington Street, transporting eager customers back in time as they walk in. Ever since vinyl’s sudden resurgence in popularity, the store has been busier than ever. John Thompson has been the owner of The Record Centre since 2011 and has been selling vinyl records since the 1990s. He’s seen vinyl ebb and flow in popularity over the years, but said he saw the COVID-19 pandemic as a positive turning point for the vinyl industry. “People were at home more and listening to more music, especially on vinyl,” he said. “I think it was perfectly positioned to do better and better.” While transitioning in and out of pandemic-caused closures in 2020 and 2021, Thompson credits the business’s success to their online store and to its promotions over social media. “People were excited about [the online promotions],” he said. “It was [really] insatiable, because as soon as we would do a drop, everything was snapped up.”

Austin, TX | Austin Record Stores for Your Listening Pleasure: Nine shops to satisfy your vinyl urges: Despite phones being the modern world’s main conduit of recorded music, brick-and-mortar retail spaces selling physical copies of albums thrive in this musically enlightened city. Algorithms and playlists are fine for what they are, but nothing beats the record store experience: the surprise of a cool and unfamiliar LP sleeve catching your eye, the regional flavors, the informed clerks, and the fellowship of browsing alongside other music fans. Here are some of the record stores Austin has to offer.

Washington, DC | Opinion Readers critique The Post: There’s another reason to prefer vinyl: Regarding the Jan. 22 Metro article “A better record deal than Columbia House”: I was mystified that an article about the sizable interest in old vinyl records made no mention of the primary reason many audio enthusiasts covet such recordings: superior sound quality. Virtually every vinyl album released before 1980 produced a pure analog music signal, i.e., the analog sound waves produced by musical instruments and human voices were captured and recorded without converting these sound waves into a chopped-up digital signal that would require further electronic reconfiguration to reproduce an analog sound wave that is audible to human ears. Digital sound processing has made it possible to store and play huge music files with portable devices, but it does so at the expense of sound quality.

For the record: How to take care of your vinyl collection: Vinyl is the holy grail of the most puristic music lovers. This circular disc available in 7, 10, and 12 inches is the ultimate object of desire for true music enthusiasts, a passion that does not look at musical genres or beats per minute. Vinyl records were once the primary way to consume music, but those who think it is a format that belongs to the past are wrong. In the US, vinyl sales soared 22% in the first half of the last year and many vintage albums have gone back up in sales. It is safe to say that vinyl is trendy and that it has gained more and more fans across generations. A vinyl record is a singular object, but it is not. It is impossible to have just one and the challenges of building a good collection are not only in the hunt for the most desired items but also in how to take care of these relics.

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Nashville, TN | Rooftop addition, other changes planned for Ernest Tubb Record Shop: Nashville’s famed Ernest Tubb Record Shop is slated for some changes, including the addition of a rooftop. Brad Bars, who is one of the shop’s owners, signed for a $18.75 million Ascend Federal Credit Union construction loan tied to the property’s 417 Broadway address, according to Davidson County records. The building is being eyed for the addition of a rooftop, as well as the restoration of its facade to the original 1850 version, Bars said in a statement to the Business Journal. When complete, the record shop and merchandise will occupy one floor, a honky-tonk with a mezzanine will occupy another floor, and there will be a private third floor with a use that hasn’t been determined yet, he said. It’s “unlikely” that the honky-tonk will be celebrity branded, Bars said.

Taupō, NZ | ZZ Top’s ‘totally unexpected’ visit to Taupō record store: When ZZ Top members wandered into a Taupō music store, there was no shortage of records to sign. MyMusic Taupō manager Jason Hose – a big fan of “that little ol’ band from Texas” – had bought every one of their records he could find ahead of the group’s Summer Concert gig in the town on Saturday. He was “blown away” when Billy Gibbons and Elwood Francis popped into the Tongariro St shop on Thursday. “Things have gone nuts since they visited, everyone has been asking for signed copies of their records,” Hose said. “It was totally unexpected, they just waltzed in off the street, it was bloody cool man, I was lost for words – to have an artist that I love just walk into the store was just awesome.” Synonymous with beards, hot rods and spinning guitars, ZZ Top have been performing with Elwood Francis on bass and vocals – he stepped into the role after the death of original band member Dusty Hill in 2021.

Sheffield, UK | “The independent factor is at the heart of everything we do”: How Record Junkee and Network are flying the flag for DIY music in Sheffield: When it comes to fostering a buoyant music scene, there are three key ingredients that often spell success: good small venues, a smattering of medium-to-large-sized venues and independent record shops. In Sheffield, we’re blessed to have all three of the above dotted around the city centre, and in the case of record-store-cum-gig-spot Record Junkee and its considerably larger sibling Network, this holy trinity is united under one proudly independent banner spread across the space of a few hundred yards. …He founded Record Junkee in 2009, originally based on Cambridge Street, before moving to its current home on Earl Street just over seven years ago. A record store by day and thriving 150-cap live venue by night, it has grown to become one of the city’s most integral grassroots venues, playing host to the likes of Idles, Blinders and Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes in the process.

Los Angeles, CA | Believing in Crateism with Black woman-owned Vinyl shop owner Fatima Chantel: Crateism is a Black woman-owned eCommerce site that sells a wide range of vinyl records. Digital shop owner Fatima Chantel curated this space for vinyl lovers and found a strong community based in Los Angeles. The L.A. Sentinel had an exclusive interview with Chantel where she explained her deep connection to music and how it shaped her journey. “I just love music—elders raised me; I was raised with good old music and they had records. I was exposed to a lot of old-school music and a lot of records at an early age, and I was addicted,” said Chantel. Her life began to take form as Chantel began working in record stores. …As a woman of color in a male-dominated profession, Chantel shared her experience maneuvering through the industry, stating, “I think things are a little different now—you definitely see more women deejaying, but when I first started out, it was kind of just me, the only woman. And God bless all the guys that were actually in my corner, and gave me gigs and stuff like that.”

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