I spent a day visiting Britain’s best new record stores: As someone who has never forgotten their first experience in a one such shop—the musky scent of dusty cardboard sleeves and cheap coffee, shelves towering high above, and extra-terrestial waves of sound—I was determined to check out this new wave of record stores. After all, a good one is a breeding ground for the most fascinating, passionate characters, and the beating pulse of our musical principles.
How Third Man’s giant Detroit location is becoming the ultimate D.I.Y. ecosystem: Step inside the immaculately designed Third Man Cass Corridor on a weekday morning. Strong, art deco lines frame the bold and packed space. A few shoppers stroll about inside. Everything is black and yellow. This gives it the immediate feel of a college gift shop. Enclosed wood-paneled booths — which look like large, overgrown classic radio consoles mixed with the Dr. Who phone box — are peppered throughout the back of the store. Upfront, it’s racks of clothing, displays of turntables, beer mugs, Frisbees, and keychains.
Rare Beatles record sold for $110K: A rare record dubbed the “Holy Grail” for Beatles collectors — and hidden away for over five decades — has sold at auction for £77,500 ($110,000). The 10-inch vinyl, which features the first song John Lennon ever wrote — “Hello Little Girl” — was sold to an anonymous British collector on Tuesday. It is one of the first times the legendary record has seen the light of day after Les Maguire, keyboard player with British band Gerry and the Pacemakers, had kept it stored in his attic.
Vinyl Sales Made More Money Than Free Streams Last Year, In 2015, LP and EP sales rose to their highest level since 1988: The sale of vinyl albums in the U.S. brought in more money than the recording industry made from advertising on the free tier of services like YouTube and Spotify last year, according to the RIAA. The vinyl figure is based on retail value, or the value of records shipped at list price. It doesn’t show how much the labels (or artists) received from the sales, as Billboard notes. For formats with no retail price, such as a free stream, the RIAA uses wholesale value.
Wallingford’s first “micropub” set to start rocking in town record shop: Last year Richard Strange opened pop-up record shop Music Box at 1A Castle Street after leaving his previous Market Place record store in 2006. That business has been thriving and now plans for a pub on the premises have been approved, despite reservations from some locals who fear pub goers will cause too much noise in the evening.
Music shop to the stars could close, Margin Music in Macclesfield has served members of Joy Division, New Order and Slade. But after 30 years its future looks bleak: For three decades Margin Music, on Market Place, Macclesfield, has been graced by a music legends including Joy Division and New Order’s Peter Hook and Bernard Sumner, Slade’s Noddy Holder and George Borowski…But as the shop celebrates its 30th birthday, its owner Mary Kirkpatrick fears rising costs and falling footfall has created a ‘unsustainable’ situation.
