Canandaigua, NY | Vinyl fans rejoice as new record store opens in Canandaigua: In this age of digital music, those with a fondness for the old vinyl records now have a new place to go. The Canandaigua Record Exchange opened earlier this month at 170 Mill St. It’s operated by Jon Cooley. “Canandaigua’s chosen spot for new and used vinyl fills the void in the Finger Lakes region for a record store created when Geneva’s Area Records closed several years ago,” Cooley said, referring to the iconic store that closed in the fall of 2017 after 40 years. The new record store is open noon to 7 p.m. Thursday and Friday, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday, and noon to 6 p.m. Sunday. Cooley said he will open the store by appointment on Tuesday and Wednesday. Cooley said his store stocks the latest releases, as well as new back-stock and used records from a wide range of artists covering many music genres. Records can be special ordered as well. Customers are asked to wear masks, use in-store hand sanitizer, and maintain proper social distancing.
There’s a 24-hour live stream taking place across 12 record stores this weekend: Move the Record will stream from London’s Phonica and KMA60 in Berlin with Move The Record. A 24-hour live stream is set to take place across 12 record stores this weekend. Move The Record is a new initiative devised in association with Dana Ruh and KMA60 Berlin, in response to the uncertain future that independent record stores are facing worldwide amid the coronavirus pandemic. The first edition of Move the Record takes place this Friday 3rd & Saturday 4th July, and will feature two 12-hour streams live from artists spinning in record stores across the globe. 20% off will also be offered from the respective stores streaming, to encourage viewers to buy and support independent shops. On Friday 3rd July, between 4PM and 8PM, the DJ Mag Facebook page will exclusively stream Dana Ruh and Fred P from KMA60 in Berlin, as well as Jorge Caiado and Steffi from Carpet & Snares in Lisbon. On Saturday, we’ll also be sharing Bradley Zero and Nick Williams from South London’s Phonica, where they’ll be streamed from 4PM and 6PM.
Edinburgh, UK | Popular Edinburgh record shop will not reopen after lockdown: A popular record shop on Edinburgh’s Canongate will not reopen after lockdown ends citing the cancellation of the festivals and ‘non-existent’ tourist trade as reasons. Unknown Pleasures opened on the Royal Mile in 2006 as a physical spin-off to their established website, vinylnet.co.uk. While the shop will not open its doors again, the website will still be running and those who have purchased gift cards will be able to redeem them online. In a post on their Facebook page, owners of Unknown Pleasures said that the size of the store would make social distancing extremely difficult, and limiting customers in store and implementing a queuing system would be difficult and would have an effect on people who enjoy spending long periods of time browsing the store and flicking through records, which is part of the store’s nature. They added that like many businesses, they are reliant on the summer tourist trade and trade from Edinburgh’s festivals which have been cancelled this year, as well as not being able to allow groups into the shop.
US | Small towns may have a “longer road” to recovery than big cities: …re-invention could be tough for people like record store owner Tom Lefevre. In record stores, people tend to browse and talk to the person behind the counter. “It’s definitely a personal experience,” Lefevre said. That experience has changed a bit at Main Street Juke Box, a shop that’s already survived, among other things, the age of digital music. It’s been a couple of months since someone walked in the door, Lefevre said. But, it’s not the first time he hasn’t had business for that long. “Twelve, 13 years ago, I was across the street, … and there was a fire, and I lost my whole business,” he said. “I was down for probably a couple months until I got insurance money, and then I landed in here.” Insurance, however, won’t cover the losses from the pandemic. “It was a big shock to be honest with you. I was kind of angry, too,” Lefevre said.
Denton, TX | The Comic Store Taking Over a Closing-Down Record Store in Texas: Record store Mad World Records in Denton, Texas, is closing permanently. Already closed because of shutdown, and transitioned to curbside pick-up, owner and manager Mark Burke is making it permanent after nine years. He is now launching an online shop, something he’d been dead set against until the pandemic. The store applied for the Denton County Small Business Grant program the day the applications opened, but two weeks ago, it was denied. Mark posted on Facebook, “Before we locked the doors, I would have customers come in and cough in their hands and then flip through our merchandise. It was terrible and impossible for me to ignore these all too common actions once the virus became a real threat to my customers and employees. Honestly, I am not a healthy guy and I have a wonderful little guy an wife at home, so even on a personal level this seemed crazy scary to me…”
