Edinburgh, UK | Edinburgh’s Fopp record store announces move to new location after 20 years on Rose Street: After two decades on Rose Street, Edinburgh’s iconic Fopp record store has announced it is relocating to a larger store on Shandwick Place. The new two-storey, 4,200 sq. ft store, due to open on February 17, is the perfect place for die-hard fans of music, film and books, with a wide range of specialist offerings to suit all tastes. Visitors will be able to browse over 6,000 vinyl albums, 12,000 different CDs, 12,000 films and TV shows on 4K Ultra HD, Blu Ray and DVD. World cinema, specialist music and collector’s edition Blu Ray, CDs and vinyl will remain at the heart of Fopp’s offering. Customers visiting the new store will be able to purchase 7” singles from £1.50 and over 1,000 LPs from £5 each. There will also be an expanded range of turntables and headphones. The store is also expected to draw further signings and performances from both British artists and grassroots local bands. All team members from the current store on Rose Street, which closed Saturday, will be moved to the new store.
Kent, UK | Memories of lost Kent record stores from Our Price, to Fopp and Richards Records now replaced by Spotify, Tidal or Apple Music: Once upon a time, buying music was a rather thrilling experience, writes columnist Chris Britcher as he remembers the lost record stores of Kent. You’d catch a snatch of it on the radio and vow to tape it next time you heard it if you were quick enough. For all the claims back in the day that ‘taping music is killing music’ if you liked it, inevitably, you’d want to own the thing. You might not even know who, at first, the song was by or what it was called. Money was saved, bands identified, release dates discovered… a trip to the shops planned. It was good for you too. You actually had to move; catch a bus into town, walk down the high street and have some – albeit limited – interaction with the human being behind the counter of Our Price or any other of the many record retailers which once littered our town centres. Then, if vinyl had been your format of choice, the small matter of getting it home again without getting a crease in the cover.
Macon, GA | Mercer student, entrepreneur grows vintage vinyl store in Macon: A little more than six months ago, Mount de Sales grad Noah Silver opened up his first vintage vinyl record store. Now, he’s already expanded to a bigger location. A little more than six months ago, Mount de Sales grad Noah Silver opened up his first vintage vinyl record store. He was one of our Great Grads we introduced you to back in May. Now, he’s already expanded to a bigger location. Silver’s just 18 — he’s a full-time Mercer student, and on top of all that, he’s an entrepreneur. “It’s less about my business, less about what I’m selling, less about this record store. It’s more about the music. Like, I am so obsessed with the music,” Silver said. The store is named Vertigo Vinyl in Mercer Village. Vertigo Vinyl sells records, CDs, band shirts, record players, and Funko POP! collectibles. He says what’s made his business grow so rapidly is his social media presence. Silver has nearly 350,000 followers on TikTok. “I have so many little kids come in and say, ‘I watch your videos all the time.’ I think it’s so awesome to make marketing a form of entertainment in a way,” Silver said.
Tokyo, JP | Vinyl record sales soar in Japan as youths, foreign tourists join global analog boom: Young people in Japan and visitors from abroad have been boosting vinyl record sales in the country amid the global analog boom that began in the 2010s. Vinyl production volume and value grew more than 70% in 2021 from the previous year. Since entry restrictions to Japan as a border control measure to prevent the spread of COVID-19 were eased last fall, and amid the weak yen, foreigners have been bulk-buying vinyl records at shops across the country. Nowadays, people can enjoy music from around the world on smartphones, so why are they buying analog records? …According to Tsuyoshi Tanoue, who has been in charge of vinyl records at Tower Records Japan Inc. for many years, since last October when Japan’s entry restrictions were drastically eased, the Tower Vinyl record store at the company’s Shibuya branch often has 20 to 30 foreigners shopping there, from general tourists to dealers. Tanoue commented, “With the record weak yen, it is common to see customers buying more than 100 records (both foreign and Japanese music)…”
Nottingham, UK | The Nottinghamian: Broad Marsh project set to be ‘slower’ than planned and new record shop for city: …A new record shop has opened in Sneinton Avenues offering a range of vinyl. Running Circle Records has launched in Unit 46 on Freckingham Street near Bustler Market. Running Circle is also a label founded in 2017, which is owned by Guohan Zeng and Tom Towle. The two are musicians and DJs based in Nottingham and decided to have a physical store. Guohan said: “I’m not from Nottingham myself as I’m from China originally. I’ve heard stories about the history of the market. It’s becoming an area where many artists and creatives get together so we saw it as a really good place for us because there are opportunities for collaboration in the future too. “Myself and Tom love all kinds of music, from the 70s and 80s to disco and the new jazz electronic stuff which is happening in London. We are trying to share all kinds of music here.”
Norfolk, VA | A vinyl bonanza: Thousands of free albums scooped up at giveaway: “The Glory That Was Gershwin” and “Dancing Discotheque, The Exciting Dance Idea from France That You Can Do at Home” were on offer in Norfolk. When Mark Cunningham, his wife, and his teen sons arrived at the WHRO building on Saturday, it was 5 a.m. and still dark. They’d driven south from their home in Silver Spring, Md., the night before to make a weekend out of a scavenger hunt for vintage vinyl. To create space for a newsroom that’s grown to 10 journalists, the station was giving away tens of thousands of albums, mostly vinyl going back 50 years. Cunningham, a collector with about 1,000 albums and an aficionado of the sound made when needle hits platter, was the first in line. “I couldn’t pass up the opportunity,” he said. When the station announced the giveaway, the response revealed how wacky for wax music fans have become. The number of free ticket takers soared past 700 and then 800, so the station capped the event at 1,000. It added a golden ticket, giving early entry to about 100 people who donated $75 to the public media station. They got two hours to browse. Those with free tickets were granted entry 75 at a time and given 30 minutes of express scavenging.
Lansing, MI | First Lansing Record Show of 2023 comes to town: People who love vinyl records got a kick at the Lansing Record Show at the Quality Inn on Grand River Avenue. Thousands of CDs and LPs were up for grabs for collectors in the show’s first event in its 31st year. People traveled from across the state and even out of state. In addition to selling records, they had Rock-n-Roll memorabilia, posters, T-shirts, and books. One of the showrunners, Rodney Branham who owns Rerun Records, said he has a huge collection of vinyl. He later gave tips on how to thrift records. “Kinda get an idea of what you want when you come to the show. All my stuff is alphabetized so it is pretty easy to go with what you want,” Branham said. “But then there are other folks that do not care if they are alphabetized or not all they want to do is go through and buy when they find what they want.” Dozens showed up for the event as well as 25 different dealers according to the showrunners.
Frederick, MD | Love for vinyl brings hundreds to record show at Frederick Fairgrounds: As “Enter Sandman” by Metallica began swelling in a building at the Frederick Fairgrounds on Saturday, people’s hands continued to flip through the bins of records before them — but their heads began to bob in unison. Hundreds of people of all ages had flocked to the Frederick Record Riot, a large-scale show for local record stores and vinyl aficionados to sell their wares and share their passion for music. Steve Donald drove from Columbia to shop at the show. The 65-year-old already had about nine records to take home — though he was only halfway through his tour of the room — and he was feeling nostalgic. He had found an album from New Riders of the Purple Sage, something he’d listened to when he was 20. Another was from Toni Childs, an artist he only has on CD. He said he loved seeing vinyls have a resurgence. “I have my old stereo, same turntable, the same amplifier, and it’s just fun to use it again,” Donald said.
