Seattle, WA | Top 5 Music and Vinyl Record Stores in Seattle: Looking for some great music and vinyl records in Seattle? Check out these top 5 stores that offer a wide selection of CDs, DVDs, and vinyl records. Have you visited any of them yet? Share your thoughts in the comments below! 1. Sonic Boom: Sonic Boom is a well-organized record store that is highly supportive of local music in Seattle. The store has a wide variety of used and new CDs and vinyl, with continually updated used records in excellent condition and at fair prices, and a great selection of newer vinyl. The staff is friendly and helpful, and the store offers other useful items like LP covers, slip mats, vinyl cleaning solution, cool merch, magazines, etc. The store is well-decorated, and the music they play is well-picked. However, prices may seem high, and some staff members handle records roughly. Overall, Sonic Boom is a must-stop for record shopping in Seattle, with an excellent atmosphere and plenty of music…
Cloverdale, CA | Cloverdale’s Elevated Music hosting second annual Easter egg hunt: Store also preparing for upcoming Record Store Day sales event on April 22. Cloverdale’s Elevated Music is hosting another Easter egg hunt. Last year, Bill Haggerty, Elevated Music proprietor, hosted an inaugural Easter egg hunt throughout downtown Coverdale. He hid a half-dozen eggs, but this time around he’s decided to up his game. “This will be the second annual event,” said Haggerty. “This year, the hunt will take place on the main drag (176th) with over 100 eggs, roughly 50 eggs on either side of the street.” Haggerty said he’ll post clues online ahead of time with rough locations of the eggs. The hunt itself will take place Saturday, April 8. “They won’t really be out of sight and will be fairly easy to spot and find,” he added. The eggs will have raffle tickets inside for a chance to win gift cards and 7-inch single giveaways. He said in several of the eggs there will also be 10 per cent off coupons for the store. And each egg will have chocolates inside.
Chicago, IL | Best place to find vintage music ephemera at reasonable prices: Let’s Boogie Records & Tapes. et’s Boogie Records & Tapes (3321 S. Halsted) is a time machine to a different era. Bridgeport and Pilsen have no shortage of outlets for serious crate diggers (shout-out to 606 Records), but Let’s Boogie has been around longer than any other shop in the area—Neal S. Keller opened it in the mid-70s—and it has the ambience to match. These days it’s open only one day per week (Saturdays from 11 AM till 6 PM), so it’s definitely a labor of love—a place where music enthusiasts can experience classic dad-rock record-store vibes without paternalism or condescension. The store is plastered with posters that look like they haven’t moved since the 80s, and it smells historic. But it’s run by the friendliest people, and they’re always excited to talk all things music and Chicago.
London, ON | Village Idiot owner looking to pass vinyl torch to next generation: Old South’s Village Idiot is a “survival story,” building back its business after the COVID pandemic. Old South’s Village Idiot is a “survival story,” building back its business after the COVID pandemic. Now, the record and music store is looking to survive a little longer, owner Robert Charles-Dunne said. After 23 years, he is retiring but hopes to sell the business to an entrepreneur who wants to keep alive the funky Wortley Village shop and the vinyl it sells. “It has been a survival story and I didn’t work this long and hard for it to evaporate. I need to find the next generation. I hope it stays open for another 23 years,” Charles-Dunne said. “We shut down for seven months through the nightmare of COVID and we’re bouncing back now. This is very much a viable store.” The Village Idiot sells vinyl records, musical instruments, and stereo gear.
Catskill, NY | Popular Catskill record shop celebrates 5th anniversary with music, food and drink: You’ve probably heard about the Town of Catskill’s cultural explosion over the last few years, perhaps reading about it here in the pages of this paper. One of the unsung heroes of the scene has been Spike’s Record Rack, a well-stocked used record shop and meeting ground for local music fans. The enterprise is turning five years old this week, and will be celebrating this Fri, Apr. 7 with an all-day event featuring food, drink, and of course, music. Food and drinks start at 4pm, with empanadas from Mermaid Cafe, ice cream from Ben & Jerry’s Albany, complimentary liquid refreshments and beer from local favorites Crossroads Brewing. Music starts at 1pm and will include live DJs streaming on WGXC all day, including Avalon Lounge owner Liam Singer, Otto Hauser (Vetiver/Espers), Chris Bishop (Garage Hangover), Brian Kantor (Fruit Bats) and Yana Lil-Jerk (Soul! Soul! Soul!). Also performing a live in-store music simulcast on WGXC that evening are Brian Dewan, Robot Hand, and Mikaela Davis. The event is free to attend, and the vinyl selection is deep and distinguished, with plenty of budget cuts as well.
How Adele’s ‘30′ upended the vinyl industry and caused prices to spike: In 2021, the Londoner’s latest release soaked up all the raw materials and made record albums more expensive. Vinyl record sales have been growing for over a decade and labels were quick to jump on the bandwagon. In the era of streaming music from the likes of Apple Music and Spotify, vinyl record sales peaked in 2021, soaking up global production capacity. The impacts are still being felt two years later, and it was all because of one of the world’s biggest stars – Adele. In 2020, Sony Music ordered the production of 500,000 vinyl records of 30, Adele’s new release. The vinyl record pressing factories were swamped and had to stop producing other albums scheduled for release in the coming months. This happened not only because of the quantity ordered by Sony but also because the label pushed for a simultaneous vinyl and digital release on November 19, 2021.
Berlin, DE | New vinyl pressing plant, Objects, opens in Berlin: The new plant will focus on pressing smaller runs from artists and independent labels. A new vinyl pressing plant, Objects Manufacturing, has opened today in Berlin. Located in a former cable works factory, it is set above the River Spree in the Treptow-Köpenick area and includes its own in-house stamping and electroforming. It comes in the face of struggles in the vinyl manufacturing industry over the past few years, where a resurgence in the physical format’s popularity – particularly from major artists and labels – has seen demand far outstrip supply. Reported delays have ranged from 20 weeks to even a full year at certain points, with smaller, independent labels facing the longest waits. The plant aims to help relieve some of this pressure, with a planned production turnaround of eight to 10 weeks. Objects was founded by Daniel Plasch and Jeremy Guillot, two long-time players in Berlin’s nightlife industry.
UA | Brought in vinyl record players instead of help from the Armed Forces of Ukraine: ESBU in Volyn exposed a charity fund: Detectives of the Economic Security Bureau of Ukraine exposed “volunteers” in Volyn who tried to import vinyl record players under the guise of humanitarian aid from Poland. Expensive equipment was imported through the checkpoint “Yagodin”. They tried to pass off the cargo as radio spare parts for one of the military units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The letter of guarantee is signed by a person who has been dismissed from his position and is not related to the military unit. Detectives conducted a search of the truck as a result of which 50 boxes with audio systems were seized. The cost of the cargo is set. It was established that the scheme was set up to evade the payment of mandatory payments to the budget during movement across the customs border. The mentioned charity fund has been working in Ukraine for 9 years.
Hampshire, UK | Man who made £1.2m from fake vinyl records caught out by Clash fan: Richard Hutter charged up to £35 for counterfeit albums by bands like the Beatles and Nirvana over six-year period. A businessman who made more than £1m selling fake vinyl records was caught after a fan of punk band the Clash complained that the sound quality of an LP he had bought was not as sharp as it should have been. Trading standards officers launched an investigation into Richard Hutter and found that he had been selling thousands of counterfeit records to rock and pop fans over a six-year period. Hutter, 55, from Ringwood, Hampshire, was given a suspended jail sentence, ordered to do 250 hours unpaid work and told to wear a tag for three months. He charged up to £35 for albums from bands ranging from the Beatles to Pink Floyd, Nirvana and Amy Winehouse. He was found out when a Clash fan demanded his money back because of the poor sound quality on the record he had bought online.
