Green Country, OK | Green Country record stores seeing surge of customers wanting to own physical media: From vinyl records to cassette tapes: A nostalgic music shopping experience draws generations together in Green Country. Green Country record stores say some customers are moving away from streaming and digital media, to owning their own copies. This comes as some of today’s artists are releasing their albums on vinyl, CDs, and cassette tapes. Many trends come back, but for some, they never went out of style. “I’m vinyl,” said Paul Taliaferro. “I never did really, I mean I sort of got into CDs, but I just prefer the sound of vinyl. I think it sounds better.” Taliaferro prefers having the physical copies of his favorite music. “It’s something that you can actually hold in your hand,” said Taliaferro.
Chiang Mai, TH | Chiang Mai’s top 11 places to dig for vinyl: Between record stores, festivals and listening bars, Chiang Mai is Thailand’s place to be for vinyl lovers. Last week we featured the people behind Chiang Mai’s burgeoning vinyl revival – but now we have you excited about the scene, how can you lock in and build your very own collection? Very easily in fact. The city is awash with vinyl listening bars, cafes and restaurants awaiting you – some that let you select an LP, some that curate the experience and kindly ask you to keep your mitts to yourselves. Then of course there are the record stores holding the market together with boxes upon boxes of wax discs, many of which come with sound systems in situ and buckets of experienced enthusiasm. Here are our favourite vinyl spots in Chiang Mai.
Pekin, IL | Co-Op Records owner talks about decision to close store: Co-Op Records in Pekin is scheduled to close its doors for good September 30. The iconic store opened in 1998. Owner Denny Smith, who now lives in Nashville and is pursuing a music career, tells WMBD’s “The Phil Luciano Show” he simply has too much on his plate to run the business adequately. “I play in a band and I’m also a stage hand and a visual technician,” Smith said. “(For example) Next week I do a Katy Perry show and I do Vince Gill on Saturday night, and Linkin Park on Thursday. Those are long days and I’m trying to do that and then somebody calls and says ‘Hey, the credit card machine’s not working.’” Smith emphasizes the decision to close the store was his and his alone. “My landlord’s not kicking me out. They want me to stay. I have opted not to renew my lease,” Smith said.
Record stores, radio specials and other things I miss about the old music industry: Today’s music industry has almost no resemblance to the olden days. Streaming, social media, audience consumption habits, music discovery and live performances have been irrevocably changed. In retrospect, the hinge point was the release of the original Napster into the wild on June 1, 1999. The digital age of music, which had already begun, albeit slowly, would quickly explode into a wildfire that an unprepared—and frankly, willfully ignorant—music industry couldn’t contain. It took about 15 years for them to adapt to doing business in a vastly different way. There’s a lot about today’s music industry to love, the primary one being instant access to some 200 million songs via the streaming music services for free (if you use Spotify) and something very close to it for everyone else. No more travelling through time and space to pick up that new album by your favourite artist.
Bloomington, IN | A popular apparel company is opening up shop in a vinyl record store in Bloomington: Homefield at Tracks is ready for the 2025-26 season. The popular Homefield apparel brand is branching out with its first-ever retail store in partnership with Tracks, a vinyl record store that opened in 1988 and changed ownership at the start of the year. …“We’ve dreamed what a retail experience could be for a while,” Homefield’s co-founder and CEO Connor Hitchcock told The Herald-Times. “The brand has always been centered on Indiana, regardless of how many schools we added. We knew that if we ever did something Homefield-branded on a college campus, it would be in Bloomington.” Hitchcock, an IU alum, co-founded the clothing company with his wife Christa in 2018. They have grown from having just eight licenses (all from Indiana schools) to 200-plus with annual sales in the eight figures. Their latest project popped onto their radar when a friend, Ben Iler, told them he was purchasing Tracks last year after the previous owner retired.
Isle of Wight, UK | Coach Party Announce Exclusive Island Vinyl And Record Shop Gig: Isle of Wight rock favourites Coach Party are set to play an intimate in-store gig at Newport’s Triple A Records—and they’re bringing a very special local exclusive with them. On Friday 3 October, the band—who have shared stages with Queens of the Stone Age and performed at Glastonbury—will play a live set inside the record shop before signing copies of their brand-new album Caramel. The gig is free to attend when you buy the album, which is released next month. Fans can also snap up a piece of Island music history with Caramel’s exclusive white (“Wight”) vinyl edition, available only from Triple A Records. Just 100 copies have been pressed, and with demand already high, they’re expected to sell out quickly ahead of its 26 September release. “This is a dream come true for us,” said the store’s owners.
Fortitude Valley, AU | So What Stereo drops the needle on Thai-style breakfast in Fortitude Valley: So What Stereo is part vinyl shrine, part Thai breakfast haven—and fully worth the hunt. Hidden in the back streets of Fortitude Valley, this retro-inspired cafe pairs rare records with bold Thai flavours, serving everything from khao soi to Coltrane deep cuts. Take a look inside … Any die-hard vinyl collector will tell you that the best thing about crate digging are the records that are unearthed by accident. Like a rare pressing sheathed inside a dusty sleeve or an obscure collection of jams from an underground musician, it’s often the unexpected finds that become the most memorable additions to any collection. The same can also be said for cafes—sometimes the haunts you come to love are the ones that you just happen to stumble upon. For many foodies, So What Stereo in Fortitude Valley is that place.
Hollywood, CA | Music Fans Flock to Sunset Strip for Spinning Sunset Vinyl Fair in West Hollywood: Music lovers packed the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood this weekend for Spinning Sunset: A Vinyl Wax Fair, a free all-day celebration of the boulevard’s rock ’n’ roll legacy, offering music, venders, food, and all sorts of collectable rarities. The event, held Saturday, August 16, was organized by the Sunset Strip Business Improvement District and featured a central marketplace in the Pink Dot parking lot at 8495 W. Sunset Blvd. Dozens of vendors, including independent record stores, vintage clothing sellers and band merchandise tables, drew crowds of vinyl enthusiasts and collectors. From 1 to 7 p.m., live DJ sets filled the boulevard with music while local businesses offered themed pop-ups, giveaways and special activations tied to the Strip’s storied music scene. Memorabilia displays and exclusive merchandise also highlighted the neighborhood’s decades-long role as a hub for rock culture.
Miniot’s upright wheel 3 spins and plays vinyl records using light instead of magnets or coils: Miniot designs Wheel 3, an upright turntable that spins and plays vinyl records using light instead of magnets or coils. The device uses optical technology instead of magnetic systems to read the records, which means it replaces traditional magnetic cartridges with an optical stylus system. Most record players convert stylus vibrations into electrical signals using magnets and coils, but with Wheel 3, it measures stylus position using light instead of magnetic fields. The record player has a diamond needle that sits in the record groove. When the record spins, the needle moves. A small piece connects to the needle, and light shines on this piece. When the needle moves, the piece blocks different amounts of light, and then the embedded sensors measure these changes and turn them into music sounds.
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