Kirksville, MO | Wow, America’s oldest record store is in Kirksville, Missouri: When I first saw this, I did a double-take. But, I’ve discovered it really appears to be true. America’s oldest record store is in Kirksville, Missouri. Wow. I have to give Only In Your State some mad props for being right about this one. I admit I doubted them, but it appears their claim is correct. They named Rinehart’s Music and Video in Kirksville, Missouri as the oldest location of a record store. They’re not wrong. Their official Facebook page (and the Only In Your State article) says they opened as a record store in 1897. In those days, it was just phonographs, but technically that’s still a record. Remember that date. If you Google “oldest record store in America”, you’ll see many places that make that claim. Parade Magazine claimed it was George’s Song Shop in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. Vinyl Lives agrees. It opened as a record store in 1932. That’s 35 years after Rinehart’s so they lose.
Chicago, IL | Farewell to Dave’s Records: Photos from the final day of the beloved Lincoln Park shop capture a sliver of the community that Dave Crain’s passion for vinyl drew together. In August 2009, I moved into a three-bedroom on Clark a few blocks north of Fullerton, with no clue about Lincoln Park’s cultural position in Chicago. I had grad-school classes in Evanston and the Loop, so the neighborhood seemed to make sense—it was more or less in between the two. …That December, I discovered the storefront windows of a nearby record shop. In an eclectic display of Christmas-themed album covers, I spotted a record by King Diamond, who was pictured in his trademark corpsepaint, thumbing his nose, sticking out his tongue, and cozying up to a reindeer with ribbons in its antlers. The disc was a 1985 12-inch called “No Presents for Christmas,” and the shop was Dave’s Records. Nothing else in the neighborhood spoke to me the way it did.
Nottingham, UK | Take a look around an 80s Nottingham record shop opened by Depeche Mode: Vinyl, cassettes, CDs – and a bunch of happy shoppers. The way we listen to music has changed so much as the decades have worn on. But that hasn’t stopped beloved old formats having a revival – vinyl sales are back in the millions, and last year cassette tapes enjoyed their best sales since 2003. If you’re hankering for a time without on-demand streaming, then take a look at the gallery below. HMV on Lister Gate opened in 1986, with a bunch of pretty special guests. Depeche Mode cut the ribbon with a gaggle of eager devotees. Plenty turned out to see one of the defining synthpop bands of the 80s with cameras, pens and albums in hand. Other photos show the HMV at Christmas, in full colour. They were busy days as people looked for last-minute gifts for loved ones—compilation album, anyone Take a look at the gallery below to explore HMV Lister Gate as it was in 1986. Let us know what you remember?
Norwich, UK | Norwich shops’ joy as demand for records continues to grow: City record shops have spoken of their joy after vinyl became the UK’s second most popular form of physical entertainment. More people bought vinyl records than Playstation and Xbox games in 2022 according to the Entertainment Retailers Association (ERA) with only Nintendo Switch games outselling wax. And Norwich’s many record shops say the industry has continued to grow since the vinyl revival started around 2008. Some store owners have even gone as far as to say the ever-increasing demand for records has kept them in business. Andy Tillett, who has run Press to Play, in St Benedicts Street, for more than 20 years, is one of those who says vinyl keeps his business running. He said: “I sell a lot of vinyl, it’s definitely a growth business. “I don’t know how they work out which formats are the most popular but vinyl has certainly kept us going.”