Chicago, IL | ‘We’re going to make a great run at it’: Oak Park’s Val’s Halla Records to stay open, for now. After believing its days were numbered, Oak Park’s iconic Val’s Halla Records store has a new lease on life into 2020, with hopes the store can become financially viable by then. Store manager Shayne Blakeley confirmed the shop has been temporarily saved by River Forest resident and customer Trevor Toppen, who plans to lend his financial expertise to the business. “It’s pretty amazing,” Blakeley said. “I’m going to have a lot to be thankful for before I cut into any turkey. Things have been moving very fast.” Earlier this month, Blakeley announced the store had intended to close by the end of November after 47 years in business. At the time, he said Val’s Halla had its worst first quarter financially in 20 years, which appeared to be the final nail in its coffin. Toppen, who has lived in the area since 2003, got to know Val’s Halla and Blakeley when his son Jackson started volunteering at the store, and said he couldn’t pass up the opportunity to give the store a second chance.

Cork, IE | Cork’s famous vinyl record store back after Douglas village fire: The shop had been closed for 10 weeks following fire in Douglas Shopping centre. One of Cork’s best-known vinyl record stores – MusicZone – has reopened following a ten week absence due to the fire in Douglas Shopping Centre. The shop was forced to close its doors following the blaze in the Douglas Mall but it is now open for business again in its new location at Unit 4, Deanrock Business Park, Togher. MusicZone is one of Ireland’s largest stockists of vinyl records and they offer free delivery throughout the country on any order of three or more records. The business was set up by Ray O’Brien in 2001 and in a statement, he spoke of his delight at finally being able to welcome customers back to his store where he works alongside his son, Cormac. “So look here we are, 10 weeks since the night of the fire and it’s on, moving to the new location,” said O’Brien.

Wichita, KS | Vinyl is about to top CD sales, and Spin It Again Records has reopened to help: Only days after the Recording Industry Association of America announced that for the first time in more than three decades vinyl record sales likely will top CD sales this year, Spin It Again Records has reopened. The store has been closed since late August, but this week owner Ed Swarts reopened it in its new location at 3715 W. Douglas, which is two blocks east of West Street…The store sells new and used vinyl records, turntables, cleaning supplies and other related items and does minor related repairs. It also buys used records. Spin It Again Records will be open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. Swarts says he’s not surprised vinyl sales are about to surpass CD sales. “The CD is just a thing of the past,” he says.

Liam Gallagher declares “ignorance is bliss” as he favours vinyl over Spotify: “I don’t think I’ve ever used Spotify once in my life. I don’t even know how to use it. I don’t have a clue” Liam Gallagher has admitted that he “doesn’t have a clue” when it comes to music streaming services and that he has no intention of ever using them. The former Oasis frontman says he much prefers to listen to vinyl than digital services such as Spotify. He told the Huffington Post: ”I stay away from that. I don’t think I’ve ever used Spotify once in my life and I don’t think I intend to either. I don’t even know how to use it. I don’t have a clue. ”Part of it is, ignorance is bliss. All these new ways to listen to music have gone way over my head, and I’m quite happy with it. Call it that I’m stuck in the ’90s. I listen to tunes on the record player.”

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San Diego, CA | Vinyl creates experiences that never die: On Adams Avenue, nestled between a gelato shop and a cafe, you’ll find Ruthie Bible sitting on a stool behind a cash register in a skinny storefront shop, watching over hundreds of vinyl records. She’s been at this post for 35 years, observing and listening, as customers come and go. Bible, who is in her seventies, is the co-owner of Nickelodeon Records, a Normal Heights establishment that has become a San Diego institution. The small record store opened in 1984 but has since been garnering attention from younger generations looking to visit and snap a few pics among the rows of records and with the backdrop of decades of music history behind them. “Their behavior is totally different,” Bible said about the record store’s younger visitors. “They really like (the shop) and it’s cool and everything, but it’s like a little museum to them. They like to come and take pictures and leave.”

Redditch, UK| Vintage stuff as two new shops open in a forgotten corner of the centre: Two new independent shops are to open in Redditch town centre – breathing new life into a neglected spot behind the Post Office and Debenhams. And with the backing of the Borough Council, they hope to help Rejuvenate Redditch by organising a variety of events in the unused covered area in the coming months. Exactly six years to the day since opening in the Kingfisher Centre as a pop up shop, retro record specialists, Vintage Trax is returning to town with a second vinyl record and CD shop, while retaining its popular Headless Cross store. Opening alongside at the same time is Vintage Threads, offering ladies and mens vintage clothing, footwear and accessories, as well as repairs and alterations. Owner, Helen Truman, is a seasoned fashion trader having worked at the Regal, a well known psychedelic clothing shop in Soho in the 1980s, and over 20 years later opened a retro fashion shop at Winyates Barn, Redditch. “It’s an exciting time for both of us,” said Ros Sidaway, owner of Vintage Trax.

Pittsburgh, PA | Introducing Pittsburgh Record Label Roundup: The diverse and plentiful selection of the city’s record labels: No matter how ingrained you are in the Pittsburgh music scene, you still might not know just how many record labels are operating locally. Many of them fly under the radar, but they’re worth knowing. Check out the first three features in our new Pittsburgh Record Label Roundup… When Montgomery was promoting his debut album, Driving While Black in 2016, he noticed that people were buying the merchandise before even hearing the songs. “Seeing how invested people were in the brand made me realize that I could create a platform for both myself and other artists,” he says. Montgomery felt that there was a plethora of great talent in Pittsburgh, but a dearth of opportunities to help artists further their careers. So he created Driving While Black Records (DWB) to help build an infrastructure for artists in the city. DWB prides itself on showing what can happen when a group of like-minded individuals come together to create opportunities for themselves.

Noel Fielding Is Making a Netflix Show About a Magical Record Player: Noel Fielding has spent recent years offering up some conservatively colourful outfits as the co-host of The Great British Bake-Off, but he’ll soon return to his strange comedy roots. After all, he’s currently at work on a new Netflix series. In a recent appearance on BBC 6 Music [via Chortle], Fielding explained that he’s working on the early development stages of his new show, which is a musical comedy with some signature Noel weirdness. “Basically a guy gets hold of a magic record player and when you put the record player on a portal appears and you can go inside your favourite albums,” Fielding explained. That said, don’t expect it to be complete too soon. “I haven’t written it yet,” he admitted. “I pitched it and Netflix liked it and we’re making it, but I haven’t started writing it yet. So that’s my next thing.”

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Can Vinyl Save the Music Industry? Gen X, Gen Z and millennials are all buying into the vinyl hype, as sales increase steadily. In a time when most music is almost free and at your fingertips, however, will LPs play long enough to bring the music industry back in tune? …RIAA data shows that 25-to-34-year-olds and 18-to-24-year-olds accounted for 19 and 16 per cent respectively of U.S. new vinyl sales in 2018. This is valuable to artists who are not being paid what they’d like to be on streaming services. For artists, selling other merchandise has become increasingly important. Luckily for them, some fans are willing to pay for exclusive merchandise and experiences on crowdfunding platforms. A 2013 Indiegogo campaign for the Canadian band Protest The Hero raised nearly $450,000 to fund an album and 1,299 copies of the signed, limited-edition vinyl LP were claimed as rewards. Katy Perry has a vinyl record coming out soon. It’s a record-first release but her truest “Katy Cats” will surely snatch up those 4,000 copies to hold a piece of their favourite artist in their hands.

Long Beach, CA | Long Beach record store and marijuana dispensary partner to host free concert: The dispensary ShowGrow, which has a business location in Long Beach, partnered with local record store Analog Records on Nov. 9 to host Cozy Sesh 7, a free concert that gave cannabis businesses the opportunity to share information about the recreational marijuana industry with community members. This is the seventh Cozy Sesh event Analog Records has held. The events are free, but attendees have to register online beforehand and space is limited. The featured performers for Cozy Sesh 7 were the musician Cherokee and the group Capyac, who performed on a stage in Analog Record’s parking lot. Throughout the day, disc jockeys also provided music both in the parking lot and the store itself. Cherokee is a French musician signed to the label Roche Musique. His music belongs to the genre French touch, according to Roche Musique’s website.

Detroit, MI | The Detroit roots of hip-hop label Fat Beats run deep: In the early ’90s, hip-hop wasn’t the mainstream cultural behemoth it is today. Back then, hip-hop was still largely a non-commercial art form found in Black and brown communities in cities across the United States. Founded in 1994 by Joe Abajian (aka DJ Jab) in New York City, Fat Beats was a record store that brought these communities together — and quickly became a nerve center for all things hip-hop. Originally located on Manhattan’s lower east side, Fat Beats has played an enormous role in celebrating hip-hop culture in its purest form for the last 25 years. Throughout the ’90s and 2000s, Fat Beats was where you went to cop the latest must-have 12-inch single, chat with fellow hip-hop heads, and catch legendary in-store performances from artists such as Black Star, Organized Konfusion, Outkast, and Common. As the business got going, it didn’t take long for Fat Beats to establish itself as a distribution company and, eventually, a record label. At its height, Fat Beats also had storefronts in Los Angeles, Atlanta, Amsterdam, and Tokyo.

St Petersburg, FL | Daddy Kool Records to join The Factory St. Pete in 2020: Do you love Daddy Kool? Of course you do. We all do. The music hub had long been a staple on the 600 Block before moving to a larger space in the Warehouse Arts District. The record store hosts monthly night markets, live music, and is home to one of the most expansive record collections in all of Tampa Bay. So it makes sense that in 2020 it would join The Factory, a sprawling immersive arts, entertainment, food + drink (and snacks from OrganicCBDNugs) concept. Like we said before, if you’re not following The Factory on Facebook and Instagram, you should change that ASAP. The massive creative destination in the Warehouse Arts District of St. Petersburg is already set to house Fairgrounds, an artist created immersive experience. Residents got a taste of what they can expect from the 12,000-square-foot experimental art exhibit with a live mermaid show at the SHINE finale. Additional concepts such as the eclectic coffee/art/music hub Black Crow Coffee will also open at The Factory next year.

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