Grand Rapids, MI | Record shop aims to help customers find gold: A new record shop looking to capture the magic of a growing musical medium found a fitting location in Eastown. Vinyl Alchemy is set to open this spring at 1505 Wealthy St. SE next to longtime neighborhood staple Yesterdog. “The best part is I can say, ‘next to Yesterdog,’ and everyone will know where it is,” said owner Kevin Romanyk. A pharmacist by trade, Romanyk said it is time for him to make the jump into entrepreneurship, and the 1,000-square-foot Eastown location provides the perfect setting. “I always thought it was strange there is not a record shop in Eastown,” Romanyk said. “It’s the right vibe, and I’ve been interested in opening a record shop, but I didn’t think such a perfect location would exist.” He said the spot is not huge, but record shops do not need to be large. The cozy, intimate store will provide a nice complementary business to others in the Eastown area.
Yakima, WA | Vinyl in Yakima! Sales are growing even though people don’t have players. It has got to be more than just the retro movement. Vinyl has come back in a big way. In fact, it’s reported by StereoGum.com that Vinyl has grown for the 17th straight year. Between new artists like Taylor Swift setting new records (pun intended) or classics released like Michael Jackson’s Thriller or The Beatles’ Abbey Road, vinyl is huge and is still growing! I just don’t get it. Sure I have a small record (aka VINYL) collection. Most of mine came from my father and grandfather. I can honestly say I have bought 2 Vinyl albums in the past 10 years. The Foo Fighter’s record store day album Medium Rare and the fantastic Northwest band, Cockaphonix’s debut album. That one made me laugh, mainly because of my interaction with a band member Chris Nobbs. It went something like this: Me: Can I buy a CD? Chris: Sorry, we don’t have CDs. We do have our album on vinyl! Me: Damn, the needle in my car turntable broke!
Blenheim, NZ | Jonny H achieves his vinyl dream: Jonny H has always wanted to start a pop-up record store, and now he is living his dream. “It has been a dream since I was a teenager; a Nelson record store owner said to me just do it, so I’ve been giving it a nudge since September.” The music fan said got his unique name playing in punk bands. Jonny H has always wanted to start a pop-up record store, and now he is living his dream. “It has been a dream since I was a teenager; a Nelson record store owner said to me just do it, so I’ve been giving it a nudge since September.” The music fan said got his unique name playing in punk bands. He is originally from Brisbane and has been in Blenheim eight years after meeting a local girl. Opening up a vinyl record pop-up store, Sub-urban Records, had not been without some pain, he said. That included having to sacrifice some of his personal albums.
Atascadero, CA | Traffic Records Suffers Flood Damage: The store reopened to the public on Sunday, Jan. 15. The local community came together during the storm on Monday, Jan. 9, due to flooding on Traffic Way. What started out as a typical stormy day, where many shop owners stayed home, turned into something else entirely when the businesses on the 5000 block of Traffic Way were notified of possible flooding. Specs by Kyla owner Kyla Skinner alerted the business owners on her block that the back parking lot was flooding and the water was flush with their doors via a group Instagram message. “It never even occurred to me that anything could be wrong, although it [the rain] was coming down pretty good,” stated Traffic Records owner Manuel Barba. Barba said that he ran down to his record shop to check on the possible flooding and was completely unprepared for what he found. He assumed he was stopping by to assess the potential for flooding. “I figured I might have to move a couple of things. I figured there’d be water at the back door,” Barba added. “I came into my store, which was entirely flooded from the front door to the back door.”
Murfreesboro, TN | Lots of Vinyl was Stolen from the Local Target Store: Detectives need help identifying a subject in a December 26th theft case. Evidently the day after Christmas, an unidentified individual stole hundreds of dollars’ worth of vinyl records from the Target store on Old Fort Pkwy. While many didn’t realize the store even sold 33’s, loss prevention workers were well aware of their goods being quietly lifted, so quiet that the crime was not reported until 2-weeks had passed. According to the MPD, Target reported the crime 6-days into the New Year. Target Loss Prevention workers told police the unidentified man left as a passenger in an orange Kia Soul. Now, police are trying to locate the suspect.
Column: Music math in the streaming age — listening bleeds into purchasing: Let’s talk about Christmas music. Festive, nostalgic, whatever. I can’t stand to hear any Christmas song more than once each season. However, I do appreciate the fact that Christmas music serves as an annual barometer of how we listen to music and how we measure American chart success in the streaming age. First, consider Christmas 2011. “We Found Love” is atop the Billboard Hot 100 chart, Adele’s yearlong “21” reign is slowly ending and the Glee Cast has five songs on the chart. For the tracking week leading up to December 25, no holiday songs charted at all. Then, three months later, in March 2012, the chart changed its ranking formula to accommodate a growing shift in music consumption: the dawn of streaming. In the 1950s, chart positions were determined by counting radio station spins, jukebox plays and record store sales. Between the 1990s and the 2000s, the chart had been based mostly on digital sales on platforms like iTunes and radio airplay.
Opinion | Beware the Crosley Cruiser Record Player: Over the years, methods of listening to music have changed drastically. From cylinder phonographs in the late 19th century to vinyl turntables, cassette tapes, compact discs, and finally, to the dominance of streaming services, music technology has been through a whirlwind evolution. Usually, it’s all about the next best thing. However, vinyl records have defied the odds over the last decade, exponentially booming back to relevance since they surrendered to CDs in the 1980s. In 2010, 2.8 million records were sold in the US; in 2021, that number reached an impressive 41.7 million. And in 2020, vinyl sales passed CD sales for the first time in over 30 years. The rising popularity of vinyl is likely due to the sentimental value of physical music, the excitement of starting a collection and according to some fanatics and improved sound compared to streaming files. But these benefits won’t last without the proper equipment.
