Albany, NY | FYE record stores to change ownership, no longer locally owned: Trans World Entertainment Corp.is throwing in the towel on its chain of brick-and-mortar record stores. The publicly-owned retail company informed its shareholders of its intent to sell off its FYE stores to a subsidiary of Sunrise Records and Entertainment Ltd. in Canada. The Albany-based entertainment group, which has suffered substantial losses in recent years, has agreed to sell the retail chain for $10 million in cash. Ownership of as many as 206 locations will change hands, as will the name of the chain, but “substantially all” employees are expected to retain their jobs. The decision to sell to Sunrise was unanimously approved by Trans World’s board of directors and filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday, Jan. 23. The sale will also include Trans World’s administrative headquarters and distribution center at 38 Corporate Circle in Albany. The $10 million price tag includes the transfer of $40 million worth of net inventory. The purchase price will be adjusted after an audit, which could nullify the sale altogether should net inventory be valued at less than $30 million.
Lincoln, UK | For the record: New HMV store opens in Lincoln Cornhill Quarter: HMV has opened a new store in the Cornhill Quarter with a much bigger vinyl record collection after closing on the High Street. The new shop opened on Friday, January 24 in place of BrightHouse next to Heron Foods and the upcoming Everyman Cinema at 16 Cornhill. It is very similar to the old HMV store which closed on the High Street on January 12, but it is now in a brand new, much brighter, unit. Laurence Price, head of retail at HMV, said previously: “All staff will be moving across to the new store and are looking forward to a refreshed unit. “It will give us the chance to update our offer and improve on our already expanded vinyl range. “The Cornhill Quarter is a developing part of the city and we hope to be able to put our stamp on it.” …Meanwhile, the last surviving independent shops in the area have blamed a drop in footfall and increasing costs for dwindling local businesses in the Cornhill Quarter.
Detroit, MI | 4 top spots for music and DVDs in Detroit: Shopping for music and DVDs? Hoodline crunched the numbers to find the top music and DVD outlets in Detroit, using both Yelp data and our own secret sauce to produce a ranked list of where to venture next time you’re in the market for music and DVDs. Hoodline offers data-driven analysis of local happenings and trends across cities. Links included in this article may earn Hoodline a commission on clicks and transactions. 1. Peoples Records: First on the list is Peoples Records. Located at 1464 Gratiot Ave. in Lafayette Park, the spot to score music, DVDs and vinyl records is the highest-rated music and DVD spot in Detroit, boasting 4.5 stars out of 42 reviews on Yelp. 2. Third Man Records: Next up is Midtown’s Third Man Records, situated at 441 W. Canfield St. With four stars out of 36 reviews on Yelp, the spot to score music, DVDs and vinyl records has proven to be a local favorite.
Bozeman, MT | ‘Social space’: KGLT hosts annual fundraiser record swap: A room in the Strand Union Building at Montana State University turned into a pop-up record store Friday afternoon. The smell of cardboard from record jackets filled the air as people young and old dug through boxes and crates of vinyl for KGLT’s Record Swap. Ear Candy, from Missoula, Bozeman’s Cactus Records and some individual sellers setup shop for the swap. A radio blared different music in the background for vinyl junkies looking for music that was new or weird or something they didn’t know they needed. Sandy Jett and Erin Eisner were among the crowd digging through the thousands of labels. Eisner said she’s been to previous swaps and has always been able to “find a lot of goodies.” She said Jett had the day off, and she dragged him to the swap. Jett said he was hoping to find something weird that he “didn’t expect to find or knew existed.” Eisner said she didn’t go with any expectations, though she limited herself by only grabbing $20 from the ATM — “I’ve spent a lot more before,” she said. Eisner said she’d figure out what she was looking for when she saw it. “It’s just fun to be surprised by what we find, instead of setting out to find something specific,” she said.
Dallas, TX | Top Ten Records Will Screen Local Music Videos: Remember those nights when you stayed up with your friends watching music videos on MTV? Kids today will never know the frustration of the pre-internet days, when we had to wait for our favorite songs to come alive on the big screen (well, a screen bigger than the one on your phone) and the equal excitement when they finally did. Not only do music videos give us insight to an artist’s range of creativity (or at least hired creativity), they also serve to contextualize the values and aesthetic of the times. Nothing sums up the ’80s like the music videos from hair metal bands showing girls in hot pants rolling around on expensive cars. And Oak Cliff record store Top Ten Records (338 W. Jefferson Blvd.) is always down for a history lesson. The store, which also doubles as a stage for indie and experimental live music shows, will celebrate the best of North Texas’ music videos by screening some old favorites on the second edition of Local Music Video Night II. On Friday, Jan. 31, they will be showing a local music video festival of sorts curated by local music archivist EV Borman. The first event took place in September, and Borman says they plan on doing at least two more this year.
Nevada City, CA | MEET YOUR MERCHANT: Leslie Dilloway’s love of everything vintage has turned her Nevada City store into a visual feast: To step into Tiger Alley in Nevada City is to know that Leslie Dilloway has a gift. At the vintage clothing and vinyl store on Broad Street, Dilloway is clearly more than a shop owner. She is a curator, a master collector and a true artist. The recently remodeled historic building easily beckons passersby inward with its splash of bold stripey colors on the walls and piano, the racks of vintage Hawaiian shirts, the mustard velveteen couch, the psychedelic posters and colored plastic phones of the Sixties and Seventies…But right under the The Magic 8-Ball and over by the multi-colored neon head is the perfect complement to Dilloway’s treasures — a rapidly growing collection of vintage and contemporary vinyl albums, carefully researched by Dilloway’s business partner, Sean Dooley, who is also the music director at KVMR.
Denver, CO | ‘There Is Still Value’: As Vinyl Outsells CDs, Experts Say That Could Change: For the first time since the 1980s, vinyl records are set to outpace CD sales throughout the United States. With many seeking out downloads and streaming services while others collect vinyl, CDs could be left in the past. Two of Denver’s most prominent record shops both say CD sales have significantly dropped in the past decade. “LPs are definitely selling better than CDs,” said Paul Epstein, owner of Twist and Shout on Colfax Avenue. Epstein said, while the same volume of CDs and vinyl records are sold still, the dollar value of the CD makes sales less profitable. Most used CDs sell between $3 and $5, whereas LPs typically start as low as $8. “(CDs are) very affordable, and a great bargain for 80 minutes of clean music,” Epstein said. To the west of Twist and Shout, Wax Trax Records manager Dave Wilkins told CBS4’s Dillon Thomas often times the draw to owning physical copies of music isn’t necessarily to listen to them. “A big part of it is simply the artwork (on the covers)” Wilkins said.
