Liverpool, UK | Vinyl record retailer to open first Liverpool store: UK independent music retailer Rough Trade to open 6,500 sq ft store in Liverpool and is seeking applications for people to join its team. Independent vinyl record retailer Rough Trade is to open its first store in Liverpool. Founded in London in 1976, Rough Trade is a £14m-turnover business that currently has five outlets, including one in New York. It will open its sixth, a 6,500 sq ft store in Hanover Street in Liverpool city centre in the first quarter of 2024. It will create a number of jobs and is seeking applications from people in Liverpool city region. Roles include general manager, assistant manager, bar and events manager, bar and events supervisor, retail supervisors and bar, sales and events assistants. This will become Rough Trade’s largest location in the UK and boast its largest venue space. It will feature a fully stocked bar and cafe in partnership with Signature Brew and Dark Arts. Upon opening, people will be able to browse the extensive catalogue of music and merchandise in-store.
Liverpool, UK | Iconic Jacaranda to open record store and performance space in the Baltic Triangle: There was huge news announced today from one of Liverpool’s most iconic venues, Jacaranda is to open a new record store and 400 capacity performance space in the Baltic Triangle at Cains Brewery Village. 65 years after opening on Slater Street, Liverpool’s iconic Jacaranda is opening another premises in the Baltic Triangle—Jacaranda Baltic. The new Jacaranda Baltic site is made up of a record shop and a 400 capacity performance area, located inside Cain’s Brewery. The record store, the latest iteration of the Jacaranda brand, will stock a curated mix of local and international artist’s new releases, along with all the classic albums you expect to find. The performance area, Jacaranda’s largest and most ambitious to date, already has a range of huge artists set to play there. Tom Odell, Dizzee Rascal, Shed Seven, Cast and Red Rum Club are all set to perform live on-stage and launch their new albums from the new Baltic venue over the next few months.
Sacramento, CA | Coffee shop and record store in midtown Sacramento is closing. Here’s why—and when. A midtown Sacramento cafe known for its coffee drinks and vinyl record collection will close early next year. Pressed Coffee and Records is closing its doors at 1725 L St. due to rent increases, the business owners said in a Dec. 22 Instagram post. “Since early October (and after the second significant annual increase in rent in September), we have been in negotiations with our landlord to decrease our rent based on the fact that office workers have not returned to midtown (and) downtown,”the post read. The cafe received a 30-day notice on Dec. 20 and officially shutter on Jan. 13. “I am certain that this isn’t the end and you will see some more news on that soon,” the cafe’s owners said in the post. …The cafe, which doubles as a record shop, offers a menu of espresso coffee drinks and small bites such as veggie burritos and falafal wraps.
Fort Wayne, IN | Iconic family-owned record store passes the pricing gun from father to son: It takes a lot to become a local legend in the record store world, but the Roets family had managed to do just that. As the final days of 2023 turned into a new year, Bob Roets, founder and owner, with his wife, Cindy, of Fort Wayne’s iconic Wooden Nickel Records announced his retirement and passed the baton, along with the pricing gun, to his son Chris. For a look back at the local record store scene as well as insight on Bob’s deep passion and commitment to the community, here’s the conversation WBOI’s Julia Meek had with him on the company’s 40th Anniversary in 2022. “…You know, when I opened the store, I had very modest thoughts of where we were going to go. And we started with $1,000, my record collection and my stereo system. That’s what started Wooden Nickel, to be honest with you. And to think where it is today, it was inconceivable that that would happen. But I’m a pretty stubborn guy, you know, I mean, I worked seven days a week, I still do. I love what I do…”
Oakham, UK | Rutland business kicks off the New Year with a Shop of the Year award win: Rocka-Buy Records in Oakham has celebrated an award win this New Year. The shop, located in The Maltings, just off Oakham’s Mill Street, was nominated in the SongsBehindTheMusic Awards in December 2023. Owned and run by Dean Poole, Rocka-Buy Records is a one stop shop for all things musical, from vinyl and record players to merchandise and expert knowledge from Dean himself. As well as relocating to a bigger store, introducing new signs and building a shiny new website, the team have welcomed a vast amount of new stock and Rocka-Buy branded t shirts and hoodies—and now, they have ushered in their first award of 2024! The team shared the news on Facebook: “Thank you to all that voted for us in the record shop of the year with SBTM. We have indeed won and we’re over the moon. Happy new year one and all…”
Philadelphia, PA | Indie record store Swifties’ mecca: Pa. shop’s stock of rare LP draws fans from across country. Hundreds of copies of a highly coveted Taylor Swift vinyl release have been inconspicuously hanging out on the shelves of one Berks County record shop for the last seven months. When superfans found out, they went into a frenzy, descending on Kutztown, Pa., for a chance to own the record. Some drove for more than a dozen hours, flew hundreds of miles, and even messaged strangers and offered bribes for the chance to own a copy of the rare LP. Now, the shop—Young Ones Records—has one final copy left for a lucky Swiftie. Swift released “Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions,” a live version of her Disney+ documentary, in April. The double LP was a Record Store Day exclusive that retailed for about $50, with 75,000 albums pressed and sold exclusively at independent record shops throughout the country and 40,000 more internationally, marking Record Store Day’s largest pressing.
O‘ahu, HI | Why vinyl records have stood the test of time: “Aloha Got Soul”, one of the known record shops on O‘ahu, best represents support for vinyl records and the overall music community on the island. …Existing record shops today can be attributed to vinyl records’ rise. In 2022, 48% or nearly half (20.92 million of 43.46 million) of all vinyl albums being sold in the U.S. were purchased in independent record stores, and the remainder were from online orders and the mass merchant category which are in-store sales from stores like Walmart and Target. Vinyl records are extremely relevant in this generation, but there is an underlying question: why? Why is an old format brought back to this age? Why should people buy it when they have their phones? Well, here on the island of O‘ahu, the preservation and love for vinyl records and music is strongly present with many like-minded people. Aloha Got Soul, one of the known record shops on O‘ahu, best represents support for vinyl records and the overall music community on the island.
UK | Vinyl is back for good and that’s exciting. Don’t let the greed of big labels ruin it: …Just before Christmas, I had a long and fascinating conversation with Jack Clothier, the co-founder of independent British label Alcopop! Records, whose speciality is the kind of rough-edged, spirited alt-rock that has long defined itself against the mainstream. He gets his records pressed in the Czech Republic. Between 2019 and this year, he reckons, the cost has gone up by 85%. Worse still, major labels that come to pressing plants with vast orders for records by such modern titans as Ed Sheeran and Taylor Swift – whose 2022 album Midnights sold nearly a million vinyl copies in the US alone – often push small fry like him out of the way, which has led to lead times of up to nine months. Rock and pop music, older readers may recall, is meant to be about quick turnarounds and the shock of the new. “There needs to be a bit of passion with vinyl, because that’s what makes it such a brilliant format,” he told me.
Northampton, MA | Record Fair returns to Northampton after four-year hiatus: After a four-year hiatus, over 40 vendors offering a variety of music genres are ready to return to the Union Station Banquets for the Northampton Record Fair on March 3 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. According to Justin Cohen, an organizer of the event, the fair will feature 55 tables of vinyl records and CDs sold by local and regional small business owners. “This year’s vendor lineup is the cream of the crop of record dealers from around the northeast,” said Cohen, a Springfield resident who DJs and co-runs the record label Peace & Rhythm under the name Studebaker Hawk. Included in the vendor lineup are brick and mortar stores like Spin That Records, Greenfield Records, Redscroll Records, Want List Records, Vinyl Destination and Records the Good Kind, and independent record dealers that can only be found at fairs, like John Bastone of Record Riots, Bonnie and Scott of Starry Night Records, Meredith of Sleepy Jean Records and Northampton legends Main Street Records.
