UK | Record Store Day confirms details of 2025 edition: Record Store Day is returning for its 18th edition in 2025. The international vinyl event will take place on April 12, 2025. Last year’s edition delivered a significant boost to sales. More than 270 independent record shops across the UK, alongside thousands more around the globe, will participate in the celebration of vinyl releases and independent record store culture. Record Store Day’s upcoming 18th edition coincides with 18 years of growth in vinyl sales, reported in the latest BPI market figures. The vinyl celebration is organised by ERA with its record store members. RSD has partnered with DEYA Brewing Company, based in Cheltenham, who will be brewing a special RSD beer that will be available in participating record stores, bottle shops and pubs in April 2025.
Montreal, CA | Return to Analog’s Pierre Markotanyos: …Pierre Markotanyos, the owner of the reissue label Return to Analog and Montreal record store Aux 33 Tours (which refers to the speed at which an LP spins), has noticed a distinct change in the makeup of who’s buying vinyl these days. “In the late 2000s,” Markotanyos reflects, “it was mostly 55-to-70-year-old guys who were coming in, buying records to play on their high-end stereos that they bought at the audio show in Montreal.” [Sound familiar, Stereophile readers?] “They were the purists and the true believers.” “And then 2010, 2011, the hipsters started really getting hardcore into it. And then, about four or five years ago, we started noticing 15-, 17-, 18-year-olds and a lot of girls. I’d stand in the middle of the store on Saturday and go, “Hey, 10 years ago there were just guys in here and now it’s like 30% women. Today, it’s more like 60–40 on a weekend. You look around and there’s almost as many girls as there are guys.”
Canton, TX | East Texas vinyl enthusiasts give insight into nationwide revival: Young listeners are embracing the nostalgic feel for music through vinyl records, including those in East Texas. For some, it might just be a vinyl on a record player, but for 21-year-old Allie Rives, as well as other Gen Z fanatics, it’s an immersive experience that brings a deeper connection and appreciation to music. “You get to touch them, see them, and listen to them, and I prefer that over digital streaming,” said Rives. According to Luminate Music Consumption Data, vinyl album sales have increased from $13.1 million in 2016 to $49.6 million in 2023. That’s a growth of nearly 300 percent over the last eight years. A high percentage of that consumption are young listeners. “Most of my friends have vinyl and listen that way,” said Rives. “Occasionally we’ll have listening parties using vinyl, and new albums come up that we want to listen to.”
New York, NY | The Music Is Too Loud. That’s the Point. Vinyl-focused listening bars inspired by ones in Japan are opening across New York, attracting audiophiles and city dwellers looking for a respite from the cacophony outside their doors. On one Friday evening, the conversation in the back room of All Blues in TriBeCa, where about two dozen people sat in leather chairs, was overtaken by the music streaming from three large, mid-20th-century speakers. Behind a D.J. booth, Yuji Fukushima, 62, the owner of the bar, spun a set that included 1980s funk and late-career Dizzy Gillespie, which played from a pair of German-made turntables. Around the room were rare McIntosh amplifiers, a tape recorder from a Swiss audio company and the three speakers—JBL products that altogether cost tens of thousands of dollars. The bar’s patrons were enjoying what Mr. Fukushima called a “music massage,” inspired by some of his favorite hangouts in Japan, where he grew up.
8 things to know before buying a cheap turntable in 2025: The things to think about before spending any money on a cheap turntable. Cheap doesn’t necessarily mean nasty when it comes to the best turntables: you can pick up a very good model for considerably less than $200 / £150 / AU$250. But unfortunately, you can also pick up a not very good model for similar sums or for even more. So, how do you ensure that you get the most musical bang for your bucks? Let’s find out. Here are seven things you need to know when buying a cheap turntable like one of these three beginner turntable systems in 2025. …With cheap turntables, you’ll often have to choose between features and performance: as a rule of thumb, the more bells and whistles a super-cheap turntable has the more likely it is that corners have been cut elsewhere. And if those corners are on the bits that actually affect the sound, such as the motor or the stylus cartridge, then those may be a cut too far.
Blue Note’s New ‘Truly, Madly, Deeplee’ Boxset Celebrates Lee Morgan: Out on January 2 and curated by Blue Note label boss Dan Was, the new limited edition release celebrates Blue Note star Lee Morgan. Out on January 2, Blue Note Review, Volume Three: Truly, Madly, Deeplee is a limited-edition box set curated by Blue Note President Don Was – and this time the seminal jazz trumpeter Lee Morgan is in the spotlight. In this third volume, the heart of the Blue Note Review remains the music—The Finest In Jazz Since 1939—and there’s even more than before in Volume Three with an exclusive collection of new recordings, an exclusive previously unreleased discovery, and timeless treasures from the Blue Note vaults. To make it all sound great the “Tone Poet” Joe Harley supervised the vinyl mastering and manufacturing with mastering by Kevin Gray. Truly, Madly, Deeplee includes a new album on 2-LP, 180g 12” vinyl (CD version also included) of modern jazz luminaries…
Sofia, BG | Bulgaria’s First Vinyl Pressing Plant since 90s Goes into Operation, Only One on Balkans. No vinyl records have been produced in Bulgaria since 1994. This is about to change in the coming months, as in 2025, the first vinyl pressing plant in the country since Balkanton will begin operations. It will be the only one in the Balkans. In an interview with BTA, one of the people behind the factory, Iliya Grigorov, explained why now is the time for the revival of this business, the interest from other Balkan countries, and the concept behind the project. The plant, located in a village near Sofia, will start working on orders from February, with a capacity to produce up to 20,000 vinyl records per month. ‘There is a lot of interest from the Balkans, and I am not even sure how we will manage at the beginning – we will give our best. Many Bulgarian artists also want to work with us,’ Grigorov said.
K-Tel records made millions with compilation albums before it hit hard times: If you grew up in the 1970s or 1980s, you probably owned at least one (if not many) K-Tel records. K-Tel were synonymous with compilations, releasing albums that contained everything from polka hits to country music, classical music and everything in between. Before 1981, K-Tel made more than $150 million in record sales in 34 countries, selling more units than some of the major record companies. After some bad business decisions and other record companies eventually realising there was money to be made in compilations, K-Tel started losing money. By 1984 its US parent company had filed for bankruptcy. Music journalist and record collector Barry Divola said K-Tel was started by someone with no music knowledge.
iPod Hoarder Robert Smith Doesn’t Stream Music “on Principle.” “I’ve got loads and loads of different iPods with stickers on them so I know in the dark which one’s gonna play which.” …it’s perhaps unsurprising, then, that the frontman is also not a fan of streaming services and their royalty models, which quite famously offer musicians and songwriters next to nothing. In a new interview on the latest episode of the BBC’s Sidetracked with Annie and Nick podcast, Smith revealed that he prefers to listen to music the old-fashioned way: on an iPod, as Steve Jobs intended. The musician was adamant about refusing to “stream music on principle,” saying that he had never used a streaming service. In addition to listening to vinyl records, he has a collection of iPods—tragically discontinued by Apple in 2022—that he enjoys tapping into when he gets a hankering for a particular era after a “couple of beers.”
Follow The Vinyl District on Facebook HERE, Instagram HERE, Threads HERE, Bluesky HERE, and X/Twitter HERE.
