East Anglia, UK | Vinyl’s resurrection: Why record shops are returning to East Anglia: …Andy’s Records, like many other independent record stores in East Anglia, is no more. It’s now a health food store where I’d have more chance of getting wrapped around some quinoa than buying a record. Next door a clothes shop occupies the spot where my favourite record store from my teens, Lizard Records, used to stand. They’re both gone now, victims of the time at the start of this century when we ditched music shops in favour of downloading tracks and picking up cheap CDs in supermarkets. But things are changing once again. The fact I was still able to buy a record from an independent record shop in 2018 was actually pretty remarkable given the seismic change in our relationship with buying music and in particular vinyl records this century. As a nation, we are starting to accept record shops back into our lives again.
Chicago, IL | Dorian’s — A Record Shop, Bar And Restaurant Hybrid — Opened Friday In Wicker Park: The team behind the popular Saved by the Max pop-up diner will unveil their permanent neighborhood addition Dorian’s this Friday night in Wicker Park’s Flat Iron building. Packing a quadruple punch as a swanky restaurant and bar inspired by late ’60s-era jazz clubs — plus a music/DJ stage and a record shop — patrons enter Dorian’s at 1939 W. North Ave. through a room with stacks of vinyl for sale. The record shop offers a fully functional listening booth with headphones that patrons can use as they wait in line to get into the hidden bar and restaurant located behind the record shop. The journey has its own hashtag on Instagram, #throughtherecordshop, which folks are using to post photos. Dorian’s selection of about 600 records across a variety of genres are curated by music programming director Joe Bryl, a former co-owner of West Town dance club Sonotheque.
UK | Now that’s a record… HMV sells a third of Britain’s vinyl and CDs, leaving Amazon firmly in second place: Music retailer HMV has grown its share of the UK market in vinyl and CDs to almost a third – eclipsing Britain’s biggest four supermarkets combined. The growth in share to 32.7 per cent also leaves Amazon firmly in second place. HMV was lifted by a 27 per cent surge in vinyl sales at the chain. Now it is poised to launch its online site internationally following a 40 per cent increase in sales to £12.4million in the year to the end of December. But declining DVD sales hampered sales in the period, falling 6 per cent to £290million. Profits before earnings, tax, interest and depreciation fell to £8 million from £10.4 million the previous year. But HMV said increasing sales of entertainment product and website sales would help counter falling sales of DVDs this year.
UK | Tenby’s Dales Music Store features in new ‘Vinyl Revival’ book: Tenby’s legendary Dales Music Store features in a new book released this week taking a look at the vinyl revival that has rejuvenated record stores across the UK. ‘The Vinyl Revival And The Shops That Made It Happen’ by Graham Jones is the story of the vinyl revival through the eyes of those who made it happen, the independent record shops. It explains why more than a hundred more record shops have opened since 2009, and how others have gained the reward from their hard work. Nearly 65 years since Laurie Dale first opened the doors of what has become a legendary attraction to music lovers – Dales Music Store, on Tenby’s High Street is still going strong.
Pittsford, NY | Whatever Happened to … Fantastic Records? Fantastic Records was an independent music shop in Pittsford that came around just as industry innovations were ushering in a seismic shift in musical consumption. The store was in Pittsford Colony, across Monroe Avenue from Pittsford Plaza. Customers, many of them teenagers, flocked to Fantastic for new and pre-owned music, concert tickets, in-store performances and more. As its name implies, Fantastic started primarily as a record store selling vinyl record albums. But the compact-disc format quickly exploded on the scene and vinyl, for better or worse, became passé. So, like its competitors, Fantastic quickly had to shift its focus to CDs as well as things like videos, digital audio tape, and digital compact cassettes. Fantastic Records was a cool place to hang out and get turned on to music you might never have heard before, as Ken Gardner remembered in a Facebook post.
Connecting Hip-Hop to An Untapped $14 Million Vinyl Records Market: Urban Legends is a cross-platform initiative devoted to the curation and celebration of over three decades of urban music and culture. Launched just this year, it is Universal Music Group’s attempt to provide context around a retail product. Standing at the helm of this effort is Andre Torres, Vice President of Urban Catalogue at UMG. Offering classic albums in vinyl record form, Urban Legends is pulling on the heartstrings of its target demographic, while taking advantage of a bubbling market. According to Billboard, vinyl sales hit a record high with over $14 million in revenue in 2017. It was the 12th straight year of growth in vinyl LP sales, making up 14% of all physical album sales. Retailers like Amazon, Urban Outfitters and Barnes & Noble have their hands in the pot as well, offering new and classic albums in vinyl format. Why shouldn’t an actual music entity join the party? Even if it’s focused on Hip-Hop & R&B, cornering the market for 13% of vinyl sales is a potentially brilliant move by Universal.
What is a disruptor? An excellent example of successful disruptive innovation is in the way music is now consumed. For the majority of the 20th century, music was bought from record stores in the form of vinyl, cassette tapes, and CDs. In the 1990s, as the internet became more popular, file sharing technology emerged which gave internet users free access to their favourite music. Initially, low end disruption of the way music was consumed existed alongside the traditional methods of music purchase and consumption. Over time, illegal file sharing became better regulated and was replaced by online retailers such as iTunes, Spotify, and Amazon who revolutionised the way music is consumed. Legal music downloads and online streaming now accounts for over half the revenue made by the music industry. Music consumption is also the perfect way to illustrate the transitional nature of disruptive innovation. In the music industry we have actually come full circle with sales of vinyl records at their highest since before they were replaced by the cassette, CD, and eventually the download. This highlights the unpredictability of consumer trends and how human factors play the most important part in every area of business.
