Tokyo tops Discogs and VinylHub’s list of cities with the most record shops: Discogs and its sister site VinylHub have collected a wealth of information about the world’s record shops. Like Discogs’ own well-known music database, the findings are based on community input, which shows the United States as having the most record shops by far, with 1482, followed by the United Kingdom with 537 and Germany with 453. The three cities with the most stores are Tokyo with 93 (more than half of the 158 in Japan), Berlin with 87 and London with 79. In the US, the top three cities are New York (47), Chicago (30) and Los Angeles (29).
Casbah Owner Teams up on New Record Shop—San Diego, there’s a new record shop in town: South Park welcomes the Vinyl Junkies Record Shack: We’re goin’ down to South Park and we’re gonna have ourselves a time: The San Diego borough — currently home to spots like Hamilton’s Tavern, Kindred, the Whistle Stop, Eclipse Chocolate Bar & Bistro, and Buona Forchetta (among many others) — is all set to welcome its newest addition, the Vinyl Junkies Record Shack. The newly announced, used-vinyl-focused shop arrives as a joint venture between Casbah owner Tim Mays and M-Theory Music founder Eric Howarth — and hosts its grand opening on Nov. 24-25, at 2235 Fern St., directly across the street from the Whistle Stop.
For 25 years, CD Warehouse was a hub for Springfield music fans. Then, online streaming claimed it. The store began liquidating its stock of more than 80,000 items Monday, Michael Vincent said. About 400 people attended; one guy drove down from Kansas City. It’s a long-anticipated ending: Historically, Vincent said, as music lovers entered their 30s, 40s and 50s, their tastes solidified and they didn’t come by the shop as frequently. But those customers were always replaced by new high school and college-aged kids. But no longer. The kids quit coming four to five years ago. Meanwhile, sales have declined 5 to 8 percent over the past decade, Vincent said.
The world’s biggest record fair returns this weekend: Mega Record and CD Fair will be holding its 48th edition for two days in Utrecht, this Saturday 11th November and Sunday 12th November. Over 500 stands will be selling old and new vinyl wares across 12,500 square feet inside the Jaarbeurs Expo. This year’s Mega Record and CD Fair will also feature auctions, performances and exhibitions, including vinyl cover installation ‘The Female Heroes of Elvis’ curated by DJ Miss Twist, and a live auction of over 100 rare records by UK-based Omega Auctions.
Thousands of vinyl records on sale for music lovers: Thousands of vinyl records for sale over two days this weekend will bring out collectors and music lovers in their droves to Buddina State School hall. Wax-Buildup is presenting the next instalment of the Sunshine Coast Record Fair from 1-5pm on Saturday, November 11, and 9am to 2pm on Sunday, November 12. On the saturday, stallholders will be bringing about 15 tables full of music on vinyl, and CDs will be for sale from $1 each. Anything and everything from ABBA to ZZ Top and every music genre will be available. Some stalls also will carry music-related items such as vintage T-shirts.
An auction set to the Top 500 greatest albums of all time: The collection is the only one of its kind known to exist and is compendium of who’s who: from #1 ‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’ (Beatles – 1967) to #144 ‘Straight Outta Compton (N.W.A. – 1998) to #346 ‘At Newport 1960’ (Muddy Waters – 1960) to #500 ‘Aquemini’ (OutKast – 1998). Leading the pack is, of course, the Beatles with 14 albums combined from the four members of the group. Eric Clapton, Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young, U2, Bob Marley, Talking Heads, Elvis Presley and Nirvana are just a small fraction of the artists included (this group accounts for 48 albums). Listening to the entire collection would take nearly 14 days – nonstop.
Labels says vinyl pressing delays are the “worst they’ve ever been”: Labels are reporting major vinyl production delays. R&S stating the current delay at French vinyl manufacturing facility MPO is the “worst they’ve ever seen.” MPO is one of Europe’s largest and oldest vinyl production facilities. While delays are not uncommon, the ongoing spike in consumer demand for vinyl has meant the current delays have been particularly disruptive for labels such as R&S, Kompakt, Hotflush and трип. “MPO have offered apologies but they have made some bad business decisions this year,” remarks Andy Whittaker of R&S to Resident Advisor. According to reports, the failure to increase production lines and unexpectedly high demand over the summer has led to frustrating lags in production.
