New York, NY | Vinyl records have taken over—and growing more popular than streaming: Retro-obsessed Gen Zers have revived a relic of the last century: vinyl records. The antiquated albums have boomed in popularity in recent years as the young generation flocks to buy vinyls from fan-favorite artists such as Taylor Swift, Beyoncé and Billie Artist hawk records of their latest hits. Former Spotify economist Will Page predicts that record labels will gross $1 billion by the end of the year in vinyl sales alone. Globally, the old-school vessel for music is expected to overtake CDs, he wrote in a recent report. In fact, the economist reported that vinyl outpaced streaming, with records growing 15.4% and streaming only 10.4%. “Like the boy who cried wolf, we’ve been told again and again that the resurgence in vinyl is a blip, not a trend,” Page wrote in a column for Billboard earlier this year. “Yet for 18 straight years, it has continued to surpass expectations.”
Amersham, UK | Amersham’s Record Shop owner on supporting local businesses: The owner of an independent record store in Amersham has reiterated the importance of using local businesses as we get closer to Christmas. Graeme Campbell, 67, has been the proprietor of The Record Shop in the town since its formation in 2005, and during his near two-decade stint in running the shop, he has moved on three occasions, battled a recession and a global pandemic. With many independents closing up and down the land, the Hill Avenue store remains standing and whilst he admitted that ‘every day is a challenge’, it is one that he ‘loves’, as he has no plans of retiring. Mr Campbell, who has been in the record-selling business for nearly 50 years, told the Free Press: “When I started in 2005, I think, from memory, we were in a recession, and I thought we were at the bottom of that recession. Normally when that happens, you move up quite rapidly to a boom-or-bust sort of thing, but we have coasted along the bottom of this ‘recession’ and it did at a point look precarious, but I never wanted to throw the towel in.”
London, UK | Yorkshire record shop Recycle Vinyl opens East London branch: The Dalston shop recently hosted a launch party with Jerome Hill. A new record shop has opened in East London. Located on Birkbeck Mews in Dalston, Recycle Vinyl is the second branch of the Yorkshire shop of the same name. The space, which opens on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, stocks thousands of new-and-second-hand records, and also has a bar licence. A launch party with Jerome Hill took place last month. “In some respects, if you can make a record shop work in the sleepy, deprived small town of Elland in West Yorkshire then you can make it work anywhere,” the team shared. “We’re not trying to be cool or follow any of the latest trends, we just want to create an environment where people can dig and not be judged or pushed into buying things. We’re more like the B&M of the dance world, you always end up buying more than you than you went in for.”
Huntsville, AL | What’s Spinning?: With House of Sound. Joseph Scott is the owner of House of Sound, a vintage home audio, neon, vinyl records, CD’s, cassettes, vintage t-shirts and more store. Born and raised in North Alabama, Scott has traveled all around the country with his parents. “I’ve loved music as long as I can remember, from listening to my parents’ 50’s and 60’s albums (Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, and the Beatles) to my dad’s love of country music (Merle Haggard, Johnny Cash, and Marty Robbins). …Four years ago, Joseph got back into home audio and 2-channel listening again and decided to start building up a collection of CDs and even albums again. He drove over to his parents’ house and dug out his old Eagles, Def Leppard, Van Halen, Madonna, and ZZ-Top albums. He quickly started buying up receivers, speakers, and all the gear he had back in the day to start listening to his tunes as if it was for the 1st time.
Chapel Hill, NC | Schoolkids Records officially closes Chapel Hill location after 50 years: On Saturday, the Chapel Hill community was forced to say its final goodbye to the local record store favorite, Schoolkids Records. Schoolkids announced it would be closing in August due to financial constraints, and since then, the community has slowly grieved the former shop. The exact date of Schoolkids Records’ opening is uncertain, but current owner Stephen Judge estimated that both the Chapel Hill and Raleigh locations opened around 1974. Although Judge is originally from Rocky Mount, he said that he would regularly attend UNC basketball games during his childhood, and would visit Schoolkids Records in Chapel Hill on these occasions. Later, Judge started working at Schoolkids’ Raleigh location in 1990 while attending N.C. State.
Beaumont, TX | Downtown Beaumont record shop draws fans on opening day: Beaumont’s newest downtown business didn’t just make itself seen on its opening day Saturday. It made itself heard. For the Record, a new and used vinyl shop and live music venue that is the brainchild of Jen and John Trenbeath and son Damian Phelps, wasn’t short on customers when they opened their doors in conjunction with Small Business Saturday. “People came flooding in as soon as we opened,” employee Gina Maria Garcia said while helping Jen Trenbeath ring up the line of customers with new albums in hand just after the doors opened. “They came in hot.” The customers spanned all ages, from longtime collectors checking out the newest nearby venue to families and younger collectors discovering a new passion for non-digital music. Vinyl seemed to go the way of the dinosaurs in the early 1990s as compact discs, then online music purchases and later streaming platforms took over.
Philadelphia, PA | SOOK Vinyl & Vintage, Philly’s Only Black-Owned Record Store. Get to know SOOK Vinyl & Vintage, Philly’s only Black-owned record stores, ran by Rashied Amon. Tucked away in the corner of E Mount Airy Ave and Germantown Ave in Philly’s Mt. Airy neighborhood sits a hub of vintage Black culture curated by Rashied Amon. Amon has been running SOOK Vintage & Vinyl for nearly a year selling vinyls made by Black artists, vintage HBCU apparel, old school magazines, and a wide variety of statues, figures, and tchotchkes of cultural significance. When you google the phrase “Black-owned Record Stores Philly” the three suggested stores are Repo Records, Philadelphia Record Exchange, and Digital Underground. In a phone call with the Philly Plain Dealer, all confirmed that they are not Black-owned and do not know why they’re listed. “Unfortunately I’m the only Black owned record shop in the city. There’s actually only two in the State, us and Forever Changes in Phoenixville,” said Amon, continuing “I take it as a big responsibility. I consider myself a purveyor of culture and, you know, it’s not something that I take lightly.”
Northampton, MA | Spinning a new chapter: Couple moves Deep Thoughts Record Shop to Northampton from Jamaica Plain: Walking into Deep Thoughts Record Shop on Market Street, one first notices the sounds emanating from the store’s speakers. Sometimes it’s the cacophony of avant-garde jazz music, other times it can be the more familiar voice of Phil Collins singing “Invisible Touch.” Deep Thoughts opened at the start of November after moving from Boston’s Jamaica Plain neighborhood to downtown Northampton, at 5 Market St. Though news of the record store’s move may have come as a shock to Boston residents, it’s been a long time coming for husband and wife owners Nick Williams and Alaina Stamatis, who have called the Pioneer Valley home since 2018. …“We spent six years coming out [to Boston] on the weekends, and at a certain point, it just seemed to make more sense to have a family business where everything’s all close by.”
Carlisle, UK | Vinyl Cafe, Carlisle nominated for Best Coffee Shop 2024: Vinyl Cafe has been nominated by News & Star readers as one of the ten finalists in its ‘Best Coffee Shop 2024’ award. The coffee shop, which also sells an array of records from the Rolling Stones to Rod Stewart is located on Carlisle’s Abbey Street and is run by owners James and Lynn Brown who opened the cafe in 2016. After being informed that Vinyl Cafe had been nominated by News & Star readers to feature in the final ten of the ‘Best Coffee Shop 2024’ award James was on hand to express his delight. He said: “I am chuffed to bits. “It’s a privilege because we not only welcome customers but we have almost become friends over the years. “Many people love the atmosphere, the jukebox we have in the cafe, and the music which is playing. “We love to relax, have a chin wag, and people like having a good old chat in surroundings that they are maybe not quite used to. “We also serve quality local coffee from Bruce and Lukes and it is great to be in a community where local businesses support one another.”
