Discogs Shares 2017 Data & Sales Trends; Surpasses 10M Units Sold; Vinyl Approaches 8 Million Units Sold: Another year has passed and we have, yet again, another batch of record-breaking data to share with the Discogs community. Our annual year-end report is a deep dive into the numbers, trends and music sales that made 2017 unique. So put on your favorite record, pull up a chair, and read on for the highlights of another successful year at Discogs…Our user-built database is the heart of Discogs, and our heart grew 4.18% in 2017. The formats that had the most releases added to the Database were CDs, with an increase of 22.94%, and Cassettes, with a growth of 12.13%.
Vinyl and coffee lovers welcomed at opening of new Dumbarton cafe, Big Sparra Music Cafe has now opened its doors on Glasgow Road. Lovers of vinyl and coffee were welcomed to Dumbarton on Saturday as Big Sparra Music Cafe opened its doors on Glasgow Road. The Lennox Herald previously revealed that music-loving Dumbarton man Robert McKain was working hard to open the store along with coffee shop manager Claire McAteer and Ash Mills, head of customer service. Robert said: “Saturday was amazing. We got really good feedback and there were points where we didn’t have enough seats…Robert, who also runs a vinyl store in Ayrshire, is aiming to celebrate Record Store Day in April at the new store at 137a Glasgow Road.
Worth a visit: notable small businesses in Northampton: …Decorated floor-to-ceiling with posters, stickers and album covers, the underground Turn It Up! feels more like a rock venue than a record store. The vintage aura of the store is alluring, but its beauty is in its record collection. Because of its trade-in policy, the store houses mostly used original records. Not only does this cultivate a relationship with the Northampton community, but this also means the price will be significantly lower than a reissued copy, often under $10 for an entire LP…In addition to vinyl, Turn It Up! sells new and used CDs, cassette tapes, DVDs and VHS tapes for thrift-store prices. Turn It Up! offers the authentic record store experience all over New England, with other locations in Montague, Keene and Brattleboro.
Death of the CD may change how we listen to music: No more blood beneath the fingernails, skin sliced from trying too eagerly to open that shrink-wrapped jewel pack. No more Nickelback beer coasters. No more CDs. Billboard reported last week that Best Buy will stop selling CDs come July and that Target is looking to break from the industry norm in how it sells CDs — the retail giant doesn’t want to pay for them unless consumers buy them first, as opposed to purchasing shipments up front. This is hardly a shocking development — we’ve been steadily progressing toward the increased digital consumption of music. I parted with my CD collection nearly a decade ago, though it was once a source of considerable music geek pride, having grown to nearly 6,000 discs.
New record store to open in downtown Nampa March 3: NAMPA — Disc-Cover Records, a new and used vinyl record and CD shop, will open in downtown Nampa March 3, according to a press release. The records store will be located by Wall Street Alley at 16 12th Ave. South. It will feature more than 11,000 new and used vinyl records and CDs, more than 300 cassette tapes, used audio gear and a listening booth to “try before you buy.” Artists range from AC/DC to ZZ top, with prices starting at 99 cents. Owner and Nampa resident Al Babbitt said collecting records had been one of his hobbies for more than 40 years. He has more than 5,000 jazz records in his personal collection, and ideally he said he would like to retire and run this records store by himself.
An Artist Makes Vinyl Records Out of Chocolate — And They Actually Play: It was an experiment designed to awaken multiple senses. And, celebrate the ephemeral nature of both sound and food. Accordingly, French artist Julia Drouhin successfully created a vinyl record made out of chocolate. And it actually sounds okay. At this stage, Drouhin can get the record to play 10 times. After that, the fidelity wears out — because it’s chocolate, after all. After that, Drouhin recommends a simple solution: eating the platter. “You can look at it, you can listen to it, you can smell it, you can break it, you can share it — and you can eat it,” Drouhin told the South China Morning Post during a recent Hong Kong demonstration.
