CDs on decline as dorm rooms become studios, streaming becomes king: …With this steady decline in physical CDs, a surprising listening device from the past has made a renaissance. Durbin said vinyl has seen its 12th straight year of sales growth and more and more retailers are jumping on the trend. For Cicero, he said he thinks the nostalgic nuances CDs and vinyl bring back will stick around for awhile. “I like buying physical music from a store,” he said. “I think that physical music holds a sort of sentiment that digital music cannot match. Physically owning an album now to me means I am passionate about supporting the artist.”
Delicious Pizza carries on the Delicious Vinyl music tradition: Dough. Cheese. Sauce. All three words can double as slang for money and influence in the pop and hip-hop universe. But brothers Mike and Rick Ross have since 2015 taken a more literal approach with their music-inspired restaurant Delicious Pizza. With roots in Los Angeles hip-hop label Delicious Vinyl, their two pizzerias have gradually become communal hubs where pepperoni matters as much as beats. The brothers, who hail from Long Beach, opened the first Delicious Pizza at 5419 W. West Adams Blvd. in 2015. In the fall of 2016, the siblings, both in the early-to-mid-50s, opened a second outpost in Hollywood on Sunset Boulevard just a short stroll from another pop nerve center in Amoeba Music.
Schlafly getting retro with new limited pilsner and vinyl pairing: Beer and records. Never thought to put those two together, but perhaps that is why I’m not in marketing. But leave it the brains at Schlafly Beer to come up with a way to bring the retro cultural revival of vinyl to beer, in the form of a new promotion for a limited edition version of its Pilsner pack. The Pilsner pack made it’s return to the market back in August and thanks to all of us, the sessionable style is now part of the brewery’s 2018 portfolio. Today, the brewery announced that for a limited time, the 12-bottle pack of the golden, crisp lager will come with a record affixed to the front which will feature a voucher inside for $5 off of any vinyl at local participating record stores across Schlafly’s distribution. The special record packs will be available now through spring.
Friels Cider launches Record Store day competition, Friels First Press Vintage Cider is running an on-pack competition to support its sponsorship of Record Store Day UK (21 April). A limited edition can design on 330ml cans will promote the competition, which offers consumers the chance to win a home vinyl package, including a Friels limited edition turntable, amp, loudspeakers, £200 to spend in any participating record store and four cases of Friels. To enter, shoppers need to enter their details on the Friels website. There will also be five smaller monthly prize draws from February to June for the chance to win a limited edition turntable, £50 to spend in local record shops, or a limited edition FrieIs Record Store Day bag. Each of the monthly winners will also get a case of Friels First Press Vintage 330ml cans.
My Bloody Valentine Confirm Isn’t Anything Surprise: My Bloody Valentine recently released a pair of all analog vinyl reissues of their albums Loveless and Isn’t Anything, and they’ve now confirmed that they slipped a little something extra in with some fans’ orders. Taking to Twitter, they said that they have been giving away an alternative cut and pressing of Isn’t Anything, but the LP has now sold out directly from the band. The pressing was only available to fans who ordered the record as part of its initial run. The band are currently at work on the follow-up to their 2014 LP m b v, with Kevin Shields having said last year that he wants the album to be available in the traditional LP format running at 40 minutes with seven songs. “It could turn out to be only five tracks. I hope not, but I don’t want it to be a double album and I don’t want it to be really long,” he said.
