Houston, TX | 9 Places To Shop Vinyl in Houston: Looking for new or vintage records? Here’s where to shop. Nothing beats the nostalgia of scoring a rare cut on wax and dancing around the living room in a 1970s fantasy. Vinyl is now coming back as a popular format for listening to music. MRC’s annual year-end music data reported that physical formats dominated 2021, with vinyl outshining CD sales. Whether you’re shopping for new releases, looking to sell, or on the hunt for a limited edition, here’s your guide to Houston vinyl destinations: Cactus Music: There’s no conversation about vinyl shops in Houston without Cactus Music. It’s the oldest independent music store in Houston and has provided a wide array of records, music ephemera and more for nearly 50 years. It won the Houston Press Critic’s Choice Award for “Best Record Store” just last year.
Avondale, IL | Get Discounted Vinyl, Rare Releases At Record Breakers’ Birthday Bash Saturday In Avondale: The record shop is celebrating 33 and 1/3 years of business in the Chicago area, a reference to the speed at which records spin. The owners of Record Breakers are holding a birthday bash this weekend with discounted and rare vinyl records and live music commemorating more than 33 years of business. The event is set for 1-5 p.m. Saturday at Record Breakers, 2935 N. Milwaukee Ave. All used vinyl records will be 20 percent off. Customers will also be able to shop the store’s “secret stash” of rare and original releases as local bands perform throughout the day, co-owner Colin Brennan said. Record Breakers started as a little record shop in suburban Hoffman Estates in 1988. After years of growth, the previous owner moved the shop above the South Loop rock club Reggies in the mid-2000s, where it remained until he gifted the business to then-employees Brennan and Eric Kratz. The two moved the shop to Avondale’s Milwaukee Avenue about five years ago to get a fresh start, broaden their customer base and continue the shop’s legacy.
Youngstown, OH | Local store owner sees vinyl records sales hit record high: According to the report, this is the largest year for vinyl sales since they began tracking sales in 1991. Local record store owner, Jeffrey Burke of Record Connection, is questioning this. In his his 42 years in businesses, he’s seen the big numbers and he’s seen vinyl grow in popularity. But he is skeptical of the numbers because of backlog and supply issues. He added there are just a handful of independent record stores locally and that they aren’t being tracked. “None of us are sound scan reporters. This is just one little small area so how are they accounting for these big numbers? We don’t even know who belongs to soundscan,” Burke said. Burke said that a lot of the plants are also behind. He wants to know if they are selling at record numbers then why aren’t they pressing for more plants?
Memphis, TN | Memphis Listening Lab and Memphis Record Pressing Join Forces: Memphis Listening Lab (MLL) has announced Memphis Record Pressing (MRP) as their 2022 title sponsor as well as released details on a series of workshops to further educate the Memphis community on the vinyl record making process. The workshops will consist of a four-part series focusing on the working parts that are involved in the vinyl making process. The series will incorporate local and national industry leaders who understand the value of producing vinyl albums and are active in the vinyl industry. Topics will include Recording and Mastering for Vinyl, Album Artwork/Liner Notes Production, Funding a Vinyl Project, and How Vinyl is Made. “Teaming up with MRP is a perfect match for us,” said MLL Archivist, Jim Cole. “For a company like MRP to be in Memphis is amazing, and we are thrilled to collaborate on these workshops.”
Vintage vinyl LP of ‘Girl From Ipanema’ leads to arrest of Italian fugitive: The conman had recently pivoted from fraud to record sales. After 25 years on the run, an Italian fugitive was arrested when undercover police tricked him into leaving his fingerprints on a vinyl LP of the hit ‘60s song, ‘Girl From Ipanema.’ As The Times reports, the 69-year-old Roberto Vivaldi fled Italy in the 1990s after being convicted of money laundering and fraudulent bankruptcy had been living under a fake name. The prolific fraudster had also decided to pivot careers and had been running a vintage record shop on the island of Isla de Margarita in Venezuela. Vivaldi’s sales took off during the pandemic, right around the time police reopened his case. After authorities discovered his social media profiles and that he’d been selling vinyl records online, Interpol officers created a false identity and placed an order for some LPs including an early pressing of ‘Garota de Ipanema’ by its Brazilian composer Antônio Carlos Jobim, which was re-recorded in English as ‘The Girl from Ipanema’ by Astrud Gilberto and Stan Getz.
Vintage rock stars get windfall after record labels wipe their debts clean: Record companies are wiping the debts and expenses run up by vintage rock acts who signed deals before 2000. Vintage rock stars will enjoy a cash windfall after record companies wiped the long-term debts incurred making them famous. Warner Music, home to Dua Lipa, Ed Sheeran and Madonna, said it would no longer claw back the “unrecouped” debts run up by artists and songwriters who signed with the label before 2000. When artists sign to a label they receive an “advance” payment, which can range from an estimated £50,000 to £250,000 if there is a bidding war. But rising stars are often unaware that they will not make money from their records until they have earned enough in royalties to pay back that advance, as well as the costs of making them famous, such as recording studios, videos, and marketing, as well as ego-boosting limos and luxury hotels. Waiving the unrecouped costs means artists who signed a contract more than 22 years ago will now begin to receive royalties when their music is bought, downloaded or played on Spotify.
Plug in your headphones: eight albums to listen to from start to finish: A black vinyl record spinning under a needle. A CD playing in the car on a long road trip. A digitized collection of tunes resting in your Spotify library. The album has taken on many forms over the years, but one thing has remained constant; it is a cornerstone of music creation and consumption. It is an art form that celebrates the additive quality of music, the way that songs can take on new meanings when grouped with others, creating an auditory expression of the artist’s life and experience at that time. It seems to me, however, that with the rise of streaming services there has also come a decline in the popularity of the album. I love Spotify’s tailored playlists as much as the next person, but I have also realized that a lot of the new music I consume comes in the form of individual songs handed to me by the algorithm, stripped from their collective story.
