UK | Record Store Day 2023: See all of this year’s participating stores: A comprehensive guide to this year’s participants. Record Store Day 2023 is getting closer. The annual celebration of record store culture, which started in 2008, will see special vinyl releases, live events and peeformances. This year, 260 independent records will participate in Record Store Day on April 22. See the full list of stores here.
UK | The 1975 announced as Record Store Day ambassadors for 2023: “Independent record stores are the lifeblood of the music industry and have played a crucial role in our story so far” The 1975 have been announced as ambassadors of Record Store Day 2023. The band will fly the flag for the annual event – which takes place on Saturday, April 22 – where hundreds of UK independent record shops celebrate their culture with many exclusive vinyl releases and shop performances. As part of their role, the Manchester band will be releasing a live performance with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra on vinyl for the first time on this year’s Record Store Day. …Speaking about the honour, frontman Matty Healy said: “The guys and I are really proud to be ambassadors for Record Store Day this year. Independent record stores are the lifeblood of the music industry and have played a crucial role in our story so far. It couldn’t be more important to support their community and culture.”
Bozeman, MT | Local record store owner sees vinyl industry growth: The vinyl record industry is continuing its regrowth trend for the seventeenth consecutive year. According to a report from Billboard, 43.46 million vinyl albums were sold in 2022, which is a 4.2% increase from 2021. Kels Koch, owner of The Wax Museum in Bozeman, says he noticed this trend starting as early as 2002 while working at a record store in Nashville, Tennessee. Koch has worked in record stores since 1990, and starting in the early 90s, it was nearly impossible to sell a vinyl record, he said. At that point, cassettes and CDs had taken over the market. Nowadays, vinyl is flying off the shelves. If a certain record is popular, it could be a year before he is able to restock it after selling out, Koch said. Records from artists like Elton John and Queen used to be easy to come by, now they’re difficult to find. “People are getting in fights, almost, over used records, and even new records. If you see something new on the racks, there’s no guarantee that I’ll be able to reorder it when that copy sells,” he said.
Washington, DC | Washington DC’s Songbyrd Serves Up Shows, Vinyl & All Things Good: Empathy is always a trait associated with live music venues. At one point, locally owned venues doubled as watering holes for locals, and patrons were greeted with cigarette ash and dimly lit stages. Over the years we have seen venues shape up and improve their standards and practices, but there is still plenty of room left to innovate, that’s where Washington DC’s Songbyrd comes in. The new and improved Songbyrd location is dedicated to creating intimate moments between artists and fans and their community-centered approach to running both Songbyrd and Byrdland Records allows for their connection to go beyond their walls. Since their move in 2020, their dedication to the local DC art scene and bringing refreshing sounds into the city has only become stronger as they continue to set the bar for balancing the two worlds.
Salt Lake City, UT | The Vinyl Revival: Why many are spinning records again: Trends, they come and go and then some come back — and one of those is vinyl records, which first hit the music scene around 80 years ago. After decades of popularity, sales dropped starting in the late 80s. But by the mid-2000s, the appeal picked up and that interest in vinyl records is still going on today. “There’s something about opening that shrink wrap and getting to pull out the album out for the first time,” said Connor Wright, the owner of Black Sheep Record Company. It was in the 60s and 70s when vinyl records boomed in sales, but as CDs were introduced, they started to fall off. “By the late ‘80s,1990s, pretty much all vinyl production had stopped. Everyone switched to compact discs. That was the golden era if you were a vinyl collector because they were so cheap and they were everywhere,” Samuel Stinson, a record dealer with Randy’s Records, said. Data from the Recording Industry Association of America shows vinyl sales began to pick up again in the mid-2000s and Luminate’s latest year-end report shows 43.5 million records being sold in the U.S. in 2022.
London, UK | A new record shop is coming to London: The opening will be celebrated with a launch party on February 11. Steak Records is set to open in Peckham’s Holdrons Arcade this weekend on February 11. Curated by Astral Black and Scenic Route’s Jon Phonics, the shop will stock a selection of secondhand records, spanning ’90s house, techno, library, prog-rock, hip-hop, jazz, boogie and soul. Alongside pre-owned vinyl, Steak Records will also house releases from local labels such as Eglo, Tiff’s Joints, Group Bracil, First Word and more. A special launch event will take place on opening day at Holdrons Arcade in Peckham between 1-5pm with DJ sets by Footshooter, Poison Zcora, DJ Gilla, Bryce’s Brother, Jon Phonics and special guests from Rinse FM and NTS.
AU | Anthony Albanese Gifts New Zealand PM His ‘Favourite Aussie Records.’ Albo received a greenstone Pounamu in the shape of a hook from the New Zealand PM. Like last year, Anthony Albanese, the Australian Prime Minister and huge music fan, gifted vinyl to the Prime Minister of New Zealand. After Jacinda Ardern stepped down from the position last month, Albo met her successor, Chris Hipkins. “Kia ora and g’day to New Zealand’s new Prime Minister Chris Hipkins,” Albanese wrote on social media. Albo gifted Hipkins some of his favourite Aussie albums – When Rosie Met Monsters by Thelma Plum, Gang Of Youths’ The Positions, and How To Grow A Sunflower Underwater by Alex The Astronaut. However, Hipkins didn’t give Albo any vinyl in return. Instead, Hipkins gifted the Australian PM a greenstone Pounamu in the shape of a hook, “which signifies good luck and safe travels over water.” Some followers subsequently roasted Hipkins for not participating in the vinyl trade, writing, “Chris did not understand the assignment” and “Albo was hoping for an original pressing of a The Clean record and was disappointed.”
South Portland, ME | Maine’s underpublicized music scene featured in video series: Seated between two long bins of vinyl records, wearing a set of white, cloth wings, Abbeth Russell rubbed a violin bow across the smooth edge of a handsaw clamped tight between her knees. While the tool emitted a wobbling whine, Russell’s partner, John Supinski, played guitar, wearing a blue wig. The pair sang together, “I woke up in the morning in an old time, wicked town with a picnic on the blanket and blizzard on the ground.” Together, Russell and Supinski are known as The Bumbling Woohas. Their performance, among the 12-inch record covers, was captured on video for a new online, live music series called “Between the Bins.” It features Maine artists and is filmed after hours at the Mill Creek Bull Moose store in South Portland. The project, which began its second season last week, is meant to showcase what organizers see as an under-publicized local music scene while rededicating the chain to its musical roots after online streaming forced it to diversify its offerings in recent years.
