6 records shops to satiate your vinyl habit: The vinyl record industry is alive and well. There must be over a 100 vinyl record shops or sellers in Metro Manila alone to feed one’s appetite for records. Not since the 1980s has there been this demand or craze for music in their vinyl format. And it is cool for the music fan to have a lot of choices. By no means is this list the “best of” the lot. Far from it. Each shop has its own share of clientele, charm, and level of collector’s delight. I chose these shops for their ambiance, prices, browse space, selection, friendliness of the staff, and the condition of the records they sell.
Restaurant, record store on tap for new buildings on Near Southside: Ground was broken on Monday for an 18,000-square-foot development in the Near Southside area. The site, will consist of two buildings and parking, separated by an outdoor paseo including a garden and patio. Anchoring the site will be the Magnolia Avenue location of Salsa Limon. Also in the development will be Panther City Vinyl, a new vintage-record store that will also offer new vinyl records. Developers of the project are Hatfield Properties and Dodson Companies. Architects are Studio 97w and the contractor is Crimson Building Co. The project is estimated to be open by the end of 2017.
The Vinyl Revival: Why Music Lovers Are Going Back: Vinyl: a comeback few people saw coming. Many music hobbyists here in the Valley are trading in their newer CDs for older records. It is nostalgia, or does it really sound better? We spoke with collectors, store owners, and an area music engineer to find out what has many listeners dropping the needle. “So Dire Straits, Brothers in Arms album, it was actually recorded on digital tape, said MSUM professor and music engineer Ryan Jackson. “So there’s really no reason on earth that it should sound better on vinyl.” Jackson poured thousands of dollars into his music setup. It’s been a work in progress for many years. He says the sound quality of music has to do with a lot more factors than whether or not it’s on vinyl.
Music lovers across the Midlands buy in to Vinyl: Vinyl records are making a comeback with sales reaching a 25-year high last year. More than 3 million LPs were bought last year, up over 50% on 2015 and the highest number since 1991, when Simply Red topped the charts. David Bowie’s final album Blackstar was the most popular album of 2016. Older albums from artists including Amy Winehouse, Radiohead and Fleetwood Mac, also performed well.
This New Robot May Change Vinyl Record Pressing Forever: We’ve been hearing about vinyl record manufacturing coming into the future for some time, and here’s another example. Some Canadian design engineers who usually put their R&D talents into things like MRI machines went to work on the vinyl record press. They made some huge improvements and came up with the Warm Tone vinyl record press. What’s cool about the Warm Tone press is that so many pain points of the record making process are improved, not just one. Everything from the way the vinyl puck (the piece of plastic before it becomes a record) is warmed and formed to the way the finished record is picked up off the press has been improved. As a result, you now have a high-tech device that’s much more efficient than anything that’s come before.
With Vinyl Records Making Their Comeback, Addison Company Debuts Modernized Press, Addison-based Hand Drawn Pressing is churning out vinyls on the world’s first fully automatic, modernized record press: (“Vinyls” is not a word. —Ed.) The computer-controlled machine can pump out a new record in 25 to 30 seconds, about three times faster than traditional presses. The technology comes from Toronto, Canada-based Viryl Technologies. “The big thing we tout is North Texas. … It’s music-first, artist-first, how do we take care of our brethren in the communal space …” While mechanical or operator error could lead to a 30 to 40 percent product loss for traditional presses, the Warm Tone press can reduce margin of error to less than one percent, Wired reported.
