Jazz Record Mart Owner Reaches Deal to Sell All His Records, Closing Soon: One of Downtown’s last remaining record stores is readying to close its doors after its owner reached a deal to sell all his records. Bob Koester said he recently accepted an offer to sell all his inventory within Jazz Record Mart, which has peddled vinyl LPs and other records for about 10 years from 27 E. Illinois St. The deal is still pending, but either way, Koester believes his days Downtown are numbered.
10 leaked releases that show Record Store Day needs to get its shit together: As reported today, a list of exclusive releases from Record Store Day 2016 has leaked onto the internet. RSD was quick to respond, blaming Universal for accidentally revealing an inaccurate list of releases that are still subject to change. Well, let’s hope so. In past few years, we’ve taken the time to round up the essential Record Store Day releases, but it’s gotten harder and harder to write. So here’s a different kind of round-up for those 70-odd leaked releases with the hope that none of them end up on the official roster. It’s gone on long enough: get your shit together Record Store Day.
Flashlight Vinyl: New record store brings paradise to northeast Minneapolis: Flashlight’s first floor, carrying its rock, folk, punk, and country selections, has been open since January 4. But the official opening party and second floor banner-cutting (figuratively, we assume) is planned for 6 p.m. Friday. The second floor is home to a wider collection, featuring funk, soul, R&B, and hip-hop records. There are also 5,000 $1 records up there — bargains!
Play De Record gets a move on to Kensington: Trend-spotting: exodus of old-school record stores from Yonge Street. Back in December, Vortex Records announced it was heading straight into the vortex, closing after many decades on Yonge. Now Play de Record is also bidding adieu to the north-south main drag. But crate-diggers, rejoice: rather than shutter, it’s relocating to a spot just outside Kensington Market, at 411 Spadina, as of March 1.
How To Sell Vinyl Without Buying In Bulk: QRATES is a company founded by Yong-bo Bae in Japan in April 2015. It is basically a crowd-funding platform for vinyl. An artist, label or blog can launch a project with a set threshold (say, 300 records), and once that number is met everyone gets their records. The best part is QRATES does all fulfillment. Instead of shipping the 300 records to the artist’s door, they ship each record individually out to the customer. No money down from the artist.
Canadian vinyl company creates automated record press: …Enter Viryl Technologies, a new Canadian company backed with $1 million from a Toronto investor. The company has designed a modernized record press that will be able to automatically mold, press and cool records after a few settings have been entered. The press is hands-off and easy to use. A worker could ideally be running two machines at once without breaking a sweat.
