Moncton, CA | ‘It sounds heavenly’: Vinyl sales continue to groove: Every Wednesday morning, Karl Barter unloads the latest shipment of records at Frank’s Music in Moncton. Barter and his family have spent a lifetime selling music in all sorts of different formats, but today, records are his top seller. “Vinyl sales have been snowballing for the last 10 years. Just crazy, out of control. CD sales are still pretty good. I thought vinyl may have peaked a few years ago, but it’s still going,” said Barter. According to the Recording Industry Association of America [RIAA], record revenues grew 17 per cent to $1.2 billion in 2022, the 16th straight year of growth. Last year, the classic vinyl album outsold compact discs in units for the first time since 1987. Forty-one million LPs were sold compared to 33 million compact discs. “Vinyl has been something that the music industry were looking for. Something to save the industry all through the years and it was right in front of their eyes the whole time,” said Barter.
Los Angeles, CA | Rockaway Records Acquires World’s Largest Creedence Clearwater Revival Collection: Renowned Los Angeles landmark Rockaway Records recently acquired the world’s largest collection of Creedence Clearwater Revival memorabilia, including thousands of LPs, 45s, original test pressings, posters, autographed items and more. One of the highlights of the newly acquired collection include a 1967 yellow label 45 by Creedence Clearwater Revival, pre-name change as The Golliwogs. This rare 45 is one of only 6 copies known to exist. Additional items include a Fender Stratocaster signed by John Fogerty, RIAA platinum and gold award plaques, over 500 concert posters and hundreds of concert tickets and tour programs.
Traverse City, OR | Eugene’s Record Co-op reopening in new location: A record store will be spinning again come Saturday. It just took nearly seven months to find the flip slide. Forced to flee the only home it has known with the sale of the Arcade Building in downtown Traverse City, Eugene’s Record Co-op is ready to drop the needle Saturday on a new location. Brian Chamberlain will open the new doors March 18 at 1036 Barlow St. The former home of Shoestring Gallery will play host to a DJ spinning tunes and other promotions for the first time since closing its 140 E. Front St. location at the end of August. The opening day event is scheduled from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. “I’m just ready to get back to work,” Chamberlain said from the new store at the corner of Barlow and Carver streets. “Let’s get back to doing what we do and letting people know where we are.” Chamberlain opened Studio Anatomy—an all-ages recording studio and music venue—in the lower level of the Arcade Building. He added Eugene’s Record Co-op in December 2019
Raleigh, NC | Pour House Pressing: Vinyl-Pressing Venture From The Pour House Music Hall & Record Shop: Downtown Raleigh, N.C.’s The Pour House Music Hall & Record Shop has been around for more than a quarter-century, long enough to become one of the local scene’s key live music hubs. The venue expanded into music retail in 2019, opening a record shop on its upstairs level to sell vinyl records (open Tues.-Sun., noon-6pm, plus online). Now The Pour House is undertaking its most ambitious expansion yet: Pour House Pressing, which will be the Raleigh area’s first record-pressing operation with mass-production capabilities. The operation is taking shape in an industrial area on Freedom Dr., off New Bern Ave. east of the I-440 Beltline. If all goes according to plan, Pour House Pressing will be up and running with the capacity to press up to 1,500 records a day by summer of this year. They’re even talking about hosting tour groups to the facility. “There’s a lot of local demand, because the Triangle has always been such a big hub of North Carolina music…”
Logan, UT | Vinyl record sales keep spinning and spinning—with no end in sight: Over the past decade, vinyl records have made a major comeback. People purchased US$1.2 billion of records in 2022, a 20% jump from the previous year. Not only did sales rise, but they also surpassed CD sales for the first time since 1988, according to a new report from the Recording Industry Association of America. Who saw that coming? I certainly didn’t. In the mid-1990s, I sold off my family’s very large collection of records over my wife’s protests. I convinced her we needed the space, even if the buyer was picking up the whole stash for a song. Back then, of course, there were far fewer options for listening to music — it was years before on-demand streaming and smartphones. I now teach at a business school and follow the economy’s latest trends. Sales of records have been increasing since 2007, and the data shows the vinyl record industry’s rebound still has not peaked. Last year, the music industry sold 41.3 million albums, more than in any year since 1988.
Middlesbrough, UK | Tees Valley record manufacturer spins out rapid growth with half a million records produced: A Middlesbrough-based vinyl record manufacturer has produced almost 500,000 records since it became fully operational in April 2022. After securing an investment from NPIF – FW Capital Debt Finance in June 2021, the company has now reached over £1m in turnover since it began operating in 2022. As the North’s only vinyl record manufacturer, Press On Vinyl is also the largest UK manufacturer in terms of output. Starting with just two pressing machines in April 2022, its pressing plant at Tees Advance Manufacturing Park now boasts four full-scale pressing machines that make between 1,000 to 1,500 records a day per machine. Since April 2022, co-founders David Todd and Daniel Lowe have scaled the business significantly by adding 31 full-time staff to their team. Anticipating further demand for vinyl records from fans of both independent and chart-topping artists, Press On Vinyl has already purchased two new pressing machines, which will double production from up to 3,000 a day to up to 6,000 a day.
Vinyl Is Back. Here Are Some Other 1987 Trends We Would Welcome: When we heard last week that for — the first time since 1987 — vinyl records outsold CDs in the United States, we got to wondering: If vinyl is back, what else from that year might be fun to revisit? The pegged pant? Shoulder pads? Here are some highlights from the year of our Lord 1987 that could inform our modern day, for the better. …1987 was a great year for music, and we can only hope that the folks who are making vinyl sales soar are doing so by paying respect to these artists. Among the year’s legendary releases were Whitney Houston’s Whitney, The Beastie Boys’ Licensed to Ill, Guns N’ Roses’ Appetite for Destruction, U2’s Joshua Tree, and Michael Jackson’s Bad. Also in 1987, Def Leppard played the L.A. Sports Arena for the beginning of their Hysteria tour. Missed that show? You can make it up; the band is on a global tour this year with pals Mötley Crüe. Five men with light-tone skin, mostly in leather jackets and longish hair with bangs stand in a row trying to look fierce.
