St. Petersburg, FL | St. Petersburg’s Daddy Kool Records says goodbye to the 600 Block with DieAlps! and final sidewalk sale. The shop re-opens in the Warehouse District on Record Store Day. The end really is near for Daddy Kool Records’ three-decade run on Central Avenue, and on Saturday the crew is having one last sidewalk sale to help make moving all of that inventory a little bit easier on their backs. Enjoy deep discounts on vinyl, CDs and other paraphernalia, and also make plans to come back on Sunday when Tampa-based indie-pop band DieAlps! plays a concert on Daddy Kool’s official final afternoon on The 600 Block (the store reopens in the Warehouse District on Record Store Day, April 13). Sat. March 23 (Sidewalk Sale) and Sun. March 24 (concert with DieAlps!). Daddy Kool Records, 666 Central Ave., St. Petersburg. daddykool.com.
Insider’s Guide To Jamaica From A Music Exec Who Carved Her Own Path To Success: …”When starting VP Records, I had to act as both an entrepreneur and a leader during a time when women were still trying to carve a place in the corporate world,” says Chin. Chin is a Jamaican entrepreneur who was raised in Kingston, the island’s cultural capital, by a Chinese mother and an Indian father. In 1958, she and her husband, Randy, opened a used record store called Randy’s that developed a cult following. Within a few years and with their fingers on the pulse of where reggae music was headed, the couple founded Studio 17, a production facility frequented by legendary artists such as Bob Marley and Peter Tosh. In the mid-70s, they moved to the U.S. to chase the American dream, bringing their business along with them to service the growing Caribbean market.
Marquette, MI | Group celebrates five years of vinyl record shows: The NMU Vinyl Club is preparing for its 20th Semi-Annual Vinyl Show over the last five years. The Vinyl Show will be at the Ore Dock Brewing Company from Thursday, March 28 through Sunday, March 31. Thursday will be from 3 p.m. to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday will be from noon until 1 a.m. Sunday will be from noon until 11 p.m. Jon Teichman says there will be tens of thousands of record up for sale during the event as well as tapes, CDs, and plenty of swag like t-shirts and posters. Teichman also says there will be plenty of knowledgeable people around to help you find your favorite artist or band, learn more about your record players, or just to nerd out about music.
Would You Buy A Vinyl Record Of Silence? [No. —Ed.] A new Kickstarter campaign is selling vinyl records of 20-minutes of silence. A Kickstarter campaign for a vinyl record that contains only 20-minutes of silence is the latest to go bonkers. It’s now officially competing for strangest campaign since that man who wanted $10 to make a potato salad. The geniuses behind this simple idea are Eric Antonow and his 15-year-old son Ben. Eric started meditating in 2016, and has been meditating every day since. Eric and his son thought it would be a fun experiment to record and sell silent vinyls, and initially only hoped to raise $600 through a Kickstarter campaign. They’ve now raised over $8,000 AUD. In keeping with silent fashion, they were speechless!
UK | UK recorded music revenues up 3.1% in 2018, though, you know, “value gap.” We already knew that the UK record industry saw its revenues rise in 2018, obviously. The Entertainment Retailers Association confirmed earlier this month that just over £1.3 billion went through the musical tills of record shops and digital services last year. But now record label trade body BPI has also confirmed that trade revenues were up 3.1% to £865.5 million…Physical across the board was down, down, down, to £240.7 million, while downloads were again down loads (which is good news for the repeat use of that weak gag) to £81.5 million.
Okki Nokki Record Cleaning Machine: With new and old vinyl prices creeping ever-upwards, the prices of professional record cleaning machines are looking great by comparison. One of the most famous record-cleaning machine brands is the Dutch-designed Okki Nokki, RCM record-cleaning whose build quality, features and performance might reasonably be expected to come with a considerably higher price tag. Originally conceived around 15 years ago by Dutch designer Johan Bezem, the design and construction of the RCM have steadily evolved over the years, such that its quiet-running vacuum motor has the ability to spin in both directions and a clever float mechanism that stops it operating when the fluid needs to be drained, so there’s no risk of fluid getting into the motor.
