The Death of Vinyl Records Will Have to Wait: Vinyl record sales are still going strong. With the rise of streaming services such as Spotify and Apple Music, one might think that the concept of music ownership is a thing of the past. Yet vinyl records and CDs refuse to die. In fact, they’re still very much alive. As revealed in a new report by the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America), physical music hasn’t gone anywhere. While most of today’s music revenue comes from streaming platforms, as you might imagine, a bit of it is still coming from physical media. Streaming makes up 84% of recorded music revenues, while physical media sits at a respectable 11% in comparison. Digital downloads contribute much less, at 3%. Out of all physical music formats, LPs and EPs (vinyl) actually make up the majority of sales, followed by CDs.
Marrickville, AU | Record Store Owner Offers Up Iconic Gig Posters: ‘They Shouldn’t Go To Landfill’: Lizzie French, the owner of Marrickville’s RPM Records & Memorabilia, details the highlights and difficulties of managing an extensive collection of concert posters. Lizzie French isn’t the type of person who likes throwing things away. She hates waste and always has – something she credits to her upbringing in the countryside of Canada. “We don’t waste anything,” she admits over the phone. “You fix it, MacGyver it, you know, do something else with it; reuse it or something. You don’t just get rid of stuff. It’s art!” That’s how she describes her expansive collection of concert posters that she’s accumulated over many years. Lizzie French owns RPM Records & Memorabilia in Marrickville, selling your favourite albums and memorabilia and showcasing her mean collection of posters. Even Michael Gudinski took a photo in front of one of her favourites, that Rolling Stones poster you see above.
Shoreham, UK | First look at Shoreham record store opening next week: Slipped Discs, founded in 2020 by James Anderson, will officially begin trading in Shoreham High Street on April 6. The shop will be the business’s second branch, with its first opening in Steyning High Street in 2022 after relocating from a small business unit “shed” in the nearby Cobblestone Walk. Ahead of opening, owner James Anderson, from Steyning, told The Argus he is excited to welcome the community after spending months getting the store ready. James, 38, said: “Building the flagship store has left me both physically and mentally drained, but I am really looking forward to opening. “The response from the community has been incredible. “So many people have wished us well and say they can’t wait for the opening day. “Expect to see lots of new vinyl releases, new represses of classic albums and indie-shop exclusive releases from the major labels.”
Sudbury, UK | Sudbury couple wind the record back with opening of new town centre music shop Rewind Records: Two decades after meeting on the music retail scene, a Sudbury couple realised a long-time ambition, with the opening of their new record shop. Rewind Records – a new outlet dedicated to vinyl music – opened in Gaol Lane on Saturday morning. …It represents a dream come true for husband-and-wife owners Martin and Jenny Hay, who first met while both were working at Compact Music, which was a staple of the Sudbury high street for 30 years. Since then, Martin worked at Royal Mail, while Jenny was employed as a teaching assistant – but their shared enthusiasm for music meant there was always the seed of an idea for running their own shop. “The time seemed right for us to realise our dream,” Mr Hay told SuffolkNews. “We met over 20 years ago at Compact Music and we always said we would like to do our own venture.
Lethbridge, CA | Take a spin down memory lane on Record Store Day: Southern Albertans can celebrate independent record stores April 20 with the 17th annual Record Store Day Canada. Local vinylists can venture out to the King of Trade, located in downtown Lethbridge, to dig through crates of used records and some one-off specials, including live special releases from The Tragically Hip and The Weeknd and a picture disc from Barenaked Ladies. Owner Hunter Heggie says the local store has participated in Record Store Day for about five years. “They bring out a lot of different artists. Big artists will put out special albums, different coloured albums and special live albums – all kinds of different things to entice collectors.” This year, Heggie notes, customers have been asking about a few of the upcoming releases, including collector editions from Pearl Jam, The Offspring and Motley Crue. “We try to stock up. We try to get a variety. The deal with Record Store Day albums is those albums are special albums that only come out that particular Record Store Day and that’s it.”
Calumet, WI | Kitschy Spirit Records growing into new space: Kitschy Spirit Records in Calumet is growing. Early this year owners Chris and Anna Judy left their second floor perch on 5th Street for a more spacious street level accommodation at 307 6th St. The expansive new space is not only more accessible, it also opens the door for musicians and the community to meet, perform and embrace music. Over four months, the Judy’s sanded and scraped the space removing old carpet and glue and adding a fresh coat of paint. “Blood sweat and tears,” Chris jokingly said motioning to a scar where he was cut removing carpet. “It’s all in here.” …“We wanted the store to be for everybody so [the old space] was not congruent with our vision. We did have some live music in here and that’s something we couldn’t have done at all in the old space,” Chris said. The shop is much more spacious, Judy estimates at least four times as much. Part of the vision for Kitschy Spirit is to cultivate and bolster the region’s music community.
Milledgeville, GA | Hall Music—a real record store: Nipper, the RCA Victor dog made of plaster, was always there to greet you from the front window of the Hall Music Company when it was located on Wayne Street in downtown Milledgeville. Go inside, and you’d find store owner Louis (pronounced Louie) Hall, his daughter Harriett (who later married a Rowland), and employees, including Claudia Chambers and Marie Horton. They were always ready to help you. Harris Hall, Louis’ dad, was a pharmacist across the street at Butts Drugs. Like his son, Harris was a music lover. So Harris opened the Hall Music Company in the mid-1900s and put Louis in charge. …Hall Music Company became a downtown attraction, an honest-to-goodness, old-timey record shop. It was a place for teenagers, boys in local bands, GMC cadets who lived in the barracks and anybody who wanted to be a part of the music scene to hang out and buy records. Every now and then, somebody would start dancing.
This Town shares first look at Levi Brown in Peaky Blinders creator’s new drama: Meet Dante and Fiona in an exclusive first look at Steven Knight’s new series. The new drama from Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight, This Town, starts on Sunday (31st March), and RadioTimes.com has got an exclusive first look at what fans can expect from the music-infused ’80s-based show. In the clip, Levi Brown’s Dante talks to Freya Parks’s Fiona as he peruses through the record shop where she works. He tells her that he’s written a poem about her, one which could also be a song – adding that he accidentally got caught up in a riot because he was working out the poem, and that he was hit over the head by a policeman. Dante asks whether he’s wasting his time with her, and tells her that he only comes to the store as an excuse to see her. She tells him that he’s not wasting his time – “not completely”. He walks out of the shop jubilant as Blondie’s The Tide Is High plays. You can watch the clip right here now.
Putting the ‘vinyl revival’ in proper perspective: …By all means, talk about the growth in vinyl; but please, please, please stop hyping it up as something that it is not. Sales are growing and that’s clearly lovely. But that growth is marginal and it needs to be understood within its proper context, not devoid of context. Because stripping things of their context to propagate a particular and highly conditional worldview is little more than propaganda. This is all at risk of becoming a thin gruel retelling—a weak cosplay reenactment—of the story of Lazarus. But the thing about Lazarus in the Bible is that he was brought fully back to life. He was not brought back to his “highest level of life since AD 20.”
