Vinyl sales increased in the United States by 30% throughout 2020: Despite streaming’s market dominance, the vinyl revival just keeps raging on. This week, the RIAA released their annual year-end music industry revenue report for 2020, offering an intriguing snapshot of the state of America’s recording industry during the height of the pandemic. Despite the devastating impacts of the virus upon the country, the US recorded music industry’s revenue grew by 9.2%, accounting to $12.2 billion in 2020. Revenues from recorded music at wholesale value increased by 8.9% totalling to $8 billion. While COVID-19 restrictions and retail store closures made an impact on trade, total revenues from physical products decreased by a slim 0.5% in 2020, earning $1.1 billion. Vinyl sales increased by 28.7% to account for a total of $626 million, and for the first time since 1986, revenues from vinyls were greater than CDs. It’s not surprising vinyl sales have increased, considering some albums have limited multiple releases through via records. Meanwhile, revenue continue to drop for CDs, with sales declining by 23% this year to equal $483 million in 2020.
Evanston, IL | A new record store somehow opens in Evanston: On February 20, Michael Dedmon opened Evanston’s newest music store, Black Squirrel Records. Dedmon is a dedicated record fiend who began buying up entire collections a decade ago, and so far all of Black Squirrel’s stock has come directly from his personal holdings. The store’s inventory includes rock, reggae, electronic music, jazz, soul, country, blues, and world music. Dedmon says a neighbor of his owns the 450-square-foot storefront at 1620 Greenleaf Street, and he’s wanted to open a record store there for a few years. When it became available about a month ago, he secured a short-term rental with the hope of transforming it into a long-term endeavor. For now he mostly runs the place himself, with a little help from a friend and his friend’s daughter. “Everyone who walks in has a smile on their face,” Dedmon says. “Or I think they do, because they have masks on.”
Hoboken, NJ | Musical Nostalgia: Vinyl record sales boom at this New Jersey shop: Vinyl records may seem like a thing of the past, but the surge in sales, even through the pandemic, has proven otherwise. At Tunes Hoboken, an independent record store running strong since 1995, the evolution of music and the revival of vinyl records has been witnessed firsthand. “We’ve seen a lot of changes over the years. But by being smaller and independent, we’ve always been able to adapt. We’ve sold more record players and speaker setups since reopening from the pandemic than ever before,” said Chip Heuisle, owner of Tunes Hoboken. According to Heuisle, vinyl’s account for approximately 70 percent of his sales, which can be purchased in-store or online. “When we first had to shut down in March, I remember thinking I can handle a month of being closed. When it turned out to be three months, I was a little nervous, but selling online was part of our business so I knew that I was lucky,” said Heuisle.
Winston-Salem, NC | Earshot Music in Winston-Salem purchased by owner of Hippo Records in Greensboro: Earshot Music in Winston-Salem will reopen on Saturday as Hippo Records, said owner Patrick Lemons. The store has been closed since last Sunday for some remodeling and restocking. Lemons, the owner of the Hippo Records store at 2823 Spring Garden St. in Greensboro, bought the Earshot Music store at 3254 Silas Creek Parkway in Silas Creek Crossing shopping center on March 1. This will be Lemons’ second Hippo Records location. Alan “Phred” Rainey, the previous owner of Earshot Music, died in January after a long battle with leukemia. “I was really sad to hear the news of Phred’s passing,” Lemons said. Lemons, who lived in Winston-Salem from 2008 through 2009, said he had known Rainey since the early 2000s and would shop in Earshot Music, which once went under the name the Record Exchange. Lemons said Rainey approached him about buying the store prior to his death. “In the circumstances, I am definitely honored that he had an interest to want me to come in and continue on the legacy of the store…”
Folk guitarist Nathan Salsburg makes experimental soundscapes from old Jewish phonograph records: …An accomplished folk guitarist who has collaborated with respected acts such as Louisville music-scene kingpin Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Canadian folk collective The Weather Station and Shelley, Salsburg has also been the curator of legendary musicologist Alan Lomax’s archive of vinyl records since 2000. The barn that serves as his office is packed with hard drive copies of Lomax’s records and thousands of his own vinyl records — including old phonograph albums he has collected over time of Yiddish-language and klezmer music marketed to Ashkenazi Jewish immigrants in the early part of the 20th century. Those albums unexpectedly became a big part of the foundation for his latest project: a pair of avant-garde instrumental albums that represent a literal dialogue with American Jewish history through music. For the previous five years, Salsburg has been working on-and-off on an album of arrangements of Hebrew psalm texts, which is tentatively scheduled to be released later this year. But when the pandemic began, he found himself unable to fly to Chicago to work with other musicians on the project.
Crate Digging with Pedrito Martinez: Life-Changing Albums: Remember record stores? Remember the thrill of turning your friends on to new music by swapping vinyl and CDs? Yeah, we do too. That’s why we’re rebooting that tradition for the digital age with our “Crate Digging” video series, in which we’ll search through crates of our memories to bring you a handful of album recommendations on a given theme. It’s social media in the truest sense of the term: no algorithms, no computer-generated playlist. Just jazz fans sharing records with other jazz fans. You can listen to the podcast version via the player below. Write-ups of individual albums and sample tracks follow. Welcome to the party! This week, Cuban percussionist Pedrito Martinez joins us to talk about some of the albums that have changed his life and we also picked three of his records to talk about with him. His new album, Acertijos, is out on March 19 and features such guests as Gilberto Santa Rosa and Eric Clapton, among others.
Boston, MA | Tim Heidecker readies his Virtual Record Store Tour, includes Boston date: Fun times are generally expected whenever Tim Heidecker is involved, even when the focus is on death and existential uncertainty. Luckily, we’ll have a chance to judge for ourselves very soon. Celebrating his latest non-comedy music project, Fear of Death, the Adult Swim star is set to bring his newly announced Virtual Record Store Tour to social media platforms of record stores all over the country, including shops in Boston, Chicago, Hollywood, New York City, Phoenix, Austin, Nashville, Birmingham, and Portland. The Boston date, which will be hosted by Newbury Comics via IG TV at 6 p.m. ET on Wednesday, March 10, marks the kick-off of the nine-city tour. While there aren’t any certified details beyond that in terms of what the night will entail, we’ll be sure to keep you in the know if anything comes up, so check back for any updated 411 as the date gets closer.
‘Led Zeppelin III’: Why Jimmy Page Didn’t Like the Elaborate Cover Design: As album covers go, Led Zeppelin got off to a great start. The iconic image of the burning Hindenburg (LZ-129) featured on the band’s ’69 debut set the tone for Zeppelin’s 12-year run. And Zep matched that energy with the cover of late ’69’s Led Zeppelin II (aka the “Brown Bomber”). If the band invented heavy metal with that second LP (as many have claimed), then the image of World War I fighter pilots (and another burning zeppelin) was a good fit. But everything took a turn with the pop-art collage on the cover and gatefold of Led Zeppelin III (1970). This time around, record buyers saw zeppelins on the cover, but they weren’t burning. What’s more, they were joined by birds, colorful butterflies, and other fauna on a white background. Was this even the same band? Looking back on Led Zeppelin III in a 1993 interview, Jimmy Page spoke of his disappointment with the artwork on the sleeve. And Page explained why the group had no choice but to release it as it was.
