Generation Rent: Streaming Subscriptions Now Account For Over 60 Percent Of All UK Music Sales: The growing popularity of music subscription services like Spotify, Amazon and Apple is turning British music fans into “generation rent,” says U.K. trade group the Entertainment Retailers Association (ERA). In 2018, streaming subscription revenues in the U.K. climbed to just over £829 million ($1 billion), a rise of 38 percent on the previous year, reports the ERA Yearbook, published today (March 5). In contrast, combined spending on owned formats like CDs, vinyl LPs and digital downloads dropped to £505 million ($662 million), representing 38 percent of all recorded music sales. Of those formats, CD album sales totaled £289 million ($379 million), down from £368 million ($482 million) in 2017. Download albums fell 25 percent to £73 million ($96 million) with digital download singles sales generating just over £49 million ($64 million). Meanwhile, more than 4.3 million vinyl albums were sold in the U.K. last year, the equivalent of £91 million ($119 million) in sales.
Dallas, TX | After 14 years on Greenville Avenue, Good Records moves next week to Garland Road: Saturday afternoon, around 4 p.m., I was cc’d on the following tweet: “Good Records is moving to Garland Rd. Great job, people of Dallas, for officially ruining everything great on Greenville Ave,” wrote Lee Cothran. Say what now? I texted co-owner Chris Penn for confirmation, and sure enough. “Yep. March 11th. Steve Earle first instore new spot.” Then came another: “Time to reset the chakras.” Shortly after that a text thread turned into a phone call. But, yes. It’s true. Good Records, which turned 19 last month, is moving to its third location, this time to Garland Road — 9026 Garland Road, to be exact, in the space currently occupied by its offshoot boutique and event space The Good Pagoda. Which also happens to be next door to the always-packed Lounge Here, whose co-owner is Julie Doyle, co-founder and member and manager of Polyphonic Spree, which is fronted by her husband Tim DeLaughter, who, along with Doyle and Penn owns Good Records.
10 appointment-only record shops you have to visit: From Detroit to Jo’burg, we’ve selected the apartments, lock-ups and converted camper-vans, that offer a personalised record shopping experience like no other. While there’s no shortage of record shops at street level, opening up a brick-and-mortar space is only for the brave. Behind closed doors however, more and more sellers are setting up their homes, shipping containers, basement warehouse spaces and mini-vans to share their collections with the world. It makes sense. After all, why spend time digitising your collection and listing it online when you can simply invite people over for a dig, a brew and a biscuit? Appointment-only spots are also on the increase as they offer a more personal experience than your average shop. By the same token, they tend to be a bit more elusive to track down. Thankfully, we’ve done the hard work for you and have collected some of our favourites…
Ontario, CA | Bud’s Records Spins to Life in Cornwall: Bud’s Records recently opened its doors at 375 Eleventh Street East in the Leduc Shopping Centre, providing music lovers and collectors with a new venue to discover new and used records, CDs, equipment and other cool items. The new record shop represents the next step in a long love affair with music for owner Bud O’Byrne. The Cornwall resident has been collecting seriously for about six years and selling online. Fellow collectors had even started to visit his home to check out his collection and make the odd purchase. “My wife said ‘I want my living room back’,” Mr. O’Byrne joked. Between his own growing collection and other collections he purchased along the way, Mr. O’Byrne decided the time was right to make the full dive into entrepreneurship and open his own store.
Wilkes-Barre, PA | Vinyl music fair a blast from the past: The NEPA LP Vinyl Records & CD Fair on Sunday featured both vinyl records and people who first saw the light of day from the 1950s through the early years of the 21st century. The fair filled a large meeting room at the Woodlands Inn, as a large crowd browsed the tens of thousands of vinyl albums and 45 rpm singles for sale from numerous vendors. The vinyl record industry has seen a resurgence in the past few years, according to Jack Skutnik, a vendor from Binghamton, New York, and one of the event’s organizers. Much of that boom is youth-driven, Skutnik said. In many cases, younger people found old records their parents packed away years ago, and discovered they liked the sound and vibe of vinyl, as well as album cover art, he said.
Austin, TX | Making And Breaking Records: Gold Rush Vinyl is changing the record pressing game: Tucked away in an unassuming office building east of I-35, Caren Kelleher and the Gold Rush Vinyl team dance alongside a slew of record presses, boilers and coolers, machinery reminiscent of a brewery. The culmination of a superior infrastructure, pinpointed temperatures and a whip-smart team, Gold Rush has managed to create top-quality vinyl with efficiency in an industry notorious for its slow turnaround. Kelleher built this burgeoning empire with the future in mind, and her confidence in Gold Rush is apparent as she gracefully maneuvers between machine repairs, managing the company’s 100-plus clients and plotting the future of her business. Traditionally, the process of creating physical records could take anywhere from four to eight months, but the Gold Rush team has streamlined it to four to six weeks. “We’re a plant that does everything end to end…”
Garth Brooks breaks vinyl, breaks record, breaks internet: Garth Brooks’ vinyl release LEGACY got off to another wild start this past Thursday after totally melting the system two days before. This time, consumer demand once again overwhelmed the system. Brooks chose to number the first 123,199 vinyl boxed sets so fans could pick their own numbers, making it their own unique package. After many hours of frustration for those attempting to reserve their meaningful numbers, Talk Shop Live figured out how to stop the system from stalling each time the buyer asked for lowest number available and the resulting sales would go on to break a number of vinyl records. Originally scheduled for a 24 hour period OR until quantity available was sold. The quantity was gone in just over 12 hours but the demand wildly exceeded the allotted amount of inventory so Brooks promised the people he would keep the site open another 6 hours for those who had trouble at the beginning. That extra time would take Brooks through the first 20,000 numbered boxed sets of vinyl – an amazing 420,000 vinyl albums!
