Sturgeon Bay, WI | Vinyl records sales hit $1 billion in 2021, nearly 40-year high: There was a time where Paul Exworthy had written off his record collection. He wasn’t alone. Exworthy is general manager at Bay Vinyl Records in Sturgeon Bay where he’s immersed in discussions about music and LPs all day. It’s where he wants to be. “Ten years ago my step-daughter brought me to a used record store in Green Bay on Record Store Day and I’ve been hooked ever since,” he said. Both the store and the industry have seen an influx of new business in recent years. Older music lovers are coming back to records while a new generation of buyers are joining the record world. Logan Smith is part of that new generation. He recently got his first record player and is discovering a world of music that at one time had gone the way of the eight-track tape.
Front Range, WY | Front Range shops get in the groove for Record Store Day 2022: Across the region, the back rooms of local record stores are filled with cardboard boxes so heavy that the shop owners and managers can hardly lift them. It’s all because of this upcoming Saturday – Record Store Day 2022. Every year since 2008, the organization of the same name that launched the worldwide event has curated a list of exclusive vinyl record releases that flood the shelves of independent shops, leading customers to line up at 8 a.m. to get their hands on a limited copy to add to their collection. The main focus of Record Store Day is to drive business to brick-and-mortar locations by selling exclusive releases to record stores across the country. With the revival of vinyl causing a boom in the industry – so much so that record plants are overwhelmed to the point of having to push some releases to a later date – Record Store Day is only becoming more prominent for record store owners.
Seattle, WA | Record Store Day returns April 23 with celebrations, great jazz vinyl: The cooperative Record Store Day celebrations will return to their pre-pandemic schedule this year. For two years, vinyl collectors had a few “RSD Drops” to celebrate. They marked important release dates but didn’t include the traditional gatherings at local record stores that was the original point of Record Store Day. Record stores are places to hang out, discuss music, meet new friends, and support artists as well as vital small businesses in our communities. Vinyl pressing plants are still dealing with massive pandemic-driven backlogs, so a June 18 “Drop” date has been scheduled for albums that won’t be able to meet the April deadline. Those will include the U.S. vinyl debut of the 1991 Paquito D’Rivera Reunion album with Arturo Sandoval, a reissue of the rare 1972 album Dream Queen from The Bobby Hamilton Quintet Unlimited, and the exclusive double-vinyl pressing of another in the Miles Davis bootleg series – What It Is: Montreal 7/7/83. Of course, every day is a great day to visit a record store. Here’s a list of jazz and blues vinyl that are worth lining up for April 23:
Winchester, VA | Local music stores gearing up for Record Store Day: A big day for music connoisseurs is coming up next Saturday. It’s Record Store Day, an annual event that gives people the opportunity to purchase special, limited-edition vinyl and CD releases that can only be bought from independent record stores. Winchester has three such stores — Ear Food at 22 Weems Lane, Back to the Media at 48 S. Loudoun St. and Hopscotch Coffee and Records at 250 Millwood Ave. — all of which will be participating in the once-a-year event. Each will be selling a selection of the 344 titles exclusive to this year’s Record Store Day from popular artists including The Who, Sara Bareilles, Lil Wayne, The Ramones, Mariah Carey, The Doors, Paul McCartney, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Childish Gambino and hundreds more. Each participating store chooses which titles it wants to carry, which can be a difficult decision when there are so many from which to choose. At Ear Food, father-and-son owners Anthony and Jamie Matthews said they make their selections based on which artists have proven to be most popular with customers.
Leicester, UK | Record Store Day 2022: All the new releases available at Rockaboom in Leicester: Got your eye on some of these rare records? Record Store Day is upon us once again and the people of Leicester can get involved by taking a trip to Rockaboom in the city centre. The annual celebration of independent shops and all things vinyl sees a wave of new releases which would be dream additions to many people’s collections. It is often the busiest day for record stores across the country, providing much-needed income and, in the age of instant downloads, introducing new people to vinyl collecting. This year, it falls on Saturday, April 23, and will officially be returning to Rockaboom after a two-year absence due to the coronavirus pandemic. The store, in the Malcolm Arcade, has already published the list of records they are receiving ahead of the big day, with plenty of exciting discs available from a wide range of music genres. Carl Petty, 53, is the owner of Rockaboom, and has experienced some great times due to the campaign.
Isle of Wight, UK | Celebrate the 15th Record Store Day with a day of music at Ventnor Exchange: Record Store Day is all about celebrating music and Ventnor Exchange have an amazing day of music in store for you. After Covid cancelled their plans in 2020 and changed the format by splitting the day into two in 2021, Ventnor Exchange’s record store is looking forward to the full return of Record Store Day (RSD) next Saturday (23rd April 2022). Ventnor Exchange is the official RSD outlet on the Isle of Wight, and have been enthusiastic participants of the event ever since the store opened in 2014. This year also marks RSD’s 15th Anniversary, this worldwide phenomenon has been one the driving forces behind the vinyl revival that started in 2007. Record Store Day is all about celebrating music! For the 15th RSD event there will, of course, be all the exciting special vinyl releases – see the Record Store Day Website for list of releases. Ventnor Exchange will have a list of what they managed to get hold of on their Website nearer the time.
Madison, WI | Madison thrift store kicks off record event: St. Vincent de Paul on Willy Street kicked off its annual record event Friday for music lovers to sift through. The store will have all its goods, including memorabilia, band tees, instruments and audio equipment, for sale until they’re gone. Vinny’s Willy Street posted on Facebook that there were over 90 crates of vinyl for collectors to choose from. Assistant store manager Megan Stickle said it’s exciting to see younger generations experience an older medium of music. “It makes me feel great,” Stickle said. “I’m a record collector myself, I’ve been collecting since I was a child, so I take a lot of great pride in it and I think it’s awesome that it’s still continuing even with all the technology that’s available today.” St. Vinny’s is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday, as well as 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sundays.
West Bend, WI | Beat Goes On continues Exclusive Company’s tradition in West Bend: Downtown West Bend music store opened April 6. When The Exclusive Company announced it would be closing, it could have been the day the music died in downtown West Bend, but Joe and Mary Zaremba couldn’t let that happen. “My wife and I have been longtime music fans our whole lives,” Beat Goes On & More owner Joe Zaremba said. “The minute I heard that they (Exclusive Company) were shutting down I reached out to them.” The Zarembas have been customers of The Exclusive Company since the ’80s, and decided to purchase the building in order to “keep the beat going.” They wanted to ensure that they keep this iconic downtown West Bend business where it belongs. “The staff has stayed,” Zaremba said. “We took their sign down and put ours up. Everything else is the same.” Beat Goes On Records & More opened on April 6. The name “Beat Goes On” is representing the continuation of the long tradition that Exclusive Company left on the West Bend community.
Kitchener, ON | In the age of Spotify, vinyl continues to gain popularity: ‘I think you miss a lot of the tangible quality of music with streaming services these days, and you lose out on that ability to pass it down to the next generation … You’re not going to pass your Spotify account onto your kids’ When Vince Dabin opened Orange Monkey in 1993, it was during what he calls “the death of the music industry,” as the industry traded vinyl for CDs and eventually streaming. One by one, record stores around the region, like Sam the Record Man, began to close. But Orange Monkey, as well as Kitchener’s Encore Records, remained. Until the early 2000s, he says the majority of people buying vinyl were DJs. So when Dabin first opened the store, it was about 70 per cent CDs — which explains how it was able to weather the digital frenzy. That is, until about seven years ago, when CD sales started to plummet, and he began prioritizing records for the first time since opening. Now, he says everyone is after vinyl, from “eight-year-olds to 80-year-olds.”
