Vinyl predicted to become billion dollar industry for first time this millennium: For the first time this millennium, vinyl is predicted to become a billion dollar industry, according to consulting firm Deloitte. This year, Deloitte expects about 40 million vinyl records to be sold, which comes out to about 900 million dollars in sales. Record players and other accessories bring the business of vinyl to the billion dollar mark, which experts say was unthinkable ten years ago. Companies like Disney and Fischer Price are jumping on the vinyl train and releasing records aimed at kids.
Vinyl fantasy: Is the record boom bad for new music? From ham-fisted placement in nostalgic movies to adding hip kudos to unrelated product advertising, vinyl records are ubiquitous in these retro-fetishistic times. Sales are the highest they’ve been for 25 years, and we’re told that “vinyl is set to become a billion dollar industry,” but in the face of reissue hype and 12” sleeves as mantelpiece decoration, new independent music is suffering. When a label as stoutly vinyl-focused as long-running Detroit techno outpost Underground Resistance is publicly lamenting the struggle to maintain the format in view of pressing plant delays and tricky payment terms, can the vinyl boom really be benefiting the music that kept the format alive all these years?
The vinyl resurgence is real, but it won’t save the record industry, Vinyl is an easy savior figure for an embattled industry. But it’s more complicated than that: Because the secondhand market is untraceable and doesn’t really make any money for the greater industry, almost all of the focus (both in vinyl-as-savior narratives and in doomsday narratives) is on how well new vinyl is selling. And while it’s selling better than CDs and digital albums, it might not be sustainable for the larger industry. The discussions around peak vinyl and whether or not vinyl will continue to boom often circle around a deeper, greater fear: that the music industry is broken in a way that cannot be fixed.
Maidstone record store shuts suddenly: Maidstone’s biggest independent record shop has been closed and chained shut just days before Record Store Day. AEA Sound, situated in the Royal Star Arcade, closed on April 6 when a notice was placed in the shop window. An A4 sheet of paper stated the unit had been repossessed by its owner in accordance with its lease. Chains keeping the entrance doors shut are visible through the glass front and records are strewn across the floor. Piles of discarded vinyl remain inside the shop and the notice warned any attempt by any person to enter the store without permission can be prosecuted…The closure came just days before Record Store Day.
‘World’s Smallest Record Store’ opens its doors: A vinyl revival is going on all over the world, and now one man is bringing it to the Range. Tim “Edwards” Verthein, the veteran voice of radio on KOZY-Grand Rapids, opened his new record shop in Bovey last weekend. Three years ago Edwards started broadcasting his own radio station from his home under the call letters KEBS – 1620 AM, and with a storefront for advertising and recording customers sitting mostly idle in downtown Bovey, he agreed when his daughter suggested that space could be put to good use retailing his vast record collection.
Wanderer returns to set up Chesterfield’s newest record store: An office worker who last year ditched the daily grind has just opened Chesterfield’s newest record store. Corey Lavender, 41, quit his job at Short’s Accountants last year to head off on a 500-mile trek across northern Europe. Now, he has set up a vinyl record shop in Theatre Yard called Vanishing Point – specialising in soundtracks and electronica. Corey, who lives in Somersall, said it was during his walk that the idea of running a record shop really took off. “It started out as the germ of an idea,” he said. “I’d just read a book about independent record shops and I’ve always been interested in music.”
Reverb Vinyl: Introducing Aarhus’ Newest Record Pusher: This Friday, we’ll see the opening of a brand new record shop specializing in new and vintage vinyl records on Nørregade in downtown Aarhus…I met with Mads Nordestgaard, an energetic and optimistic music lover and soon-to-be record shop landlord, a few days before the store’s opening day – a building in complete disarray (“we’ve had a few setbacks at the last minute with the building, but everyone involved assures me it will be ready for the opening”) with workers hammering and sawing, his phone(s) ringing off the hook, and several types of carpenters toiling away in clouds of dust and rubble.
The lost record stores of Edinburgh: When you mentioned the word record and Edinburgh, Bruce’s is one of the first things that comes to mind. Originally a shop in Falkirk, the second store from brother’s Bruce and Brian Finlay arrived in the Capital in 1969. Bruce’s specialised in US imports and underground rock and carrier bags branded with the ‘I Found It At Bruce’s’ slogan with the owner of Glasgow’s Love Music store even working in the store. For thousands of 1970s and 80s teenagers, the music shops were essential meeting points to pick up the latest vinyl and carry it home in an ‘I found it at Bruce’s’ bag.
Back to vinyl for Morningside students: Zach Schoenecker listened intensely to the occasional hiss and scratch from the vintage “Pink Panther” soundtrack album he picked for $1 at a local secondhand store. “There’s something really comforting about vinyl records,” the Morningside College mass communications junior said, while hunched over a turntable. “Digital recordings sound too smooth while vinyl has more character and a unique sound.” Schoenecker, the student engineer and operations manager for the college’s radio station, will be getting plenty of turntable action when KMSC 92.9 FM will go to an all-vinyl format for a 24-hour period, from midnight to 11:59 p.m. Saturday.
