Phoenix, AZ | The 11 Best Record Stores in Metro Phoenix: Record collectors in Phoenix suffered a heavy loss when Revolver Records closed up shop in February. But like any industry, businesses come and go. Over time, new record shops open up where entrepreneurial record collectors see a need, and older chains expand as they refine their successful habits. Selling records in the age of digital streaming, when even the practice of buying entire albums digitally has decreased, is not as easy of a job as it used to be. The chain music stores of the past are long gone and CD sales continue to decrease annually, yet the demand for vinyl records continues to increase each year. Thankfully, here in the Valley, there are plenty of independent record shops where record collectors can shop for new and used records as well as record equipment…Figuring out which record shop carry the records you like can be a time-consuming task, so we’ve put together a list of 11 of the best record shops across metro Phoenix.
Dallas, TX | Josey Records Shares the Secret: How Record Stores Find Vinyl: If you’re a music fan in North Texas and you’re not following your favorite record store’s social media accounts, you’re missing out. Sure, it’s nice to know which new releases the shop has on its shelves every Friday, but that’s not the real gold to be had in most cases. The real social media treasure for record shoppers is when shop owners announce their acquisitions of a new vinyl collection to soon hit its shelves. On May 15, Northwest Dallas shop Josey Records posted a video clip showing off a newly acquired collection of classic heavy metal to its Facebook page. In the clip, a man’s hand flips through titles from Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Quiet Riot, Motorhead and Judas Priest. You can almost hear metal heads from across North Texas screaming “take all my money!” If you’re a music fan in North Texas and you’re not following your favorite record store’s social media accounts, you’re missing out.
Charlottetown, CA | P.E.I. vinyl-pressing company creates platform to aid production costs. ‘The Record Fund platform actually gives artists a means to be able to press vinyl.’ Kaneshii Vinyl Pressing in Charlottetown has created an online platform that allows artists to pre-sell their records to help cover the cost of production. Record Fund launched during East Coast Music Week as a way to help artists with up-front costs and a half-dozen artists signed up that first week. An order of 300 records usually costs around $3,000 but using Record Fund, an artist can pre-sell 100 records for $30 each which covers the cost, said Kaneshii co-owner Ghislaine Cormier. Then Kaneshii will ship the albums to the buyers, and the remaining 200 to the artist. “Going over processes with potential clients and whatnot, we saw that a lot of them, the main factor that would come into play that they wouldn’t start a project right away would be the funding,” Cormier said. She said this is a promotional tool that helps artists proceed with their projects.
Warner Bros. Records Evolves Into Warner Records: 61 years after the founding of Warner Bros. Records, the renowned label is being rebranded as Warner Records across the globe. This marks the latest step in the company’s evolution, following Aaron Bay-Schuck joining as U.S. Co-Chairman & CEO in October 2018, Tom Corson being appointed U.S. Co-Chairman & COO in January 2018, and Phil Christie being named President of the UK label in 2016. The name change also follows the U.S. company’s recent move to a new, state-of-the-art headquarters in downtown LA’s Arts District. Warner Records has unveiled a bold new logo, with an artful simplicity and impactful typography that are ideally suited to the digital world. The circular icon – suggesting a record, a sun, and a globe – is a nod to the label’s past, present, and future. The openness of the design gives it the flexibility to embrace all Warner Records artists and all genres of music around the world.
Lewis Capaldi scores the UK’s fastest-selling album of 2019 so far: “It makes me so proud.” Lewis’s debut album Divinely Uninspired to A Hellish Extent scores impressive opening week numbers. Lewis Capaldi storms to Number 1 on this week’s Official Albums Chart with the biggest opening-week numbers for an album this year. The Scotman’s debut collection, Divinely Uninspired to A Hellish Extent, notched up 89,506 combined sales to take the top spot, outperforming the rest of the Top 10 combined. Lewis overtakes Ariana Grande, who previously held the fastest-seller of the year title after scoring Week 1 combined sales of 65,214 with her Thank U, Next album in February. Physical sales account for 46% of Lewis’s opening-week figure, including 7,000 copies on vinyl, while 34% are streams and 20% are downloads. The album racked up 40.5 million plays across audio and video streaming platforms.
