Irvington, IN | Irvington Vinyl and Books Embraces the Weird: Irvington Vinyl and Books has become a home for the neat, weird, and local. With shelves stacked floor to ceiling with vinyl records, books, and local art, Irvington Vinyl and Books is a unique shop located on the eastside of Indianapolis. The owner of the eclectic shop, Elysia Smith, says she has learned a lot since purchasing the store several years ago. “Its been a long road of learning.” Smith, who started her career in the event planning business for the arts community, says she focuses on finding consistency and not getting burnt out. “That’s the hardest part.” Shirking off the urge to chase new trends and stay up to date, Smith wants her store to be unlike any other in Indianapolis. “I want to sell weird, old books.”
Patchogue, NY | Surviving the iPod: Record Stop of Patchogue set to celebrate 50 years: It’s official, Record Stop is a golden oldie. The Railroad Avenue record store turns 50 this year, and owner Jeff Berg plans to celebrate with the same community that has kept the mom-and-pop shop alive long enough to reach the milestone. “It feels great for the brand and the community, but it wasn’t just me,” Berg said. “Besides the current staff, it’s my father who started it and all the other staff who got us here. It’s been a lot of fun. It’s great to see it continuing, slowly but surely growing and keeping the community engaged.” “Maybe we’ll shoot for 100” years, he added. Record Stop, known for its annual Record Store Day block parties, will throw a 50th anniversary bash Saturday, Aug. 10, from noon to 5 p.m. outside the Railroad Avenue shop.
Retail Rebirth: The Disc Is Not Dead; Neither is Brick-and-Mortar Retailing: Bill Castle is something of an outlier. As director of music and video at Barnes & Noble, a bookstore chain with more than 600 mega-stores around the country, he’s not about to give up on physical media. So while other retailers are cutting back on their DVD, Blu-ray Disc and 4K Ultra HD footprints, or even getting out of the disc business entirely, he’s doubling down on what he believes is still a very viable, and profitable, business. A year ago, in June 2023, Barnes & Noble began expanding its inventory of Criterion Collection product in select stores to include every Blu-ray Disc and 4K Ultra HD title still in print. Then, in February, the New York-based bookseller announced it is rolling out branded Disney sections in most of its stores, with a greater assortment of the studio’s titles. In addition, Castle says, the chain is bringing in more catalog titles to give customers a broader selection “than just the top new releases.”
Bay View, WI | First look: Wiggle Room vinyl listening lounge in Bay View: Wiggle Room recently opened in the former Lee’s Luxury Lounge. It offers a unique mix of vinyl record listening and craft cocktails along with many zero-proof and CBD/THC beverages. Chris Schulist has been enamored with vinyl albums for most of his life. He was originally introduced to analog audio recordings by his Uncle Gene when he was a kid. After his uncle passed about four years ago, Schulist inherited his massive record collection and added them to his enormous personal collection. “I joke my house is made of records,” he says. So it makes perfect sense that Schulist, and Jim McCann with whom he owns The Vanguard restaurant, morphed the former Lee’s Luxury Lounge into a vinyl listening lounge called Wiggle Room, 2988 S. Kinnickinnic Ave. The remodel process was intense, mostly because of the need for infrastructure that would ensure excellent sound.
Syracuse, NY | Vinyl radio program celebrates 15 years: Still intent on delving deep into their musical archives, where an untold number of “lost and wayward” treasures await rediscovery, the hosts of “The Wax Museum” on WSIV The Voice 106.3 FM/1540 AM celebrated their radio program’s 15th anniversary this month. The three men at the helm of the weekly East Syracuse-based show, which airs Sundays from 7 to 10 p.m., are Ronnie Dark, “The Commander” John Walsh and Mike Adams, who’s known as “The Night Owl.” The best description for the range of music played by the trio, they say, is “everything from Bach to rock,” an indication that they avoid any pigeonholing or narrowcasting when it comes to their format. From the start, vinyl records have been vital to the weekly episodes, with each host bringing along bagfuls of LPs spanning various genres and different decades with the intention of piecing them into a cohesive whole and spinning as many as possible over the course of the three-hour freeform broadcasts.
Kearney, NE | Ask an Antelope: Bryce Jensen is an actor, tech tinkerer and vinyl aficionado: When he’s not spinning vinyl at his record store or getting involved with the local arts scene, Kearney native Bryce Jensen helps maintain the classrooms, technology and studio spaces for UNK Online. The 1999 UNK alumnus began his role as classroom technologist two years ago after a short stint as a media producer at Central Community College in Grand Island. However, he’s best known in the community for his nine years as executive director of The World Theatre and as co-owner of Buffalo Records. He’s a current board member for the nonprofit movie theater in downtown Kearney and for Crane River Theater, where he also appears in productions.
This clever record player concept mounts directly onto your wall: No floor space, no problem. You can hang vinyl records on a wall as decor, but playing them on a wall is another matter. Swedish industrial designer Oscar Olsson designed a record player concept that would change that. Olsson’s Disco Volante elevates vinyl-as-decor from college dorm room to retro-futuristic high art. His record player concept has a fully automatic steel turntable and a plastic tonearm housing unit in orange, green, yellow, and black that can be mounted to the wall. The idea grew out of an early concept for a wall-mounted record player Olsson designed in 2020 called the TT-90 that had a physical control panel with mobile device connectivity. Over time, though, “all I could see was the technical difficulties with the concept,” he tells Fast Company in an email. “So I decided to design a new wall-mounted turntable that would be more realistic from a functional perspective and also have a clearer story with its design.”
Taylor Swift Super-Collectors: Meet the Fans Buying Every ‘Tortured Poets Department’ Edition, No Matter the Cost: Who’s afraid of buying 30-plus “Tortured Poets Department” album variants? Between her ongoing record-shattering “Eras” tour and the album holding the No. 1 spot on the Billboard 200 chart for nine consecutive weeks, no one should question the might of Taylor Swift and the Swiftie fandom. But to keep the album charting, the singer has been dropping multiple variants of her soul-baring “Tortured Poets Department” album since its April 19 release — some of which have a bonus song from its surprise double-album expansion, “The Anthology” (which she has yet to release in a physical form but will surely cause a major splash once available), acoustic tracks, live renditions or voice-memo demos. The total is nearly at three dozen, and there are almost certainly more coming.
Vinyl variants: A celebration of music or a push for overconsumption? In recent years, the resurgence of vinyl records has sparked a renewed interest in physical music formats. What once seemed like a dying medium has now become a collector’s item and a symbol of musical nostalgia. However, the increasing trend of releasing multiple vinyl variants by mainstream artists has raised concerns about overconsumption. Are these practices promoting a love for music, or are they simply a clever marketing ploy encouraging fans to buy more than they need? …Mainstream artists, such as Taylor Swift and Olivia Rodrigo, and their record labels have capitalized on the demand for vinyl by releasing numerous variants of the same album. This strategy taps into the psychology of scarcity and exclusivity, urging fans to purchase multiple copies to complete their collection. Special releases on Record Store Day, Black Friday, and other promotional events further drive this trend, creating a sense of urgency among buyers.
