The world’s best record shops #025: Real Groovy, Auckland: Real Groovy has weathered a chequered past, moving location multiple times and just about managing to survive the 2008 recession – when lots of stores worldwide closed – to revitalise itself as vinyl-orientated fun palace. Apparently past customers have been as varied as Kurt Cobain and Stephen Fry. The shop says that it has “the classic Kiwi relaxed attitude towards fame, where we leave people alone to enjoy their time and not pester them for autographs or photos.”
Long Play Cafe has expanded by opening a second coffee shop and record store in the heart of Newcastle’s city centre: Newcastle’s Long Play Cafe has opened its second coffee shop in the city’s Grainger Market. Owned by friends and baristas Chris Jackson and Jon Marley, Long Play Cafe opened its first cafe and record store on Newcastle’s Quayside last year. Based in the former Jimmyz Bar on Sandhill, Long Play Cafe is a coffee house and record store which sells vinyl records and merchandise alongside an all day brunch menu and coffee.
Vinyl culture alive and well in East Lansing: In an era when newfangled music streaming services have contributed to the disintegration of albums and overall music purchasing is easily avoided, against all odds, vinyl culture paradoxically thrives and prospers. The only form of music acquisition that requires investment in an entire musical collection, let alone one that is bulky, potentially losable, and not preserved in some immortal, intangible “cloud,” has experienced ten straight years of growth, according to Nielsen, a company that tracks the sale of music.
Meet the Cult Film Superfans Who Turned Vinyl Soundtracks into an Empire: For Kevin Bergeron and Suzy Soto, selling vinyl online came as a natural way to combine two of their greatest passions: Horror movies and great music. Their business, Waxwork Records, re-issues classic vinyl soundtracks from cult films like Rosemary’s Baby and The Warriors, carving out a niche audience of horror and sci-fi superfans looking to own a slice of the movies that the love. Over the past three-and-a-half years, Waxwork Records has catapulted Kevin and Suzy from the world of New Orleans punk rock to rubbing shoulders with film legends like Martin Scorsese and George Romero.
