Tel Aviv, IL | Marching to a Different Beat: How Beatnik Records amassed an amazing collection of Israeli music records and why people are buying more record players than ever before. ‘Did you know records are made as a by-product of oil production?” asks Beatnik Records owner Guy Grinberg. “In the 1970s there was an oil crisis and the prices of oil went up. This had a bad effect on the quality of records being produced because the companies wanted to save money, so records became thinner and they began using recycled materials in the pressing of new records. In Israel, for example, they stopped laminating album covers after 1973 in an attempt to reduce costs.” Clad in a black T-shirt, long-haired and sporting gold earrings and a heart-shaped arm tattoo, Guy looks the part of a musician-turned-record shop owner. “I was in a rock band actually,” he confesses. “We were called ‘Binder and Duntat.’”
Pekin, IL | A Day in the Life Of A … Record Store Manager: While video may have killed the radio star, online music options are killing the brick and mortar music stores. In order to stay relevant and competitive, one Pekin business combines music sales with other merchandise. Co-op Records is located at 3253 Court St. in Pekin. They are open every day of the week. Their hours of operation are Monday through Thursday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., Friday and Saturday 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Sunday 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Brandon Timian, 45, is the store’s manager and said despite the store name they offer more than records. They buy, sell and trade CDs, cassette tapes and movies. Co-op also sells incense, apparel, body jewelry, golf discs, video games and vinyl records. Timian said, “If we only sold music we’d be out of business. We’ve got to be creative. I wish more people brought in used CDs and vinyl rather than throw them away.”
Seattle, WA | Easy Street Records celebrates 30 years; Clever video promotes 30% off CD Sale: Easy Street opened its store in West Seattle in 1988, and later added a cafe/bar, which serves coffee, breakfast, lunch and beer & wine. Easy Street Records often hosts live in-store performances by national and local musicians. The store carries new and used CDs, vinyl records, DVDs/BluRays, new books, magazines and company-branded merchandise. Owner/President Matt Vaughan worked at two different record stores during his teen years. In 1987, with both stores ready to go out of business simultaneously, Vaughan approached both owners and offered to consolidate the two stores into one. Vaughan opened Easy Street Records in the Junction in 1988 and the following year moved the store down the street to its current location on the primary corner of the Junction in the historic Hamm Building.
Sanborn, NY | Niagara Records is quintessential stop for music lovers: “Do what you love.” It’s not just a quote heard time and time again. For Niagara Records store owner David Ishman, it’s what prompted him to open his own record store in October 2017. Located at 5833 Buffalo St., Niagara Records offers everything a music lover could want. It currently sells vinyl and CDs spanning genres such as pop, rock, soul, bluegrass, country, blues and jazz, all neatly organized by genre. Right away, customers who walk in will gravitate toward some aisle of music looking for their next favorite album. Ishman has posters of all kinds of music legends hanging on his walls, including Fleetwood Mac and Hank Williams. Ishman is always playing music on his stereo, too, and if you tell him what your favorite kind of music is, he just might play something you’ll like. Customers can also find stereo equipment and turntables to buy, and they can sell parts of their old music collection they don’t want anymore.
Edmonton, AB | ‘Mr. Intangible’ was a giant in Edmonton’s music scene: …When Taras Ostashewsky died on June 13, just 64 years old, there was an outpouring of grief and affection from Edmontonians past and present. Whether you knew him from the record store he ran and personified for more than a decade, as a driving force behind the old Jazz City music festival and the Edmonton Film Society, or simply as a voluble, hilarious, compassionate and endlessly knowledgeable presence in the city, he left a permanent mark. An early-80s feature in the long-lost Edmonton Report, beyond the reach of Google now but still sharp in my memory, called Taras “Mr. Intangible,” and it was the perfect nickname. You might not have been able to exactly describe his role in Edmonton’s music culture, but you sensed he was the linchpin without which the whole scene just might collapse.
Austin, TX | Gold Rush Vinyl specializes in high-quality vinyl pressings: Talk about serendipitous: In March, when the Recording Industry Association of America reported that vinyl sales in 2017 were up 10 percent to $395 million, Gold Rush Vinyl officially opened for business in Austin, Texas. Gold Rush Vinyl specializes in quick turnarounds of high-quality vinyl pressings (its standard pressing is 180-gram vinyl), and it also handles short-run orders. According to Caren Kelleher, Gold Rush’s founder and president, the industry’s typical turnaround time for a vinyl order is four to six months. Her plant’s usual timetable is four to six weeks. The 8,400-square-foot facility has two vinyl-pressing machines, and floor space is already marked for four more, Director of Operations Gator Russo pointed out as he and Kelleher provided a tour of the facility in mid-March.
Stevens Point, WI | The History and Resurgence of Vinyl Records: Just over a week ago (on June 18), The Wall Street Journal reminded readers that it was 70-years ago that the music industry released its first long-playing (LP) record…In recalling the introduction of the LP, here’s what The Wall Street Journal wrote back then: “A 12-inch phonograph record that will play as much music as an album of six or seven conventional (78 r.p.m.) records will hit the market soon. The revolutionary new disc will provide up to half an hour of continuous music, up to an hour if you play both sides. That means you can hear on a single platter an entire symphony or the full run of a musical comedy score.” The Journal also noted that Magnavox would produce a new record player for the 33-1/3 LPs that would cost $25 more than the single speed 78 r.p.m. models.
