Columbia, MO | Street Talk: Vinyl Renaissance closing leaves questions unanswered: Downtown record store Vinyl Renaissance closed unexpectedly on Monday. “We have enjoyed our relationship with all the local businesses, collectors and musicians of Columbia and wish everyone all the best in the future,” the store posted to its Facebook page. The phone number listed for the store has since been disconnected. The store will move their inventory to the its Overland Park, Kansas location.
Burton on Trent, UK | Music store HMV set to reopen in Burton next week. It will be based in unit formerly occupied by That’s Entertainment: There was delight for music fans today after it was announced that store chain HMV is set to open a shop in Burton’s Octagon Centre. The chain, which specialises in music memorabilia, CDs and DVDs, will open its doors to customers on Thursday, July 26. The move marks a return to the town for HMV. Its shop in Coopers Square was closed in 2013 as the chain shut 66 stores nationally. The new store, which will open in the unit left vacant when music chain That’s Entertainment closed at the end of May. As well as CDs and DVDs, the HMV new store will sell vinyl records, turntables, headphones, speakers and t-shirts.
Warwickshire, UK | Head record store welcomes local bands for official launch event: The newly-reopened Head store is set to officially open its doors with a performance by Leamington bands. Local rockers Luna Kiss will be joined by The Ellipsis and Freezacrowd at the event in the Royal Priors between 1pm and 5pm on Wednesday (July 25). Author Jim Layton will also be releasing his new book in store, which tells the story of the record stores, gigs and venues which shaped Warwick and Leamington’s musical history. Four-piece Luna Kiss will also have copies of their recently launched album Following Shadows on sale in the store, which closed earlier this year but has now reopened under new management.
Kent, UK | Release Now! 100 on vinyl say record shop owners as compilation album hits Kent stores: Music lovers across the county will be buying the 100th edition of the Now! That’s What I Call Music compilation series after its release today. But record store owners in the county think the biggest-selling compilation brand in the world is missing an opportunity by not releasing the album on vinyl…The last Now! compilation to be released on vinyl was Now! 35 back in 1996. Nick Pygott, owner and manager of Vinylstore Jr on Castle Street in Canterbury is disappointed that the franchise did not release a special vinyl edition of the 100th edition of the series. He said: “I won’t be stocking the CD edition as we are a specialist vinyl store, but I remember buying the very first edition in 1983, probably from Woolworths. “They haven’t released a Now! edition on vinyl in years, I had hoped they would reverse that for the 100th version – so since my store is vinyl only I won’t be stocking it.
Industry: grooving out vinyl’s future. 70 years on and the discs are still with us, capturing a warmer sound than any other format. The vinyl format just celebrated its 70th anniversary, with the first long player released in the US in 1948. Released on Columbia (now part of Sony), it was Mendelssohn’s Concerto in E Minor, performed by violinist Nathan Milstein with the New York Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra. The 12 -inch 33 1/3 rpm format allowed longer pieces to be recorded. Previously you got three minutes per side. Now you could get 20 minutes a side, an entire classical piece or, two decades later, an entire Grateful Dead guitar solo. 70 years on and the discs are still with us, capturing a warmer sound than any other format. Figures released in America on Sunday July 8 showed that vinyl albums grew 19.2% to 7.6 million units in the first half of 2018. In Australia, the last figures showed that vinyl had grown for a seventh straight year with $1.1 million in album sales.
Drake’s ‘Scorpion’ Is the Year’s Biggest Album. But Can You Find It in Stores? Copies of “Scorpion” — CDs only for now; plans for a vinyl release have not yet been announced — became available on July 13. That means the bulk of “Scorpion” consumption has taken place on streaming services, where 1,250 paid streams and 3,750 free streams equal one album; the rest were downloads. Its CDs haven’t registered on the charts yet, and according to Nielsen, which tracks music-industry data, “Scorpion” sold 8,000 physical copies from July 13 through July 17 — a relatively microscopic figure that’s a powerful reminder of how little some artists need physical sales to drive their success.
