New York, NY | Limited to One record store celebrating 5 Years at Brooklyn show with rare record mart: Limited to One, the East Village record store that focuses on rare, collectable vinyl, turns five this week and to celebrate they’re throwing an anniversary party at Brooklyn’s Saint Vitus on Sunday, July 31 featuring live performances and a record mart. Tickets are on sale. The music lineup includes NYC emo/post-hardcore group Common Sage, Providence screamo band Amitié, Light Tower (featuring members of Spotlights / On the Might of Princes) and some “special guests.” One of those special guests is Ryley Walker who will be doing a set of XTC covers. As for the record mart, Limited to One says it features “rare records never sold in the shop” and “exclusive releases direct from select indie labels” like Sacred Bones, DAZE, Expert Work Records, and more.
Muncie, IN | Muncie gets back in the groove with new record store opening: Good news for music-lovers who prefer their tunes delivered via old-fashioned vinyl: Muncie’s getting a new record store, and in a very familiar spot. Locked Groove Records opens Saturday, July 30, in the same space that housed Village Green Records for more than 15 years until this past spring. After Village Green announced it was leaving, but before it actually closed down in May to shift its operations to Montgomery, Alabama, Celeste Outen was looking into opening another independent record store in Muncie. An employee at Village Green, Outen was encouraged by Village Green’s owner and others in the community to pursue establishing her own store. …The new store—which will be not just a locally-owned business, but a woman-owned and Black-owned one as well—will start out with a stock of used records acquired from dealers, a “really amazing jazz record collection” she came across and Outen’s extensive record collection. Selling off her own collection is hard, but Outen looks forward to sharing what she loves with her customers, she said.
Cleveland, OH | One Year Later: How This Cleveland Record Store Continues To Thrive. In 2021, GOBankingRates featured “Small Business Spotlight” nominee A Separate Reality Records, a record store in Cleveland started by music industry vet and cancer survivor Augustus Payne. At the time, Payne shared how he adapted his business during the pandemic to keep it going through difficult times. Now, one year later, we’re checking back in with Payne to talk about what he’s learned over the past two years and what his hopes are for the future of his business. “…I wish I knew how totally consuming it is to own a store. If you have a store, it’s best to love what you do.”
Wichita, KS | New record store to open in Wichita: Les Easterby was a teenager in high school taking an entrepreneurship class when he was asked to create a business plan. “My business plan was to open a record store,” he said. Now, just over two decades later, that’s what he’s doing. Next month, Easterby is opening the Record Ship at 230 N. Cleveland, just up from the Workroom. He considered more prominent sites along Douglas and Central avenues, but Easterby said, “People kept telling me a record store is more of a destination, so you don’t necessarily need to be seen on Douglas.” He’ll have 600 square feet of retail space and another 1,000 square feet of warehouse space where he eventually also plans to host events, such as concerts or vinyl swap meets. Record Ship will sell a variety of music, including rock, soul, jazz and alternative selections. Easterby also wants to offer new wave, punk and experimental music, which is much of what he likes.
UK | Lauran Hibberd announces HMV in-store tour: Isle Of Wight power pop specialist Lauran Hibberd releases debut album ‘Garageband Superstar’, out August 19th via Virgin Music. “‘Garageband Superstar’ is dad rock for your daughters”, Hibberd reveals. “If you don’t get the feeling of relief similar to the one of undoing your jeans button after a big meal, I’d feel crushed. It’s a nod to all of my favourite 90’s sub genres, and the soundtrack to your next favourite trash TV show that no one else gets but you. There’s tracks about breaking your leg, falling off rollercoasters, taking off your pants, competing with Red Dead Redemption, boys in the supermarket, writing essays on Facebook walls, people who take leg days seriously, and the enigma of being a superstar. All pretty relatable stuff right? Beyond staining my pants excited to have Brendan B. Brown of Wheatus, DJ Lethal of Limp Bizkit and Viji featuring on this record. Music is more fun with friends. Hope you like it. Don’t tell me if you don’t. I’m insecure”.
Bangkok, TH | Vinyl spins, cocktails pour at audiophile bar in Sukhumvit 36: Down a turn off Soi Sukhumvit 36 lies a new gem for music fans and audio nerds where everything from indie tunes and punk jams blare from a record player. In a handful of weeks, listening bar Freaking Out the Neighborhood has become a well-liked destination for its easy-going vibe, cool tunes, and simple cocktails. Behind the bar are no strangers to the nightlife scene: Kiratra “Ki” Promsaka of concert promoter Have You Heard?, her brother Jitti “Best” Promsaka, and James Gilbody, aka Phatfunk’s DJ Delorean. The bar’s name comes from a song by Canadian musician Mac DeMarco, who Have You Heard? brought to perform in 2018. For drinks, the bar keeps it nice and easy with classics like Americano (Campari, sweet vermouth, and soda for THB300), G&T drink Freaking Hendricks (Hendricks, cucumber, Fever Tree tonic water for THB340), and Monkey Splash (Monkey Shoulder, soda and orange garnish for THB240).
4K Blu-rays just hit their highest sales ever — in the middle of the streaming golden age: 4K Blu-rays hit their highest sales numbers ever, but it’s not all good news. It’s taken a while to get here, but 4K Blu-rays have just had their best sales quarter of all-time in the first half of 2022. Of total media sales that includes all forms of physical media — DVDs, Blu-rays and 4K Blu-rays — the latter sold about 200,000,000 discs, around 11.6% of the total sales in the last few months. Likely that’s had a lot to do with some of the fantastic new 4K Blu-rays that have become available in that time — Dune and The Batman chief among them — and the proliferation of 4K Blu-ray players that come inside the Xbox Series X. Unfortunately, however, things still aren’t looking good for the future of physical media. According to VideoScan / MediaPlayNews and tabularized by Yoeri Geutskens via FlatPanelsHD, disc video sales have continued to decline year-over-year. In 2021 the total sales was somewhere around the $1.97 billion mark and, according to the numbers obtained by FlatPanelsHD, that number has decreased 19% year-over-year.
