Rebirth of vinyl in Japan propelled by diversification of music platforms: Japan’s electronics and entertainment giant Sony is making a move to ride this latest wave in the music industry, with Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) Inc. recently announcing it will resume pressing vinyl at Sony DADC Japan Inc., its disc-manufacturing subsidiary in Shizuoka Prefecture, southwest of Tokyo, after a 30-year hiatus. Whether because of their grainy, warmer sound or simply because vinyl makes a fashion statement, LPs and EPs are being snapped up by people but not like the old days, surely. It’s not just older fans who grew up with records that are returning to the format, but younger customers who never had the experience of putting an album on a turntable.
Party Like a Rock Star in Music Record Shop’s New Green Room and Event Space: Music Record Shop at .Zack has expanded to the space next door to provide a luxury suite, used as a spot for touring bands to host their meet-and-greets, as well as a green room. The space is also available to rent out, so now — for a price! — you and your friends can party like rock stars too. The new suite, going simply by the name “303,” is 1,500 square feet and can accommodate up to 50 people. It can host acoustic musical performances and DJ spins as well. “Luxury” is an appropriate way to describe it. The suite is furnished with lavish couches and decor and has multiple TVs and a high fidelity audio system.
1987 Week: Walking into Tower Records at age 10 kickstarted a lifelong obsession: So there I am, rendered powerless at the base of Tower Records’ proverbial mountain, a spiritual retreat promising copious genre, sub-genre, and pseudo-genre — a place where Top 40 commingles with eyebrow-raising oddities. I am standing for the first time in a music megastore, shook with the realization that my small-town obsession has worldly potential. In late 1987, Tower’s Boston location was brand-spanking new: 39,000 square-feet of retail space spread over three floors of a seven-story building designed by Frank Gehry. It was the largest physical location in the company’s evolving chain of stores, and served as anchor for the Newbury Street retail district, then a glorious mash-up of high end and bohemian.
Reconstruction of iconic Sam the Record Man signs underway: The famous Sam the Record Man signs, which were part of the landmark downtown Toronto record store for decades, are being refurbished and reconstructed. The signs will soon have a new home overlooking Yonge and Dundas Square. The original sign, which was located on the northern side of the Yonge Street store was built in 1969 and a second sign was added to the storefront in 1987. Restoration began in June and construction of the signs will begin at the new home, 277 Victoria St. The project is expected to take approximately three months to complete, explains a release.
Can hi-res music hit the right note? Some kinds of music are really not well served by the MP3 system of encoding, which is designed to preserve the elements that the human ear can hear and discard the rest. Classical music aficionados, for instance, have never been keen on that kind of sonic compression. But Qobuz, along with rivals Tidal and Deezer Elite, offers streaming of “lossless audio” that throws nothing away. The highest quality MP3 has a bit-rate of 320kbps, while a hi-res file can go as high as 9,216kbps. Music CDs are transferred at 1,411kbps. “The artists want to have their music played as it was recorded. More and more albums are in hi-resolution,” says Mr Ouzeri.
