Rochester, IN | BIZ BUZZ: Record Farm adding second location in Rochester. Second store will be next to The Times Theater: A record store housed next to a historic theater in Logansport will have a similar neighbor in Rochester when it opens its second location. The Record Farm, next to the State Theatre in downtown Logansport, is opening a new store at 618 Main St. in downtown Rochester next to The Times Theater. “It’s a mirror image of what we’re doing in Logansport,” said Matt Swisher, who co-owns The Record Farm with Adam Wilson. Just like with The State, The Record Farm’s Rochester location will serve as The Times’ box office. Tickets for the The State Theatre’s events will be for sale at the Rochester record store as well.
Norman, OK | Guestroom Records to celebrate 15 years: “…We are small and flexible. We don’t have a corporate ethos, so there aren’t a lot of hurdles to making a change in our stores,” Muir said. “It’s, ‘Do you wanna do this?’ ‘Yes, let’s do it.’” There’s also the vinyl resurgence, which Guestroom caught onto ahead of the curve. Billboard reported that 2017 marked vinyl sales’ 12th straight year of growth, comprising 14 percent of all physical album sales that year. While Guestroom does carry CDs, its inventory has shifted heavily in favor of vinyl records since opening, and not just the punk and indie variety that spurred the store’s creation…“When major labels figured out what independent labels were doing, more pop albums came out on vinyl all of a sudden, and there was nowhere else for people to buy them. We were the place to go if you wanted to buy a punk record; we’re now the place to go if you want to buy any record.”
Melbourne, AU | Win big at the Australian Record Fair: Part of the 2018 Melbourne International Hi-Fi Show that takes place across three great days in October, the Australian Record Fair is the only 3-day event of its type in the country. This year promises to be the fair to top all other records fairs with seller’s tables sold out in a staggering six days. If the rare and exotic vinyl, not to mention the tasty bargains are not enough, the show’s organisers and sponsors are giving you even more reasons to come along and win big. Just spend more than $50 with any vendor, and you’ll get a ticket into the daily raffle drawn in the Record Fair at the end of each day. Each day a fantastic Music Hall MMF 1.5 turntable (valued at $599 RRP each) will be up for grabs thanks to Convoy.
Philippines | The state of OPM in vinyl: We all know that vinyl records are back with a vengeance. Now, how is the Original Pilipino Music (OPM) market coping? We were able to speak to some re-sellers of OPM albums and unanimously, the most sought records from local artists are the Juan dela Cruz Band, the Dawn, and Identity Crisis in that order. Then there are a host of others: Maria Cafra, Judas, APO Hiking Society, and the Gapo compilation are also in demand. They sell for a lot of money depending on their condition. In fact, some command outrageous prices that are more than enough to make a down payment on a car. The cheapest price you will find for old records pressed in the 1970s or 1980s is P1,000. They mostly sell for a lot of money. When compact discs became all the rage in the 1990s, local record companies slowly stopped pressing music on vinyl. That is until the new millennium when indie and underground bands began producing their own material.
Sufjan Stevens to reissue ‘Songs For Christmas’ on vinyl for first time: All of the collection’s 42 tracks will be pressed in time for the holidays Sufjan Stevens has announced plans to reissue his 2006 ‘Songs for Christmas’ collection on Vinyl for the first time. The artist’s longtime record label Asthmatic Kitty revealed the plans to put out the box set on November 9th and the collection will feature all 42 songs of the original release. The tracks will be spread out over five EPs. The label have also detailed that the original package design will be included with the collection, which includes drawings created by Stevens, a painted family portrait, chord charts and lyric sheets for the tracks. Each year between 2001 and 2010, Stevens recorded Christmas tracks to give as gifts to his friends and family. ‘Songs For Christmas’ is comprised of the first five year’s worth of those tracks and was originally released in 2006.
