St. Louis, MO | Jean Haffner’s Record Exchange Is a Haven for St. Louis Audiophiles: In a building of a former library, bins of records, shelves of CDs and boxes of products tower almost as high as the ceiling. Only the sound of customers peeling through plastic-covered records can be heard over classic rock playing over a loudspeaker. This is the Record Exchange (5320 Hampton Avenue, 314-832-2249), where owner Jean Haffner, 76, has built a literal library of records and music paraphernalia in the former Buder Branch of St. Louis Public Library in St. Louis Hills. It’s the largest record store in St. Louis (and possibly the country, Haffner claims). Haffner’s overwhelming inventory of vinyl records, cassettes, laserdiscs, 45s, VHS tapes, CDs and more, is the combined behemoth of nine record stores and two antique shops. He opened the first record shop in 1976 but closed all but one of the 11 stores about 15 years ago after he “got tired of traveling.”
Asheville, NC | Local record-shop entrepreneurs discuss the wild world of vinyl: Like a good Shakespearean drama, vinyl records have gone from royalty to pariah and back to the throne over the past half-century. According to the Record Industry Association of America, vinyl sales have grown for 15 consecutive years, with 2021 revenues increasing by 61% to $1 billion. In a music-rich city like Asheville, it’s only fitting that multiple businesses specializing in wax have become fixtures around town. Since 2004, Harvest Records in West Asheville has set the standard for record stores, carrying vinyl from its inception, despite CDs initially carrying the bulk of its sales. “I’m honestly not sure how much thoughtful intention was put into it,” says co-owner Mark Capon, who notes that he and co-owner Matt Schnable simply followed their instincts and interest. “We’ve always just passively fostered it, I suppose. We never sat in an office and thought, ‘How can we create vinyl addicts?’ We just kept it as available, interesting and affordable as we could.”
New vinyl pressing plant to open in California: The new plant will be equipped with eight presses from Nashville’s Record Pressing Machines. A new vinyl pressing plant is set to open in southern California. Californian reissue label Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab (MoFi), which is owned by online audio accessories retailer Music Direct, is behind the venture, as Billboard reports. The plant, which has designs on becoming America’s “premier vinyl production facility,” will install eight presses from Nashville’s Record Pressing Machines and will initially aim to press two million records drawing on “quality—not quantity.” The new plant is a commercial team-up between MoFi, Music Direct’s Jim Davis, and vinyl engineers Rick and Edward Hashimoto. “The biggest opportunity is the increased capacity for our related record label, Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab,” Davis told Billboard. “It’s been frustrating watching demand far outpace our ability to deliver records to our customers. The expanded capacity will enable us to issue records that aren’t just the standard classic rock and jazz…”
TikTok releases first album of viral hits: Some of the biggest viral hits on TikTok have been given the full orchestral treatment and will get a traditional release on CD and vinyl this summer, the platform announced Friday. The tie-up with Warner Classics is the first time TikTok has ventured into the traditional music market and will see the 18 songs released on streaming platforms as well as in record stores. Anyone who has spent any significant time on the video streaming platform will recognise songs such as “No Roots” by Alice Merton which has been used on 1.3 million videos. Or pleasant piano ditty “Pieces” by Danilo Stankovic, used by some 3.4 million TikTokkers. All have been given a full work-over by Germany’s Babelsberg Film Orchestra. “Listening to No Roots in a new musical context is inspiring,” Merton said in a statement. “I’m excited about the project and I’m looking forward to seeing how it comes to life.”
Bradford, CA | Spin the black circle: Village Media writer takes a look at record collecting and a nearly 25-year journey to purchase one album. November 24, 1998 was a Tuesday. Like many Tuesdays as a teenager and throughout my 20s, I’m in line at a check-out with music in my hand. On this day: a CD copy of Pearl Jam’s “Live on Two Legs.” As I get to the counter of the HMV at Upper Canada Mall, I notice the same album I’m about to buy, but not on compact disc. There, perched above the cabinets behind the cash registers, is a vinyl copy. “Is that for sale?” I ask. It’s already been sold, I’m told. “But we can do a special order for you.” My eyes light up. I purchase the CD copy (to listen to in my Discman as much as I possibly could in the next few weeks) and gave my name and phone number to the clerk. I’d get a phone call as soon as it’s in. That HMV moved to two different locations during its remaining 15-or-so years at Upper Canada Mall. The special order never arrived.
A brief history of Audio-Technica’s 60 years: Born of a mission to bring the hi-fi to the home. Preparing company histories can be a fascinating endeavour: this writer enjoys the rabbit holes down which one can scurry, finding a book or an article lost in time or on the web that will add a small detail missing from official histories, or a revealing quote from back in the day that unlocks what a company was really trying to achieve. A fair part of this Audio-Technica history is based on Japanese-language sources, which was fun, and we should perhaps start by saying that any errors here are entirely our own, or those of Google Translate. We anticipated a history of cartridges, headphones and pro audio gear. But it was soon clear that what has driven the development of that equipment is Audio-Technica’s ongoing innovation in technologies.
Vinyl Prices Might Seem High Today, But They Were Worse in 1978: As far as albums go, 1978 was one for the record books. The Saturday Night Fever and Grease soundtracks topped the Billboard 200 album chart for a combined 36 weeks. Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours, released in 1977, was the No. 1 album in the U.S. the first two weeks of the year. Billy Joel’s 52nd Street topped the chart for the final seven weeks of the year. The Rolling Stone’s Some Girls and Boston’s Don’t Look Back each topped the chart for two weeks. It was also a notable year for another reason: In 1978, vinyl records were more expensive than any other time since the RIAA began tracking sales in 1973. That year, the average retail sale price of a vinyl EP/LP was $7.32 – equal to $30.18 in today’s dollars when adjusted for inflation. That was the second-highest vinyl sales year in U.S. history at 341.3 million units, behind 1977’s tally of 344 million. For comparison, the average average EP/LP sale price in 2021 was $25.19. The bad news for vinyl lovers is the 1978 record could soon fall.
