Author Archives: TVD HQ

Minneapolis, MN | Electric Fetus owners say Franklin Avenue redesign will hurt business: For more than 55 years, Electric Fetus has stood as a Twin Cities record store landmark along Franklin Avenue in Minneapolis. “We draw people from not only just the Twin City community, but from around the world,” Aaron Meyerring, co-owner of Electric Fetus, said. Owners Aaron Meyerring and Stephanie Meyerring said new plans to redesign Franklin Avenue would disrupt their years of success. “This design would be detrimental, not only to our business, but I just think our surrounding community and neighborhood,” Stephanie Meyerring said. Hennepin County’s plans include a reduction to three lanes and additional sidewalks and bike lanes. The county’s goal is to improve safety, accessibility and comfort along the roadway.

Cheshire, UK | Record shop owner says Covid helped realise dream: The owner of an independent record shop in Cheshire said the pandemic encouraged him to realise his dream of selling vinyl. Steve Cook quit his job as an internal auditor in 2022 to focus full-time on Applestump Records in Nantwich – named after the first record shop he went to as a boy. The move into retail began during lockdown when he and his wife Danielle could no longer enjoy their hobby of touring cities in the UK to buy records. “So we decided to try and make the record shop come to us,” said Mr Cook. They initially built a website and bought around 80 records to sell, which customers would collect from the end of their driveway or Mr Cook would deliver after work. He said it was very slow to start, but the “stroke of luck” came after being invited to be part of a pop-up market in a local café, which demonstrated the appetite for a record shop.

Cambridge, MA | Get ready for a Record Store Day walk and show from Cambridge Day and Hump Day News: Walk the walk. Punk the rock. That’s my current motto because on April 12 we’re celebrating Record Store Day with local artists, music merchants, and, hopefully, you! Here are the basics of this two-part throwdown. First, walk the walk. We’ve mapped some of our wonderful local record stores for a patent-pending Cambridge Day Record Store Walk. Construct your own route and see how many you can hit on Record Store Day. You may recall a similar call to action with last year’s “Totally Excellent Mid-January Cambridge Day-Approved Record Store Walk & You Better Dress Warm” article. Similar, except with better weather, on April 12 you can pick up specially marked copies of Cambridge Day’s print edition, The Week, in participating stores (Planet Records, vinyl index. and Big Dig Records).

Fort Myers, FL | Local record store and venue, Beach Records, closing after 6 years: Beach Records, a record store doubling as a music venue, is closing down after hundreds of shows and many more records sold. Owner Martin “Marty” Bourgeois is going on sabbatical after six years of serving the community with shows and records, reciprocating his love for live music and giving the scene a place to play and buy records. The shop has a vintage feel. Rows of used and new vinyl are packed in wooden boxes labeled in marker over recycled vinyl. Entering the store, you’ll feel like you’re in a collector’s garage, immersed in decades of records spanning many genres. It was a place for all music fans. Bourgeois is seeing this as more of a sabbatical than a closure. However, this location, which has been active since 2019, will close for good.

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South Devon, UK | Record store gets into the 21st-century groove with Start Up Loans: A husband-and-wife team are bringing a South Devon record store into the 21st century with the help of a Start Up Loan. The £5,000 loan, secured with the assistance of not-for-profit lender GC Business Finance, was used to update the shop’s branding, website and online sales provision. Lifelong vinyl fans Roger and Marsha Cox took over Phoenix Sounds in Newton Abbot in 2022 upon the retirement of its previous owner. “We were regular customers, and one day, sales assistant Jackie asked us, half-joking, ‘Would you like to buy the shop?’” recalls Roger, a fan of 80s music including Simple Minds and Depeche Mode. “We replied: yes, please! It was a huge step—we had to remortgage the house. At the time, I was working 80-hour weeks as an area manager for a cleaning company. In contrast, this isn’t work—we both love music. It was a no-brainer.”

Austin, TX | Last day parties at Waterloo Records mark final bow at North Lamar location: The decades-old record store is starting its farewell residency tour March 11 before it relocates to a spot down the road on North Lamar. Waterloo Records is hosting its Last Day Parties March 11 through March 14, featuring a variety of artist concerts throughout the week. Musical acts include Hope Tala, Vanessa Zamora, Jo Hill,Charley Crockett and more. The events are free and open to all ages, with most performances open to the public without badges, wristbands and RSVPs required. Capacity limits may apply. A number of sponsors and partners, including White Claw, Gold Rush Vinyl, Tequila 512, Rambler Water and more will be giving out a limited number of samples, vinyls and other products throughout the week-long celebration.

Milwaukee, WI | Vintage shop On and On Milwaukee rounds out flourishing block; offers fun promo: Love local art, vinyl records, vintage items and clothing? Put On & On Milwaukee on your swing-by list. The new biz also partnered with 10 vintage shops for “March Market Meltdown.” Until recently, Milwaukee and Scranton, Penn. had very little overlap. But now we have a vintage and handmade shop in Walker’s Point that’s the sister store to a similar spot in Scranton. (Yeah, yeah there will be more about “The Office.” Keep reading.) In October, On and On Milwaukee opened at 1031 S. 5th St. inside a former auto body shop. The marketplace features 40 local artists and vendors selling art, jewelry, vintage clothing and household items, vinyl records in an area of the shop called “Record Town” and more. “It’s a little bit of everything,” says co-owner Meegan Possemato.

Dallas, TX | Garland Welcomes 2 New Record Stores: The Dallas suburb is a record haven, with new locations from Josey and Dead Wax. On Saturday, May 17, the Texas Music Office will hold a ceremony in downtown Garland to designate the Dallas suburb as a “music-friendly city.” The ceremony comes amid a weekend celebration for Willie Nelson’s seminal Red Headed Stranger album, released and recorded 50 years ago in Garland. The city has done much in recent years to cultivate and grow its community, culminating in a massive revamp of its downtown square in 2023. The surrounding area may be starting to take notice. This month will mark the second local record store to open a new location in Garland. In November, North Texas music behemoth Josey Records opened its third location on Northwest Highway. The grand opening was on Saturday, Nov. 9, preceded by two days of soft launch celebration.

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Taunton, UK | Taunton record shop closes its doors as works begin: A record selling store in Taunton has temporarily closed its doors after serving its final customers last Saturday (March 8). Moore’s Music, located on Station Road, in Taunton, will close its doors to customers as the business gets a sort out. The owner has confirmed that the store will reopen ‘sometime in May.’ Known as one of the few places in Taunton where you can get vinyls, Moore’s Music’s owner was reportedly debating closing the business for good a number of times in the past months. The business had a huge clearance sale at the weekend, offering customers 50% off all vinyls and up to 30% off other items, such as hi-fi and CD players, films, and more. A sign has also been put in the shop’s window to confirm it will be closed for a few months.

San Antonio, TX | Record shop brings sweet sounds into San Antonio bar space: Visitors to the Southtown bar Gimme Gimme can now drift over to an adjacent space where they can dig for vintage vinyl records to their heart’s content. The owners of Gimme Gimme have transformed their next door wine bar concept, A Perfect Day, into a second location for Friends of Sound, a store that sells, buys and trades used records. Friends of Sound founder David Haffner hosted a grand opening party on March 7, including DJs spinning records all day and night. Bar co-owner Aaron Pena recalls having coffee one day last year on Fredericksburg Road near where the team at Friends of Sound was busy relocating their neighborhood shop. “I’ve known Friends of Sound since The Squeezebox days,” says Pena, referring to the bar and live music space he owned on North St. Mary’s Street for seven years until he closed it in 2024. “I’ve had a rapport with them.”

Manchester, UK | New music venue and events space to open in Manchester’s northern quarter, renae: renae is set to feature a record store, dancefloor, and more across multiple floors. A brand new music venue, record store, and events space is set to open in Manchester’s Northern Quarter at the end of the month. renae will open for the first time on Friday, March 28, featuring a dedicated dancefloor, a bar area, space to throw live music events, co-working desks, and a record and book store. …Launched by local DJs and hospitality workers Brad Parkins and Harris Mouridis (AKA Mouridis), renae draws from the pair’s expertise in nightlife, bringing together their shared passion for music. Speaking to DJ Mag, Mouridis explained that renae will operate as a “hub for people who are into music and decent hospitality, so you can come and listen to great tracks on the ground floor, which will be very informal and open to everyone.”

Isle of Man, UK | Much-loved Isle of Man record shop for sale as owners say it’s ‘time for a change.’ ‘The demands of retail and social media have taken a toll on my personal wellbeing.’ A much-loved Isle of Man music shop, Sound Records, has been put up for sale, offering a unique opportunity for music enthusiasts to take over the established business. The independent record store, located on Wellington Street in Douglas, is run by passionate record lovers Ed Oldham and Jack Doyle. Since opening, Sound Records has built a strong reputation for its extensive vinyl collection, vintage clothing, record players, and guitar equipment. It’s had a number of locations in Douglas, most recently moving to their current store on Wellington Street in October 2021. However, the owners have now announced they are ready to move on to their next challenge. In a heartfelt social media post on Sunday evening, Jack shared the news with the shop’s loyal customers.

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UK | Putting finishing touches to Record Store Day plans: I finished placing our orders for Record Store Day on Wednesday, which is always a relief. The earliest order had to be in last week but quite a few had a deadline for the middle of next week. My last two decisions were whether to stock an EP by Wallows, who are a band we are occasionally asked about but whose album we didn’t stock last year, and whether to take even more Charli XCX than I originally intended given her success at the Brits. In the end I hedged my bets on Wallows and took a couple and more obviously increased what was already a large order for the two Charli XCX releases. There had already been some tricky decisions with two female singers who are big sellers for us in Gracie Abrams and Laufey both having live albums released for Record Store Day. The young girls who make up most of our sales are certainly fans but not collectors the way fans of some of the other older artists are and may well decide they don’t need a live album.

Barrie, ON | Music lovers ‘devastated’ by impending closure of local Sunrise Records: ‘It’s a spot my dad and I regularly come to, so it’s kind of a closed opportunity for us and other record buyers, too,’ says record collector. A popular destination for local music lovers is closing its doors after more than two decades. Sunrise Records, located inside Bayfield Mall in Barrie’s north end, is scheduled to pull the metal security gate closed for good at 5 p.m. on Sunday, March 16, store manager Earl Young told BarrieToday. The store, which sells a wide variety of vinyl records, games and other pop-culture paraphernalia, was previously a Sam the Record Man before being taken over by Sunrise Records, noted Young. While the outside of the store boasted a 50 per cent off sale on apparel today, Young said there weren’t really any big sales on vinyl. “Everyone wants everything to be on sale now that we are closing … if the whole company was closing that would be different, but it’s just our location,” he said, noting Sunrise Records has more than 80 stores across Canada.

Glasgow, UK | Glasgow gets new independent record store as Second Line opens in the west end: Second Line Records has opened on Hyndland Road offering an independent record shop with an extensive collection of music genres such as hip-hop, soul and blues. Glasgow’s music fans can now enjoy a new independent record store after the city’s latest spot opened in the west end. Second Line Records has just opened on Hyndland Road, offering an extensive collection of music genres. While specialising in jazz, the shop boasts an eclectic mix of genres, from hip-hop to soul and blues. The new store, which opened in February, has a sleek wooden interior and features an in-store dedicated listening lounge with cosy seats and listening posts where you can sit and enjoy the rare and high-end re-issues of classics and live recordings available in store. The team behind the shop say the name of the store is a nod to New Orleans jazz parades, with the parade leader and band named the ‘first line’, while the ‘second line’ were the strutting revellers who would fall in behind to dance and listen to the music.

San Antonio, TX | Friends of Sound opens cool, new location in Southtown neighborhood: The record shop is replacing a short-lived wine bar. Big things have been happening for Friends of Sound, the long-running record shop that’s served San Antonio for nearly a decade. In January, the Beacon Hill vinyl seller moved a few blocks away from its home on Fredericksburg Road, landing at a new space between NoFi Slow Bar and The Wicked Wich. This month, Friends of Sound also expanded with a new location in Southtown. If you ever visited wine bar A Perfect Day, you’ve already been inside of the new Friends of Sound. The difference is, instead of dining tables and wine bottles on display, you’ll now find a curated collection of records spanning every genre from funk to punk. On Wednesday afternoon, I stopped by the reimagined space, which remains connected to Bar Gimme Gimme with its own entrance on South St. Mary’s, like the previous neighboring concept.

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UK | HMV puts UK expansion on hold because of budget tax rises: Retailer had hoped to open more stores in Britain in coming year but will do so in Ireland and Belgium instead: HMV has put its UK expansion on hold and is to open stores in Ireland and Belgium instead, because of rising wage costs announced in last autumn’s budget that begin next month. Phil Halliday, the managing director of the entertainment retailer, said it had hoped to open up to 10 more stores in the UK in the coming year but had put that plan on hold as it was “peddling pretty hard” to maintain profits despite strong sales growth. Sales rose 6.5% to £189.6m in the year to 30 May 2024, as the group reopened its Oxford Street store in London and grew online sales amid a resurgence in traditional formats including vinyl and CDs, but pre-tax profit fell more than 6% to £4.9m amid rising costs led by higher wages, according to accounts filed at Companies House this week.

UK | The Vinyl Revival: Why John Lewis and WHSmith Are Selling Records Again. The UK music industry has recently witnessed an unexpected but favorable trend – a 20-year high in physical album sales. In digital streaming societies, traditional formats such as vinyl, CDs, and even cassettes are making a comeback. Major retailers such as John Lewis and WHSmith have responded by restoring the sale of vinyl records after being off the shelves for decades. In 2024, the UK saw a 1.4% growth in the sales of physical albums and this resulted in 17.4 million units being sold, the first increase in sales since 1994 (Official Charts Company, 2024). This growth was mainly due to a 9.1% rise in sales of vinyl which had been reignited and reached a 30-year high of 6.7 million units. Remarkably, only three out of the top 10 best-selling vinyl albums were old records, which means that new artists are equally as relevant to this trend as old-school artists (Official Charts Company, 2024).

Chicago, IL | Flipside Records Remembered: Flip Side owners Carl and Larry Rosenbaum had three choices they were considering at the beginning of their careers. “Hot dog stand, a dry cleaner, or a record store,” Larry confirms. “And fortunately, we chose record store.” That record store became an empire in Chicago (1970s—1990s), a string of stores throughout Chicagoland, soon to be accompanied by a concert promotion arm, Celebration/Flip Side. The two brothers, who had considered opening a dry cleaner, became major players in the rock and roll business. But it didn’t come without defeating some scary crosswinds. “Yeah, the mob came after us,” Larry says. “When you’re approached by a couple of thugs that tell you that they’re going to be partners in your concert business, and you have meetings after that. That indeed was terrifying.”

Reykjavík, IS | Watch Lúpína perform live in session for Best Fit in Smekkleysa records in Reykjavík: Ahead of her US shows this month at SXSW and New Colossus, we’re dropping a session filmed at the Sugarcubes-founded record store Smekkleysa during Iceland Airwaves last year with rising uber-talented Nína Solveig Andersen – better known as lúpina. Under the name Luípina, Oslo-based Andersen kicked off her solo career in 2022 after releasing two records with experimental folk trio Dymbrá. The 21-year-old half-Norwegian, half-Icelandic songwriter and producer wrote most of her 2023 debut album ringluð as part of a school project and followed up with her second album marglytta back in the autumn last year. The record blends complex layers of synths, soundscapes and captivating lyrics, fusing the electronic with a pop sensibility.

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Bridgeport, CT | The Emporium, Bridgeport record shop to close its doors this month: A Bridgeport store specializing in vinyl records and antique books and ephemera will be closing down at the end of this month, according to its owner, Mike Roer. The Emporium’s last day is March 31, Roer confirmed to Connecticut Insider. “The traffic really never recovered after COVID,” Roer said, adding that he noticed car and foot traffic dwindle near the shop post-pandemic. The Fairfield Avenue shop boasts thousands of vinyl records that range from house music to classic rock. Shelves of the store also have antiquarian books and other historical items for sale. Roer said that some of the books and “historical items and historical ephemera” will be donated to Bridgeport’s library.

Lynchburg, VA | RiverView Vinyl moves to 5th street: A Lynchburg record store has moved locations with big plans in the works. RiverView Vinyl is now open in the former Easy Speak Dance Hall space on Fifth street. Co-Owner Steven Ramsey said they are excited to have more room to expand and host events. “The bar, being able to run larger shows at that point, obviously not too big, but music is a big part of what we do here and live music at that point is also very important,” Ramsey said.

Upper Darby, PA | This Upper Darby Record Collector Has a Store, But You Shouldn’t Stay Too Long: The owner of R&B Records in Upper Darby has an interesting customer approach: if you must come to his store, don’t stay long and know what you want, writes Beccah Hendrickson at 6abc. Val Shively prefers doing business by mail. “This is a landfill, not a record shop,” he said. The store, open since 1990, gives him somewhere to keep his extensive collection. “I sell records. I sell enough to still be here. But I love to buy, that’s my game. That’s me at my best,” Shively said. The older and more obscure, the better. He’s been collecting records since the 1950s. “I heard this record ‘Don’t Be Cruel’ by Elvis Presley when I was 12 years old, and I went nuts. I don’t know what it was. It just hypnotized me or mesmerized me or something,” he said. It’s possible he has the largest record collection in the world, numbering in the millions.

Memphis, TN | Record company opening warehouse in Memphis: Light in the Attic Records announced plans to open a warehouse in Memphis. Light in the Attic was established in Seattle in 2002. They largely produce re-issues of classic albums on vinyl. The company is seeking to hire employees in Memphis. They will join Memphis Record Pressing in the Bluff City, which already produces about 100,000 records each day.

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