Mike Merg
As independent record stores battle for survival, their best weapons are forged of vinyl.
“Vinyl has saved us,” says Steve Manley, owner of B-Side Records on State Street. “The resurgence of vinyl, especially among young people, has really saved record stores from certain death,” he says.
That’s the reason Manley and other owners of independent stores celebrate Record Store Day, an unofficial international holiday held every year on the third Saturday in April (April 18 this year) to celebrate purveyors of vinyl.
On Record Store Day, many bands offer exclusive releases fans can only acquire at packed independent record stores that day. This year, artists such as Vampire Weekend, Tegan and Sara, Big Data, the Flaming Lips and Robert Plant are releasing albums. Metallica will release a special-edition cassette of No Life ’til Leather, the demo tape of songs that eventually became their first album, Kill ‘Em All.
Manley says Record Store Day is the biggest sale day of the year. “I was overwhelmed the first year, and it’s grown every year,” he says. “We’re packed with people all day long.”
In a special promotion that had more than 400 customers lined up (some of them before midnight) before last year’s Record Store Day, Ron Roloff of Strictly Discs is once again raffling off high-end turntables to customers. Roloff solicited donations from local businesses to support the marketing effort.
And the event has grown so big that MadCity Music Exchange has expanded the event into a two-venue affair, teaming up with its neighbor Bandung to host live music. Owner Dave Zero says a line stretches all the way through the parking lot into the street. This year, both Triple M and WORT will have live broadcasts from the store.
“We’ll have giveaways, prizes and special discounts throughout the store,” says Zero, “and a bunch of clerks who look they’ve been stuck in the high beams of an oncoming car by the time noon rolls around. It’s crazy busy.”
Even with the proliferation of free streaming services like Spotify and Pandora, vinyl sales in the United States were 9.2 million in 2014, the most since tracking began in 1991.
So why has a new generation embraced buying music in the same form that their parents did? “I think it’s that people want to connect more intimately with their music,” says Manley. “It’s a richer and deeper experience than just having a file on.”
Manley has owned B-Side for less than 10 years, but began working there as an eager kid 31 years ago, when owning a record store was his dream career. Now he has firsthand knowledge of how music stores have coped in the digital age. When vinyl sales started to take off, he asked himself if they’d hold on. He hasn’t seen it slow down yet.
Zero, who has owned MadCity since 2007 and worked there for “longer than he’d like to admit,” says vinyl has always been a big part of MadCity’s sales. “Vinyl never disappeared. Demand just went down,” Zero says. “Record labels told everyone that vinyl was going to go away, so everyone unfortunately believed them, and it didn’t. There were always people listening to it. It’s just the big ebb and flow of the record industry.”
Gary Feest of Sugar Shack Records on Atwood Avenue agrees that vinyl is not just a flash in the pan. He should know: He’s owned Sugar Shack for almost 34 years.
Surrounded by teetering stacks of CDs and boxes overflowing with records, Feest says, “People are discovering the better sound. A lot of people also like the graphics and artwork, and bands are releasing more of their albums on vinyl.”
Although it is experiencing an upswing, vinyl still represents a small fraction of overall music sales. That’s a reason for skepticism on the part of Eric Teisberg, owner of Resale Records, located in a tiny metal warehouse on Commercial Ave. “It’s overstated. I think last year the overall record sales were somewhere around four and a half million,” he says. “Back in the old days, a Peter Frampton LP, even it was a follow-up, would sell four million all by itself. Rumours by Fleetwood Mac sold 25 million copies, and Thriller sold eventually 100 million copies.”
Teisberg has a point. In 2014, absolute record sales in the United States were just six million, adding up to only 2% of all album sales. Still, there’s no denying that a trend is under way — one that benefits the independent shops. Between 2012 and 2014, vinyl sales increased by 32%, and independent record stores like B-Side, MadCity Music, Ear Wax and Strictly Discs were responsible for 65% of vinyl sales.
Despite that, Rob Cleveland of Ear Wax Records remains doubtful. “I don’t know. I think there are enough record collectors who are dedicated enough that they would ride out any low point, but I could easily see that on this mass scale that it would slow down or trickle off.”
Still, store owners and their customers agree that record stores have more value than simply being a place to get your tunes.
Max Fisher, a frequent customer at Strictly Discs and MadCity Music, says that in an age when he can find anything he needs online, his record store addiction is actually impractical. But he won’t ever give it up.
“The record store is just a physical space to indulge a hobby, and to feel like part of a community of others that share the same interest.”
Andrew Hinkens, a regular at Strictly Discs, says, “Record stores are like people, diverse and storied, because they’re made up of people. And I think they’re important because no blog or streaming service or database will ever be able to give recommendations as well as someone who knows you or your tastes.”
“It’s a vital element to any strong community,” says Roloff. “There’s such a wide range of music genres and styles of music. It’s very pervasive. That’s why it’s intertwined in the community. It’s part of our lore, part of our history. Where there’s people, there’s going to be music.”
