[Vintage-Audio] Record Store Day

Tue Apr 14 12:36:05 EDT 2009

Bob,

Thank you very much for your consideration -

Great piece to read!

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Robert Nickels" <ranickel at comcast.net>
To: "Vintage home and professional audio equipment from 1975 back" 
<vintage-audio at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Monday, April 13, 2009 4:36 PM
Subject: [Vintage-Audio] Record Store Day

>I often read comments to the effect that most of the stuff I enjoy
> playing with - from tube-type hi-fi gear to vintage ham radio
> boatanchors will soon be worthless and of no interest to anyone. These
> folks seem convinced that for some reason, contrary to every other
> "ancient technology", *we* are the last generation to understand and
> appreciate it. That's why I thought this article would be of interest -
> it's not old fart music on vinyl they're celebrating, but brand new
> material from todays indie artists and producers. Guess we better hang
> on to our turntables!
>
> Since I figured Duane will have difficulty getting this off the website,
> I'll post the text below. From yesterday's Chicago Tribune.
>
> 73 Bob W9RAN
>
>
>    Record Store Day celebrates vinyl and its fans
>
> By Greg Kot, Tribune critic
>
>
> But when the second annual Record Store Day arrives Saturday, artists
> and labels will be out in force: More than 1,000 stores
> worldwide—including 25 in Chicago and its suburbs—are expected to
> participate. They will offer in-store events or performances by dozens
> of artists, and more than 100 unique pieces of product, including rare
> singles and albums by everyone from Tom Waits to My Morning Jacket.
>
> Though the number of independent "mom 'n' pop" record stores has shrunk
> drastically in recent years, from more than 7,000 at the outset of the
> '90s to fewer than 2,000 today, those that remain are hanging tough, and
> some are thriving despite a sluggish economy. A resurgence in interest
> in vinyl records (with sales climbing 89 percent last year to 1.8
> million) has helped these independent operators stay in business, and so
> has a renewed interest in artwork and physical artifacts.
>
> "The reality is we were over-retailed," says Michael Kurtz, president of
> Record Store Day and the marketing company Music Monitor Network. "We
> had about four times as many stores as the market could bear. Combine
> that with the mass merchants online, and a lot of people who are not
> committed to this are gone. But there are new ones still coming, and
> it's because there is still a need that humans have to hold and own
> things. ... That is never going away, and we're going to super-serve
> those customers."
>
> Customers will be served well Saturday when stores are expected to carry
> custom-made products that include "Records Toreism," a handmade,
> limited-edition compilation LP from Chicago-based Thrill Jockey Records
> that houses exclusive tracks by five bands (Mountains, Tortoise, Double
> Dagger, White Hills, Trans Am) and a fanzine with contributions from
> more than a dozen artists, retailers and journalists.
>
> Another Chicago label, Numero Group, is joining forces with nine other
> independents to produce an equally lavish Record Store Day compilation,
> "This LP Crashes Hard Drives," that will include music and memorabilia
> in a gatefold-sleeve package.
>
> "Last year's Record Store Day was a testing of the waters, but it seems
> more unified this year," says Rick Wojcik, owner of Dusty Groove
> America, a bastion of underground soul, jazz and world music in Wicker
> Park. Numero Group's owners and staff will spin records at the store
> Saturday while offering discounted merchandise. The number of in-store
> events has nearly tripled over last year's Record Store Day to 600, and
> the number of participating stores has nearly doubled, including
> hundreds in Japan and Europe.
>
> For decades, independent record stores served not only as outlets for
> recorded music, but as hubs for a community of like-minded individuals.
> In Chicago, the emergence of the independently owned Wax Trax Records on
> Lincoln Avenue in the 1970s galvanized the local underground scene. The
> store became a conduit for punk and new-wave imports from Europe, and a
> Who's Who of local musicians worked behind the counter. The store soon
> spawned a successful record label and the genre of industrial disco.
>
> The scenario was the same in countless cities nationwide. Indie stores
> were part of a network of fanzines, college radio stations and
> independent record labels crucial to the development of numerous artists
> in the '80s and '90s, from Prince and the Replacements to Nirvana and De
> La Soul. Future bands bonded, fans congregated, and records were talked
> about, played and savored in mom 'n' pop stores.
>
> "I cut my teeth in indie record stores," the multimillion-selling artist
> Moby once told the Tribune. "It was where I found out about Roxy Music,
> Joy Division, Mission of Burma—all the music I love. It inspired me to
> want to try to make music as good as that."
>
> The rise of digital file-sharing and the emergence of digital stores
> such as iTunes cut into record-store business; sales of compact discs,
> the foundation of retail since the mid-'80s, plummeted 50 percent since
> 2000.
>
> But in recent years, the most efficiently run indie stores have found
> their footing in the digital age with vinyl and deep underground catalog
> bringing in a new, younger audience.
>
> "We have people coming into the store buying vinyl that don't even have
> turntables yet," says Dave Crain, proprietor of the vinyl-only Dave's
> Records in Lincoln Park. "It's great to see kids excited about
> something. I think there is a communal aspect, a physical aspect of
> going into a store in a digital age that really has an appeal."
>
> That attitude is amplified by Rich Bengloff, president of the American
> Association of Independent Music. "The indie store is part of the
> culture of a community," he says. "No one goes into a Best Buy to be
> part of the community's culture. They go there to buy a commodity."
>
> Not that indie stores don't mind selling commodities too. Wojcik says
> his Dusty Groove store was having its best year since its 1996 inception
> in 2008 until the fourth-quarter recession hit, but has since bounced 
> back.
>
> "This is a pretty damn big country, and [independent record retailers]
> have the tiniest slice of that audience, but that audience will always
> be rabid about music," he says. "With good music and good packaging at
> an affordable price, the customers will always be there. It's a
> faith-based game. If you tell customers the market is dying, you will
> create that prediction. But with Record Store Day, it's people who like
> indie stores coming together with us and saying, 'We're still
> dedicated.' It's not a swan song at all for us. There is still an
> audience that wants us."
>
> A few years ago, the notion of an international Record Store Day
> might've felt more like a funeral than a celebration of the impact
> independent stores have had on music. As distribution (and later sales)
> of recorded music shifted into the Internet arena, Tower Records and
> hundreds of other music retailers nationwide went belly up.
>
> Copyright © 2009, Chicago Tribune <http://www.chicagotribune.com/>
>
>
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