Record Store Owners Talk About Vinyl Love & Why Record Store Day Has Changed Music
Nadia Noir
“I get by because of the people who make a special effort to shop here – mostly young men – who spend all their time looking for deleted Smith singles and original, not re-released – underlined – Frank Zappa albums…I’d feel guilty taking their money, if I wasn’t… well… kinda one of them,” sarcastically jokes John Cusack’s character, Rob, in the movie High Fidelity. A movie that symbolically uses an independent record store as a life metaphor; an allusion so perfectly suited to the concept of Record Store Day, which is celebrating its fifth anniversary on April 21, 2012.
Record Store Day is an annual event celebrated around the world that brings together independently-owned record stores, artists, and audiophiles with in-store performances, extremely exclusive vinyl and CD releases, and a reclamation of that sense of community once cherished by music lovers who spent hours in their favorite store listening to albums.
With the resurgence of record appreciation, it seems that many music fans are looking for a more tangible representation of their sonic obsessions; vinyl, an artistic medium that generations of music lovers can share together and something different from the instant gratification of digital music. “I think that it’s a revolution to the digital revolution,” said Matt Vaughn, owner of Easy Street Records in Seattle.
Read the rest at kroq.radio.com
=============
more great vinyl news, this from the uk:
Vinyl making a comeback as sales figures grow
Robin Turner, WalesOnline
The hiss and crackle of vinyl records are making a big comeback in Wales as music lovers buy the old fashioned discs in increasing numbers. High street music and video giant HMV has just refitted its stores in Swansea and Cardiff to accommodate vinyl seven-inch and LP records to keep up with the trend. And the Welsh stores are also selling retro-style record players on which a new generation of music purists are listening once again to sounds coming through grooves on big, spinning discs.
Vinyl was king in the 20th Century when it came to commercial music distribution but the downloading, digital age saw an end to all that. Until now.
Read the rest at walesonline.co.uk
=============
heck, rolling stone is touting Record Store Day
Record Store Day Preview: Feist, Mastodon, Flaming Lips and More Offer Exclusive Releases
Artists embrace celebration of independent retailers with one-day-only limited editions on April 21st
By Dan Hyman
Over the past two decades, with consumers increasingly choosing to purchase their music via digital outlets, countless independent records stores across the globe have been forced to throw up their shutters. Leslie Feist however, has a plan to stop this chain of events. "I'll wear armor and hold up a sword and stand out front of the independent record shops and just protect them," the Canadian singer/songwriter, 36, tells Rolling Stone.
Feist is hardly alone in her passion for independent record stores. Since the inception of Record Store Day in 2007, artists of all genres and backgrounds, from Paul McCartney to Wilco, and Phish to Pearl Jam, have helped contribute to the event – an international holiday that encourages music fans to visit their local brick-and-mortar music retailer – by dropping limited-edition, one-day-only releases made available exclusively at independent retailers.
Visit Rolling Stone to read the article
