Take it for a spin: Vinyl remains popular in the ValleyDate: 4/12/2021 WESTERN MASS. – Spinning vinyl. Dropping the needle. Whatever you call it, listening to records has come back in a big way for music enthusiasts.
According to the 2020 Year-End Music Report released by MRC Data, which tracks music sales for the industry and the public, vinyl made up 27 percent of all album sales in the United States in 2020. The 27.5 million LPs sold last year represented a whopping 46 percent jump over last year. That’s about 30 times more records sold than 15 years ago when the vinyl renaissance unofficially began.
So what is driving this movement? What has allowed this niche to thrive and how have independent stores in Western Massachusetts been able to remain viable through an era in which digital sales and streaming services have become so popular and through a global pandemic? How has vinyl managed to outlast tapes and CDs as popular media?
Reminder Publishing reached out to some of the Pioneer Valley’s popular vinyl purveyors to get the answers.
Blue Umbrella Books
2 Main St., Westfield
https://www.facebook.com/BlueUmbrellaBooks/
Blue Umbrella Books may have “books” in its name, but it also offers a large selection of vinyl.
Owner Russell Atwood started selling vinyl – LPs, 45s, 33RPMs and 78s – about two years ago.
“It began because the First Congregational Church had an album sale, and at the conclusion one of our faithful customers Mr. Bill Richardson of Westfield, both a book and music lover, made an offer to the church to take everything that was left over off their hands,” Atwood said. “He and his wife Lyn live in a small apartment, so then he made me an offer: Store the albums at the bookshop, sell the records he didn’t want, and he and the bookshop would split the proceeds.”
Atwood said the addition was a success.
“It has proved to be a boon,” he said. “For one thing, even though our selection is limited, it draws new customers and then we try to pair vinyl with books we have on music, history, literature, poetry, and theater,” he said. “Since then, other great customers have donated albums to the bookshop, one in particular, a former Westfield teacher, gave us a collection of records that come with books that you used to be able to order from The Weekly Reader.
Blue Umbrella Books is primarily a bookshop and Atwood admitted he knows “next to nothing about vinyl,” which pays off for customers because sells his vinyl “low and let the buyer beware.”
Atwood said his vinyl pricing methods haven’t resulted in any complaints.
Atwood said he noticed his vinyl customers enjoy flipping through the stacks – just like back in the 80s. On sunny days, Atwood offers $1 albums outside on the stoop. Blue Umbrella’s record seekers span generations.
“Yesterday a family with kids about five years-old, and also a young man about 30 who bought his mom a record player and was looking for 60s music for her came in,” he said. “As far as the resurgence goes, everyone says the same thing ‘vinyl just sounds better.’ The ear nose...I mean knows.”
Atwood said nostalgia is part of it, but “there is also a lot of rediscovery going on, like a 12 year-old who never heard Emerson Lake & Palmer’s ‘Brain Salad Surgery,’ hearing it how it was released on a vinyl album with two sides, and liner notes and pictures from their concerts. Some people who don’t even own record players have come in just to get the covers and hang them like paintings,” said Atwood.
Atwood said in addition to older records, he offers some modern music on vinyl, which he said speaks to the popularity of records.
“As far as how long will it be around, I have three new albums I recently purchased for the shop by Pokey LaFarge, Tessa Violet, and PostModern Jukebox, so new artists are releasing new vinyl,” he said. “My big hope for downtown Westfield is that a real VINYL music shop will open in one of the many empty storefronts to choose from.”
Music Outlet
151 Hazard Ave., Enfield
https://www.facebook.com/musicoutlet.ct.
“When I first opened, we were switching from tapes to CDs,” reflected Gary Cabot, owner of Music Outlet in Enfield. “And now 30 years later, we’re seeing a switch again, from streaming to vinyl.”
Cabot has been running the Music Outlet since 1984. “I have a passion for this. I’ve stuck with it,” he said. The business began in Northampton and has been located in a few different places in Enfield. In its Hazard Avenue home, customers can find new and used CDs and records, as well as turntables and speakers.
“Ninety percent of people stream now, but the ones that don’t are coming in here,” Cabot said. The customers that buy records are looking for something to collect and music they can hold, Cabot said. He said record companies have recognized the renewed interest in vinyl and see it as a way to make physical sales again.
There is also a generational and family aspect to vinyl. Cabot said that many people are first introduced to records when their parents play one from their old collection.
For those looking to get into vinyl, Cabot said that once a customer gets a turntable and speakers to listen with, it is fairly easy to begin collecting. A used record at Music Outlet costs as little as $3.99.
Music Outlet has kept up sales, despite the pandemic.
“People are looking for entertainment, although many people are nervous about coming into the store,” Cabot said. To ease pandemic anxiety, Music Outlet offers curbside pickup and mail order delivery. He continued, “But the people that are coming in are spending more money than they otherwise would.” He said that music lovers who would normally be buying concert tickets haven’t been able to for the past year and are turning to music stores instead.
Cabot said he brings new and returning customers in by putting out information on what he has available. Music Outlet advertises itself as a place to find a lost title that isn’t widely accessible, as well as new releases. “We maintain a list of what we have and if we have a big group of used music come in, we let people know,” he said. The business mainly communicates with its “loyal outleteers” through weekly and even daily updates on its Facebook page.
Music Outlet is open 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday. They can be reached at 860-749-2050.
Platterpus Records
28 Cottage St., Easthampton
https://www.facebook.com/platterpusrecords/
Platterpus Records is an independent record store that sells used CDs, used vinyls, vintage T-shirts, posters, stickers and more.
The store, which has been open to the public since 1982, mainly sells classic rock, blues, jazz and R&B records. According to Dave Witthaus, who is the owner of Platterpus, the store does not sell any classical, and tends to shy away from high-end collectables.
The store also buys records and CDs from people too. They look for rock, R&B, blues, and jazz records and CDs from the mid-1960s on up. People can drop off their records and/or CDs to the store, or the store will get them from the seller.
“I’ve been doing this for 38 years, and it’s not a whole lot different than it was when I started 38 years ago,” said Witthaus, who added that he mainly sells what he is most comfortable with. “A good percentage of what I sell I listen to or I know about it, and I can talk about it sincerely.”
Platterpus had to be shut down in March of 2020 due to COVID-19, but the store was able to reopen during the third week of June. According to Witthaus, the first month of their reopening was pretty slow because people were still hesitant to go out and walk around. The shop was busier by the end of the summer, and then died down again during the fall. Business picked up around the holiday season when Christmas rolled around.
"Looking day-today or month-to-month is very tough, but I would say I’m about where I was last year,” said Witthaus, who added that the weekends are much more busy than the weekdays. “It’s funny, I’ve almost turned into a weekend store…they’re very busy for me.”
Witthaus continued by saying that he “absolutely” notices an uptick in vinyl interest within the store, and hopes to see more foot traffic around the shop by the time summer hits.
“No store can be on an island,” said Witthaus. “You need to get all the stores on my block open and get people walking up and down and looking in, and hopefully coming in and buying something.”
Electric Eye Records
52 Main St. Apt. 6, Florence
https://www.facebook.com/ElectricEyeFlorence
Owned by Andy Crespo, Electric Eye Records is a used records store in Florence that originally opened back in 2016.
“We just celebrated our 5-year anniversary back in the first week of March. We sell mostly used records and we have some CDs, buit the focus is on used records because I am a record collector and I have been collecting records for most of my adult life,” he said.
Crespo said that while he has heard of an increased interest in records, as a collector himself, he said the interest has always been there.
“Everybody says that but to me there has always been a record collector. I have had an iPod, I have had MP3’s on the computer, and I use my phone in the car, but I collect records. It’s not utilitarian. I just have a collecting mindset.
As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, Crespo said the store was shut down for three months.
"I was closed down for three months and after I could open up, I did, now everybody wears masks, social distances, and follows the safety rules, but there were never more than 20 people in the store at a time,”?Crespo said.
Turn it Up
5 Pleasant St., Northampton
https://www.turnitup.com
Josh Bean, the manager at Turn it Up Records’ Northampton location, said the store has been in business since 1995 selling records, CDs, movies and more.
“The store opened in 1995, we sell records, CDs, DVDs, Blu-Rays, books, primarily music related books, and other memorabilia as well. It’s mostly used but we do order some new stuff, we actually just ordered a bunch of new vinyl because we cannot keep it on the shelf for the most part,” he said.
Bean said that particularly since the store reopened in June of 2020 after a 3-month shutdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, vinyl sales have been even with CD sales for the first time in the store’s history.
“For the past 10 years there has absolutely been an upswing in vinyl, I think it is a little blown out of proportion because sales are not what they were in the 80s. Up until recently CD sales were beating vinyl sales at our store, but since we reopened in June, our vinyl sales were dead even with CDs,” he said.
While the store continued with online sales while it was shut down for three months, Bean said once they reopened, their business model stayed the same with limited hours and safety precautions.
“We were still doing buybacks from people but being careful with it and quarantining it when people would bring it in, otherwise we did not change what we were doing. Since then we have been forging ahead and slowly expanding our hours,” he said.
|
