It’s been a few years since I got up dangerously early on a Saturday morning to queue with the masses. And while I am all for supporting the local independent record stores, the landscape really seems to have changed a lot in the intervening years. The early queues outside the stores seem largely made up of chancers and hucksters - looking to snap up the most in-demand vinyls so they can turn a quick profit on eBay. Then there’s the other weird trend of millennials simply buying ...
This is the first time in a while I won’t be getting up early on the 3rd Saturday in April. As a long-term loyal music fan and vinyl fanatic, I’ve usually been queueing up with the best of them - outside Phonica on Poland Street from about 08:00 onwards. In fact this is the first year that Record Store Day (RSD) has had a little bit of backlash - particularly from the smaller independent labels. I have noticed myself that the RSD releases have been increasingly major label re-issues...
Since last year, we’ve seen very few record stores disappear, as vinyl sales are now tolerably healthy. I myself am buying less vinyl than before, but do still regularly pop into Phonica and Sister Ray, and less frequently into BM, Sounds of the Universe, Reckless Records and Music and Video Exchange - all indicated in the below Map. I highly recommend the two Rough Trade stores also.
For Record Store Day (typically 3rd Saturday in April), I always make it a point to support my ...
Most will be aware that the traditional high street record store has become an endangered species. Long gone are the days when you had an HMV, Virgin, Our Price, Woolworths and WHSmith on the same high street - all selling vinyl records; nowadays only HMV remains as a proper high street music retailer and even HMV has abandoned nearly all vinyl. Off the high street though is where the real action is / was happening - the independent record stores would be found in a back alley or cul-de-sac ...
The Future of Music Retail - Introduction
2 Significant music-related things happened for me in 2009. Firstly, I signed up for the Premium version of streaming service - Spotify; secondly, I finally succumbed to Apple and bought into the iPhone smartphone. I have several discarded MP3 players and iPods which have somewhat fallen into disuse as I found it a burden to carry around so many devices. The fact that the iPhone comes with iTunes / iPod functionality means that I now always ...
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