GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) – It’s time to dust off your vinyl and make plans for National Record Store Day this Saturday.
The good news is that records are once again rad.
Don’t believe it? Take it from Tom Smith, store manager of the Exclusive Company in Green Bay, who has been working there for over three decades.
According to him, the scene had some dark times in years past, but a number of different factors have been bringing vinyl enthusiasts, young and old, back into local stores.
“About ten years ago, suddenly younger people started catching onto the aesthetic of what vinyl is,” explains Smith. “And older people started to get back into it.”
In fact, he says a major part of the record store renaissance is that a large portion of the older crowd sold their vinyl in the ’80s and ’90s in favor of cassettes and cd’s and now they’re looking to restock an old collection that they once proudly owned.
“There are people who gave away all their records and they regret doing that, as they always say, and now they are back,” he says.
Another factor in the record store comeback is that many are searching through shelves to find artwork, rather than music.
“There are definitely people who buy records who [say], ‘I’m not going to play this, I’m going to put it in a frame and put it on the wall,’” explains Smith. “Which is cool, [but] I personally feel like you could listen to it at least once, maybe make a tape out of it or something.”
He says the daily life of managing a record store has definitely changed over the years.
You get more collectors coming in looking to find the perfect missing piece to their jukebox and on average fewer teenagers venturing in during the week just for something to do.
One thing that hasn’t changed though, is the role of record store employee serving as a musical sage in the world of vinyl to any unsure patron.
“We get that all the time,” says Smith. “There are definitely people who value our musical opinions and look for guidance, saying ‘Hey, I’m into this, where do you think I should go from there?’”
National Record Store Day has been an ongoing national event for over a decade, which brings fans and artists alike to independent record stores across the country.
For Exclusive Company, they open the doors bright and early at 7 a.m., with dozens of people typically camped outside waiting for the doors to open.
Much like a Black Friday rush for hot deals on electronics, the big selling point driving so many people out of bed early on this Saturday is a limited supply of items where there is a major demand.
In this case, instead of marked down smartphones or TVs, it’s special records that are only made available for this one day in stores and can’t be found online.
And it’s some major names getting in on the act.
“There’s like a limited Ramones Live record coming out,” he explains. “Pink Floyd is putting out a mono version of their second record, the Grateful Dead has a couple of releases coming out.”
He says the day has a life of its own and with storewide discounts and live musical acts, it’s more of a party than anything else.
So maybe it’s not just fashion that comes back every twenty years, but music too.
