Vinyl is becoming scarce find a new addition to his beloved collection, his options are limited to swap meets, thrift stores and the slim pickings found at the few outlets located in Southern California.
During the glory days of the 70s and 80s, the business landscape of the Westside consisted of a multitude of options from where an LP could be purchased, from the Wearhouse Music store on the Third Street Promenade to the Platterpuss Records on Lincoln Boulevard to the House of Records — once the oldest record store in Los Angeles — on Pico Boulevard, according to music lover and former Santa Monica resident Matthew Tepper, who recently compiled a “threatened” music store list on his personal blog.
“I think a lot of blame is being pointed in a lot of different directions and the end result is the consumer winds up with fewer choices,” Tepper said.
That landscape has changed considerably since then. While all three stores have since closed several have managed to weather the volatile music market, including Amoeba Music, which moved to the Sunset Strip in the late 1980s and Record Surplus, which set up shop on Pico Boulevard near Barrington Avenue in the mid-1980s.
In the past year, two Santa Monica record stores have closed — House of Records in the summer and Benway Music, which had just moved to the edge of the Ocean Park neighborhood last year, closed in November.
In an interview in October 2006, House of Records owner Phillip Smith said that music downloading had landed a big hit on business, especially the CD portion of his sales. But interestingly enough, LP sales had increased.
“An LP is like the first edition of a book,” Smith said at the time. “It’s always going to be the original way the item came out.”
Smith was not available for comment for this story.
One of the biggest predators of the vinyl records is downloadable music, adding not only affordability, but convenience to the music browsing experience. David Bloom of the USC Marshall School of Business notes that vinyl records have two main audiences — the nostalgic folks that collect old copies and the DJs, that like mixing samples of the classics and R&B tunes. Even the latter subset is shifting toward digital format as new tools evolve making it easier for the DJs to do most of their mixing electronically, Bloom added.
Peter Lindblad, the editor and chief of Goldmine Magazine, which covers the vinyl records scene, agrees that the online music industry has had an effect on vinyl records sales, but added that the medium has faced its share of challenges for decades because of its lack of mobility, people opting for the cassette tape-powered Sony Walkman to portable CD players and most recently, MP3 players.
But while many music experts are quick to point fingers at online music and CDs, the real culprit behind the downfall of vinyl record stores are rising rents, according to Marc Weinstein, the co-owner of Amoeba Music.
“Historically, record stores in general have taken a severe beating more than anything else because of real estate prices,” said Weinstein, whose business also has locations in San Francisco and Berkeley. “Record stores are some of the founding members of communities around the country that turned into yuppy type of palaces and real estate would go high and then the record store wouldn’t be able to afford the rent.”
Record store owners are also a dying breed, especially those who have been on the block since the 1970s, nearing retirement age and cashing in their chips. Many of these store owners started their businesses with their own small collections, Weinstein added.
For Amoeba, part of their recipe to success has been to cater to different audiences, offering not only vinyl records but also CDs and DVDs.
But vinyl record stores aren’t the only ones taking a hit, according to Mike Colestock, the owner of Record Surplus, who believes that all music stores are suffering, naming Tower Records, which closed all of its United States stores last year, as an example.
“It’s sad,” said Colestock, whose store has a collection of more than 350,000 vinyl records, 300,000 of which are stored in a warehouse. “There’s nobody here.”
ON THE BRIGHT SIDE...
Things seem to be looking up for vinyl records as a renaissance is blooming, thanks in part to the hard-core music fans, the so-called audiophiles that swear by the pure sound of a vinyl record.
“I think most of the true vinyl fanatics are interested in that tone,” Lindblad said. “That tone that a CD just can’t get, that metallic and tin kind of sound.”
Jeremy Allison, a West L.A. resident who works at Second Spin in Santa Monica, believes vinyl records are true to the artist’s intended sound, more authentic than what can be heard on a CD.
“It’s a much fuller sound,” said Allison, who owns several hundred vinyl records.
The LPs are also appreciated among their fan base because of the art work on the sleeve and the liner notes on the back.
Vinyl records are also experiencing a resurgence thanks to the younger generation, finding romanticism in listening to an old vinyl record. The movie industry seems to have taken note of the vinyl record trend — a scene from the hit film “Knocked Up” was shot in Record Surplus.
“Young people are fascinated with vinyl because it represents something in their own history or cultural history they’re looking for, maybe something to do with their parent’s generation,” Weinstein said. “For me, there are few things more wonderful than to watch high school-aged kids come into the store and watch them hold a Doors or (Led) Zepplin record and say ‘holy shit.’”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on December 22, 2007. Read the original PDF.