For the record, vinyl rules
Demand for vinyl helped record stores survive Covid-19. Ahead of Record Store Day, Chris Schulz meets the store owners who say they have teens to thank for that.
Chris Hart is standing between two shelving units groaning under the combined weight of tens of thousands of surplus records. On the left of the Real Groovy store owner are vinyl albums stacked in neat alphabetical rows. On his right are cardboard boxes full of second-hand records yet to be sorted.
Around the corner, the relentless hum of an ultrasonic cleaning machine can be heard as two fulltime staff members turn dusty old treasures into as-new releases.
When Covid-19 lockdowns were enforced last year, Hart feared all of this, the iconic Auckland store he’d owned and managed for the past four decades, was over. ‘‘I thought, ‘oh well – I’m two years short of retirement’,’’ he says.
Hart has been through tough times before. In 2008, receivers turned up, took the keys off him and made him tell his 70 staff members they were out of a job. He survived by scraping together the money to buy Real Groovy back from the bank.
Hart recently turned 65, but he isn’t eyeing up retirement yet. He has something else to thank for surviving Covid-19.
Because of all those shiny black polyvinyl chloride discs heading out the doors, Real Groovy didn’t just survive – it’s thriving. Vinyl sales went through the roof, and they haven’t stopped.
‘‘The online sales absolutely grew – hugely,’’ Hart says.
To cope with demand, Real Groovy has 70,000 records stockpiled, ready to replace those on the shelves in its Queen St store. Cardboard boxes of second-hand supplies arrive from overseas constantly. In a nearby car park, a new secondhand-only sister store called Dingbats has opened.
Right now, Real Groovy’s team can’t satisfy demand. Some customers are coming in twice a day to sift through bins to dig for treasure.
‘‘We don’t have anywhere near what we’d like to have,’’ admits Grant McAllum, the store’s music buyer. ‘‘We can’t get enough records. More and more people are getting into it.’’
Vinyl’s popularity has been on the rise for a number of years but, last year, that trend intensified. Worldwide, sales are up 30 per cent, according to a recent Recording Industry Association of America report.
From his position above the store, checking sales data and ordering depleted stock, McAllum has watched all this happen. ‘‘Your Pink Floyds, your Led Zeppelins, Jimi Hendrix, that stuff is always sellable,’’ he says. ‘‘Now more than ever.’’
The store can’t get enough copies of Dark Side of the Moon. On the day we visit, it’s sold out. New vinyl is difficult to get, with nine-month waits reported at pressing plants around the world. Turntables are in hot demand, too. ‘‘On Friday I sold a $5000 one,’’ Hart says. ‘‘On Monday I sold three on the website between 6pm and 9pm.’’
He picks up a pile of paper and begins pointing to names on it. It’s a list of records by Bell Biv DeVoe, The Doors, Fats Domino, Human League, and Crosby, Stills & Nash. Even more of a surprise is who’s buying those classics.
‘‘We get people coming in with their kids, the kids are getting into vinyl,’’ Hart says. ‘‘The dad’s saying, ‘Oh yeah, I used to have a turntable. Let me help you set that up, son’.’’
McAllum agrees. ‘‘I know loads of people getting into records, 15-, 16-, 20-year-olds,’’ he says.
‘‘They’re buying Taylor Swift and Harry Styles and Lana Del Rey, but they’re buying them at the same time as Dire Straits and Bruce Springsteen.’’
Why would kids want to listen to Dire Straits, a band that broke up in 1988 and hasn’t released a new album in 30 years? ‘‘A lot of it is trophy buying,’’ McAllum says. ‘‘They can Instagram it. It’s a fantastic situation for us,’’ he says.
McAllum is relieved that Real Groovy has weathered yet another storm. ‘‘I believe in what we do, I believe we do it as good as anybody,’’ he says. ‘‘We’ve never given up. We’ve never stopped selling records. ‘‘Here we are, and we’ve helped fuel that trend.’’
Jeremy Taylor has noticed a lot more children in his store lately. The manager and co-owner of Wellington’s Slow Boat Records is amazed at how fast the vinyl trend is moving.
‘‘The store has been busy with a steady stream of people through the doors since re-opening at level 2 last year,’’ he says. ‘‘There’s a lot more young people and people really keen to either recapture their youth or flesh out their collections of the classics.’’
Albums by Elton John and Queen are popular, thanks to recent biopics, as well as ‘‘classics’’ by Bob Dylan, Prince and The Beatles.
But Taylor has been surprised by the popularity of previously ‘‘uncool’’ acts such as Billy Joel, the Alan Parsons Project and, yes, Dire Straits.
Even cheesy film soundtracks such as Saturday Night Fever or Grease are selling well. ‘‘I’m stoked and always just a bit surprised how much love people still have for an archaic format,’’ he says.
Garry Knight, the manager of Christchurch’s Penny Lane Records, thinks something else might be driving this trend – Netflix. ‘‘Older stuff is played in a lot of the TV series and streaming shows,’’ he says. Knight is also not complaining. When lockdowns were enforced, his turnover ‘‘plummeted to near nil’’. Instead of turning online, Knight doubled down. He believed customers would return eventually, so he used lockdowns as an excuse to stock up. It worked. As soon as lockdowns eased, customers returned in droves. Tomorrow’s Record Store Day is a reminder for Knight that shops like his offer an experience that can’t be replicated online.
‘‘Buying local from any local record shop around the country is so important compared to online,’’ he says. ‘‘Flicking through the bins with like-minded shoppers in store and talking to people who love music is what it is all about.’’
So are young people really buying Dire Straits albums? On a busy Thursday afternoon in Real Groovy, I decided to test this theory out. Within seconds, I spot Amber and Nick, two students still in their school uniforms who are standing shoulder to shoulder, flicking through record bins.
They’re 17 years old, but they’re not browsing albums by big-name pop stars Billie Eilish or Taylor Swift, artists who dominate the music streaming services they have on their phones.
Their tastes skew a little older. ‘‘I have Pink Floyd and Dire Straits, stuff like that,’’ says Nick. ‘‘I grew up with that music.’’
Amber nods. ‘‘When you listen to your record player, it just sounds nicer.’’
They buy vinyl, yet neither owns a turntable. Instead, they put the artwork on their walls, then take the records to play at friends or family members who own one.
They visit Real Groovy, and Marbecks further down Queen St, regularly because ‘‘it’s cool’’ and offers an experience completely different to streaming. They’re there for the fun of it, to dig through the crates, to participate in the same ritual performed by music lovers well before CDs or streaming came along.
‘‘I want to go look for [records],’’ says Nick ‘‘There’s a thrill in finding the particular album you like.’’