Vinyl lovers are taking action on British Record Store Day

It It was 8.30am and the queue was growing outside Flashback Records in the British capital’s Shoreditch district. Saturday marked Britain’s annual Record Store Day, created to support independent outlets, and vinyl lovers were eager to get their hands on special reissues and new releases. The first fans arrived at 4:45 a.m., although the store didn’t open until 9 a.m. The excitement reflects a new golden age for vinyl, with sales booming despite its predicted demise two decades ago.

Martin Wolyniec, 45, with a graying beard and blue eyes and accompanied by his niece Amelia, stood in line outside the store, with a list of special offers released for the day. It included an album by the English band Groove Armada, the duos Orbital and Everything but the Girl, and if the pair were ‘lucky’ a record by singer Kate Bush.

Minutes later, after a search inside, Wolyniec emerged victorious, brandishing a square bag filled with coveted album covers. Amelia danced ecstatically to celebrate.

Standing the test of time

Wolyniec and his wife started collecting vinyl six years ago. “Probably because it’s something you can still feel, touch and look at – and not just something that fits in our phone,” he said. Derek Yeboah, a 32-year-old software designer, started his own collection after inheriting his brother’s old garage and trance records. He had some jazz and blues titles in mind. “Everything is digital now,” he says.

“Songs are shortened by social media, everything has to fit into four minutes,” while vinyl offers more freedom and space, he said. This annual day “is very important because it gives us a much-needed boost at this time of year,” says Mark Burgess, the founder and owner of Flashback Records.

Vinyl revival

The number of independent record stores in Britain is at its highest level in a decade, with a total of 461 stores – 122 more than in 1994 – largely due to the vinyl revival. This is despite the high cost of new LPs, which range from 20 to 40 pounds ($25 to $50), amid a cost-of-living crisis.

Sales of vinyl albums rose by almost 18 percent to £177.3 million last year, while CDs saw a modest recovery for the first time in almost two decades, according to industry body ERA.

However, the majority of music is consumed digitally, with only eight percent in ‘physical’ formats, vinyl or CD, the organization said. Given the significant resurgence of vinyl in the UK music scene, the National Office for Statistics has decided to include vinyl in the basket of goods used to calculate inflation.

“Almost every album released by a major label comes out on vinyl, but it’s expensive to produce,” especially with soaring oil costs in recent years, which partly explains the high price, Burgess said.

A family experience

An eclectic crowd of different ages and styles lined up outside Soho’s iconic record store Sister Ray in central London.

Zoe Farace, 25, who works in human resources, says she inherited her passion for vinyl as a child from her father, who has ‘too many to count’. For her, buying and listening to records is a way to spend quality time with her father, who stands next to her and watches her with a smile. “It’s kind of like a bond between my family and my father,” she said. “So it’s like we can talk about shared things that we enjoy.” —AFP