Records are back, if they ever went away to begin with. There’s at least a resurgence in vinyl with record stores and artists still selling those big, 12-inch discs.
Wednesday and Thursday of this week, the vinyl record industry will congregate in Minneapolis at the Lowes Minneapolis Hotel. They’ll celebrate records with some enhanced evening events which include live music and networking for the industry and for fans.
Dawn and Jim Novak are with the Electric Fetus, one of the Minneapolis’ longest running (now over 55 years!) and best known music shops. Dawn is the marketing manager, and Jim is the music buyer, and yes, they’re married.
They are on a panel during the event and spoke to News Talk 830 WCCO’s Morning News with Vineeta Sawkar.
Vineeta Sawkar: Don, I'm gonna start with you. Tell us a little bit about this conference and the celebration of vinyl?
Dawn Novak: So, Making Vinyl is a conference that started several years ago. The vinyl industry decided it's time to raise the profile and not only champion the business, but talk about some of the issues. Supply chain issues, production deadlines and things like that. Jim and I are both happy to be on panels at this conference this week.
Sawkar: Dawn, what percentage of people are out there that are still spinning records? I mean, is it big chunk of people? Is it growing in popularity?
Dawn Novak: We’ve been watching the resurgence for literally for 10 years. At least 10 years, and it's growing exponentially.
Sawkar: Jim, when we talk about supply chain issues, I didn't even think about that, some of the materials used to make these records. How challenging has that been in recent years?
Jim Novak: It's been very challenging. I mean, records are basically plastic. It’s PVC. It's the stuff that your pipes are made of in your house. They treat it a little differently, but it's the same basic stuff. And that stuff has been hard to get. So, just like everything else, contractors saw problems, we saw problems too. There are albums that we hadn't been able to get for two or three years just because the stuff to make them wasn't available.
Sawkar: When you're looking at some of these old records, is there a certain era that's more popular? They want more production of seventies music, eighties music, any artists that kind of rise to the top?
Jim Novak: Oh gosh, it's the artists, the iconic artists from all time periods. Basically from the fifties onward. I mean, we still see a lot of The Beatles and The Beach Boys, Led Zeppelin and The Doors. All of those bands are just as popular now with vinyl collectors as they were 20, 30 years ago. So it's not just the Taylor Swifts and the Adele's, and Lizzo. It's those classic bands from when we were growing up.
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Sawkar: Dawn, when you're marketing to a group trying to encourage them to buy records, a turntable, what age group are you looking at and are you seeing a resurgence in people in their twenties and thirties wanting to do this?
Dawn Novak: Oh yeah, definitely. One of the most recent things that's been really great is we've been hosting some listening parties and we're seeing, especially in the younger age group, high school and up, we're before they can hear it in their own home or somewhere else. What they're finding out is, ‘Hey, you know what? When I'm sitting in this record store, couple things. First of all, listening to this record overhead is such a great sound compared to just hearing it on my phone.’ And they're also meeting new friends because they're surrounded by people that are fans of this artist and have been for a long time. And they have that common bond, not unlike how record stores have been for decades, where you go and meet up and talk to people that are into the same kind of thing as you. And that's how you also discover new music as well.
Sawkar: If people are interested in taking part can they still come to Making Vinyl and where can they get more information?
Dawn Novak: Yep. So if you go to makingvinyl.com, they've got all that information. They had some networking that started yesterday, but the panels are today and tomorrow (June 7 and 9) and we're really excited that they're in town. One of the panels today, the panel that Jim is on, is called Minneapolis Loves Vinyl. So it says it all right there.
Get more information on Making Vinyl here.
You can find out more about the Electric Fetus here.