Vermont record stores prepare for their big day

WINOOSKI, Vt. (WCAX) – Record Store Day is Saturday, where artists prepare special releases to celebrate the culture of independently owned record stores. And with some recent big releases, shop owners say business is booming.

In Winooski, Autumn Records owner Greg Davis is preparing for a busy Saturday.

“Initially, it was a pretty small event, and in the past many years it’s grown into like quite a big event,” Davis said.

And this year’s Record Store Day could be the biggest yet. Taylor Swift’s highly-anticipated album, “The Tortured Poets Department” is out, surely getting more feet in the door.

Sebastiaan Gorissen, a digital media and communications professor at Saint Michael’s College, says artists like Swift are taking advantage of vinyl by selling different designs with exclusive tracks that translate into big sales. “Physical media allows consumers to experience albums in their entirety, allows them to experience the “Tortured Poet Department” as Taylor intended it,” he said.

While experts say record sales have grown every year for the last 17 years, sales are nowhere near where they once were. The Recording Industry Association of America says more than 43 million were sold last year compared to upwards of 300 million in the 80s.

But Davis says his sales are booming as more people return to vinyl.” I’ve seen it steadily grow in popularity like over the last 10 years for sure, and that is why I felt comfortable opening a record store when I did,” he said. “People get tired of streaming, you know? It’s like almost overwhelming, and maybe there isn’t that connection to it. And then when people do discover vinyl, they’d get really into it, you know? We get excited about it.”

Gorissen agrees that vinyl can give the music a new meaning. “The emphasis on tracklisting and sequencing and the listening experience that is often encouraged by listening to a physical album,” he said.

Copyright 2024 WCAX. All rights reserved.