Nine years ago, with illegal downloads crippling the music industry in general, things were looking grim for independent record stores. In fact, the situation is still far from rosy and numerous record shops continue to fail every year. For the survivors, however, the outlook is improving. And that has a lot to do with the efforts of Record Store Day, an organization formed in 2008 to secure hundreds of new vinyl releases and other promotional items, to be distributed exclusively at participating.
According to Val Camilletti, owner of Val’s Halla in Oak Park, only 500,000 vinyl records were sold nationwide in 2005. But now that number is somewhere between 11 and 12 million. It’s enough to keep some local record store owners going in the business they love. We spoke with a few of those owners about Record Store Day, taking place April 16 this year, and being in a challenging, changing business.
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For more information on Record Store Day, including a list of participating stores, go to www.recordstoreday.com.
Val’s Halla
239 Harrison St., Oak Park, www.valshallarecords.com
Afterr being in business for nearly 50 years, owner Val Camilletti came very close to closing her doors four years ago, until loyal customers stepped in to save the day with a fundraiser.
“Apparently, they felt they wanted us to stick around,” she said. “That helped us get over the hump, so we’re still struggling along, day to day. And I’d definitely like to say a big thank you to Record Store Day for giving independent record stores the opportunity to make that happen.”
Camilletti says the annual event has become the biggest single day of the year for stores like hers. Though she stops short of crediting it entirely for the recent popularity of vinyl records.
“Now that kids can buy record players again, they think they have to have one if their friends do,” she said. “And that makes their parents dig out their old record players and remember again how much fun it used to be to look for records and buy them and play them.”
All of which is good news for Camilletti, who keeps roughly 20,000 vinyl records in stock.
And also more than enough reason for her to make each Record Store Day “a big hoop-de-doo.” Camilletti celebrates by opening two hours early and providing refreshments for the customers that start lining up at 4 a.m. (Record Store Day rules preclude preorders and forbid stores from holding product for customers.) She also has a store-wide sale and live music by a roster that begins at 10 a.m.
As for the Record Store Day releases, Camilletti said she’s always most enthusiastic about the annual Sun Records compilation including tracks voted on by record-store owners, and proud to be one of five stores carrying vinyl versions of WXRT-FM’s annual “ONXRT: Live from the archives” compilation. And she’s personally psyched about Patti Smith’s live recreation of her classic “Horses” last year at the famed Electric Lady recording studio.
Rainbow Records
421 N. Northwest Highway, Barrington, http://bit.ly/1qAy6wl
Now in his 19th year of operating Rainbow Records (which began in the mid-’70s in Park Ridge), John Thominet says he likes to joke with people about the terrible business he’s chosen to be in.
“I tell them the lobotomy took on the third try,” he said with a laugh. “Am I getting rich? Definitely not, financially. But I’m rich in the soul and the heart.”
Asked how the business has changed in the last 20 years, he can’t resist a slightly derisive snort.
“When I first took over, in ’98, vinyl was non-existent,” he said. “It was all CDs. Then, around the time of the turn of the century, we had the wonderful introduction of Limewire and Napster and all those file-sharing guys.
“And that basically put a knife in the back of the record industry.”
Things are better now, though, Thominet says, largely because of Record Store Day.
“You can’t make a bootleg of a vinyl record,” he said. “At least, not easily.”
Currently, Thominet estimates that he has between 12,000 and 18,000 vinyl records in stock.
This year Thominet has ordered 150 or so of the roughly 350 new titles available from the likes of The Kinks, The Animals, Phish and The Grateful Dead. And he’s particularly excited by this year’s somewhat more obscure releases, such as a single by The Runaways (Joan Jett’s old band) on red vinyl.
Thominet in-store April 16 celebrations this year will include performances by Chicago blues artist Universal Slim and a band performing a tribute to Radiohead.
Vintage Vinyl
925 Davis St., Evanston, www.vvmo.com
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Unlike most independent record stores, Vintage Vinyl owner Steven Kay, as the name of his shop implies, has always focused almost exclusively on vinyl. He has a successful mail order business, a stock of roughly 100,000 records and he was also able to sidestep most of the economic woes caused by file-sharing.
But that doesn’t mean that Kay, who’s been in business since 1979, doesn’t have proper appreciation for Record Store Day.
“We participate in it because we’re always interested in getting new people into the shop and this is a good way to do it,” he said.
Like Camilletti, Kay doesn’t feel the recent resurgence of interest in vinyl can be attributed entirely to Record Store Day. In fact, he considers the word resurgence to be a misnomer, his shop being proof that vinyl never entirely went away.
“What has happened is that vinyl has been introduced to a new, younger demographic,” he said. “For those people, the experience of playing a record is new because they didn’t grow up with it. They grew up downloading music on computers. In comparison, records are a very different, tangible experience. And that can be exciting.”
Rolling Stones Records
7300 W. Irving Park Road, Norridge, www.rollingstonesmusic.com
Mike Golen, a manager at owner Wayne Rohalla’s Rolling Stones Records in Norridge, which has been in business since 1970, believes there are other reasons Rolling Stones has stayed open where so many other indie record stores have failed.
“I think this store has survived because of customer loyalty and the fact that we have an aesthetic and a brand,” Golen said.
Though that doesn’t mean he doesn’t appreciate how good Record Store Day has been for business.
“It’s been extremely helpful for us,” he said. “I’ve been here nine years and the last Record Store Day was the busiest I’ve experienced in my time here.”
Like Camilletti and Kay, Golen believes the current popularity of vinyl has a lot to do with people’s desire to have a different sort of listening experience.
“I think that people have a craving for physical product again,” he said. “Plus, if people want the full, undiluted experience of an album, they can only get it by buying an LP or a CD. That way, people get to hear the music the way it was intended.”