By
Christian Gaffney and John Propis
Vinyl records may seem like a relic from the
past, but over the course of the last few years there has been a surge in vinyl
record sales.
The West Side is home to two vinyl record
shops, Black Dots and Revolver Records Inc., where people can collect old and
new vinyl records.
Black
Dots, 368 Grant St., recently
moved from its old location across the street. Co-Owners Quinn Moore and
Michael Bauman believe there is a resurgence in vinyl, primarily from new
interest from the college-age crowd.
“We get people from all over the place
coming to buy vinyl records,” Bauman said. “College kids seem to be the
majority of it being so close to the different campuses. There definitely is a
surge in vinyl, people are interested all around.”
Quinn Moore, on the popularity of vinyl records:
Having only been in the new building
for a few months, Black
Dots owners are settling in and are continuing
to make additions to improve the store. With the bar being built in the back,
Black Dots hopes to attract people to come have a drink and listen to their
favorite tunes.
According to a study in Statista,
https://www.statista.com/chart/7699/lp-sales-in-the-united-states/
vinyl
records across the United States has seen a significant increase in sales.
Since 2006, sales have gone from almost a million to almost 17 million in 2018.
Revolver Records has seen its
share of new customers as well. A second location was added on 831 Elmwood Ave.
due to the amount of business at the Hertel
Avenue location. Revolver Records provides a sense of retro when walking
through the door.
Longtime
employee Matthew Aquiline sees this vinyl revival sticking. When asked about
how he has seen it change recently, Aquiline never thought vinyl died.
“Definitely a younger audience kind
of started the vinyl revival in the past few years,” Aquiline said. “It has
never really gone away, there has definitely been a lot of buyers of vinyl over
the years, throughout the ‘90s but just
recently it has started coming back full force.”
In order to keep things fresh at
Revolver Records, the owners run different promotions to keep the customers
involved.
“At the shop we have a thing we do fairly
often, it's kind of a vinyl record monthly club where we pick an album that is
kind of related to Buffalo in way, we have someone who has worked or played on
the album come into the shop that comes in and talks about their record,” Aquiline
said.
Revolver Records allows
customers to sell their old or new records to them, which helps bring in a wide
variety of people.
“Our audience definitely has a mix
of customers, we have a lot of older people that have been coming in for years,
and obviously a lot of new people who are just getting into to record
collecting,” Aquiline said.
With the holiday season
approaching, both Black Dots’ and Revolver Records’ busiest time of the year is right around the
corner. Each say they see an increase in sales, which helps them during the
down time throughout the spring and summer.
