Dig Music label spawns retail vinyl store Medium Rare Records and Collectibles

Dig Music label spawns retail vinyl store Medium Rare Records and Collectibles
by Brandon Darnell - Sacramento Press
 
Marty DeAnda started a vinyl record store by accident with a little help from Louis Armstrong.

Medium Rare Records is in the offices of the Dig Music label, which DeAnda co-founded. The label represents local artists such as Jackie Greene, Chris Webster and Sal Valentino.

The business is located in The Urban Hive at 1931 H St. and was pretty typical of a recording label office, with couches and music-themed décor, before becoming a retail store.

The office, visible from the sidewalk, featured a mannequin of Louis Armstrong in the window, staring out at 20th Street, and passers-by routinely came in to ask about it.

“I’d have 30 people coming by each day,” DeAnda said. “I figured I might as well sell them something, so I brought some records from home. All of a sudden we had a store.”

The store officially opened in late November, but DeAnda said he has been bringing records in for the past year.

“We sell only quality vinyl records and collectibles,” DeAnda said, adding that he caters to buyers who are serious about music, but not looking to drop hundreds of dollars on an album.

“That’s how I came up with the Medium Rare name,” he said. “It’s about those people in the middle – those people who want a vinyl record of The Beach Boys or Jimi Hendrix but aren’t looking for something extra rare.”

DeAnda grades the condition of each record in his store, which he writes on a label and sticks on a plastic sleeve. Customers are asked not to remove the records so as to prevent damaging them.

“If they want to buy it, and they come to the counter, I’ll take it out for them to look at, but I just don’t want 30 people taking it out and handling it and taking away the quality,” DeAnda said.

The only CDs in the store are those put out by artists on the Dig Music label.

DeAnda said there has been something of a resurgence of interest in vinyl records despite the apparent dominance of digital music.

“The sound is just warmer on vinyl,” DeAnda said. “The new generation seems to have rediscovered it. In an era where you can sit under the covers in your Snuggie and listen to an entire album for free and then download the single you like, people miss the ceremony of buying music.”

Despite the recession, other music stores have opened in Sacramento in the past year as well, including Dimple Records, Phono Select Records and ZuhG Life.

DeAnda – a sixth-generation Sacramentan – said he knows the other local music store owners, and he added that they focus on different markets and don’t really compete against one another.

“Everybody’s got a different group of people they appeal to,” DeAnda said. “We’re where the 30-year-olds to the 70-year-olds come for good used vinyl.”

Nich Lujan, co-owner of Phono Select Records, agreed. He stopped by Medium Rare Records and Collectibles Tuesday afternoon to pick up some printing he’d had done.

“We’re absolutely not competitors,” he said. “We help each other out.”

Lujan said more record stores opening in the area is a good thing for the local industry, since many collectors will make a trip to multiple stores in search of the records they seek.

Brent Zane stopped by the store for the first time Tuesday afternoon to sell some records he’s picked up over the years as a musician.

“Right off the bat, it looks good,” he said. “There’s not a bunch of garbage – it looks like a quality used records store.”

Urban Hive owner Brandon Weber said having the store is a boon to his business.

“It’s great to have them,” he said. “It’s easy to walk in and find something good. You don’t have to dig for it. They do the digging for you.”

Kari Shipman works out of The Urban Hive, and she said DeAnda is “the perfect person” to operate the store because of his knowledge of music.

“He has a deep appreciation for the music,” she said, adding that she has shopped at his store to pick up music for her brother.

Medium Rare Records and Collectibles is open from 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. Monday through Friday and 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. Saturdays, or by appointment. Visit the store online by clicking HERE!

A new generation of fans are giving records a spin

A new generation of fans are giving records a spin By Chris Serico • cserico@lohud.com • July 22, 2010


Tony Pradlik sells vinyl records from his home in White Plains and on the Internet (www.the-rockin-rex.com) in lieu of a traditional storefront. (Tania Savayan/The Journal News)

If the refrain that the Internet has killed the music industry sounds like a broken record, consider this: A whole generation has never even heard a record spinning unless a disc jockey's involved.

Yet, the same Internet that slashed so much of the music industry is enabling some local entrepreneurs to continue to profit from a product that might seem counterintuitive: vinyl.


It's not just boomers nostalgic for their youth, either. College kids, collectors, and yes, even those boomers looking for a vintage "Frampton Comes Alive," album are fueling a resurgent interest in LPs.

John Bastone, 49, who ran the Record Room on North Avenue in New Rochelle in the late '80s, and Exile on Main Street in Mount Kisco in the mid-'90s, is one of them.

Within three years of opening the latter store, a Sam Goody branch opened around the corner, and Borders opened directly across the street. Bastone closed the store's doors in about 2004.

However, he and his wife, Margaret, continue to sell CDs and vinyl from their White Plains home. Via their website, recordriots.com, and eBay, Amazon.com and regional record conventions — including one held in May at the New Rochelle Radisson — Exile CDs makes most of its revenue through digital music, but vinyl has helped keep the business afloat.

"It's still a portion of the market," he says. "Even though it's 10 times as popular as it was ... a year ago, it's still a fraction of what it was back in its heyday."

Tony Pradlik can relate. A fellow White Plains resident, Pradlik worked at several record stores — two in Yonkers and another in New York City — before shutting down Rockin' Rex in the '90s. In recent years, he's returned to selling music, but now he's doing it from his house, and on the Internet (www.the-rockin-rex.com), in lieu of a traditional storefront.

The venue has changed, but love for big, round records has not, he says.

"There's always been interest (in vinyl)," Pradlik says. "It's never died."

DJs and hard-core collectors comprise a niche demographic that has sustained the vinyl business for Bastone since the digital revolution. When he visits Purchase College, which he's done eight to 12 times per year for 18 years, students also pay for their penchant for vinyl records — or at least the large album covers that contain them.


"Vinyl outsells CDs when I'm there," he says. "College kids are driving the resurgence of vinyl. I have a theory that kids who live on college campuses (think) 'Why would I spend $5 to $10 on a poster when I can go to a flea market or a yard sale or a street fair and find records for a dollar and just hang up the cover?' ... For them, it wasn't retro. For them, it was something totally brand new."


There's also value in purchasing common vintage vinyl records.

"You can find a lot of $1, $2 and $3 records, and buy a lot more music for a much cheaper price," Bastone adds.

There's also consumer interest in rarities. Pradlik says some vinyl records never made the leap to digital formats due to legal disputes over music rights, musicians dying off, and other reasons.

For both record dealers, the steadiest and most popular vinyl sales are those featuring classic rock acts, including the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin, iconic jazz artists, such as Miles Davis and John Coltrane, and soul legends.

"A lot of the DJs and new bands who use old soul records are looking for beats and samples," Bastone says.

Punk records from the '70s and '80s also generate interest among Pradlik's clients.

"That kind of stuff is through the roof now," he says.

The trend has prompted record labels to issue and reissue albums on vinyl, allowing for additional interest and sales.

Bastone has hopes for bringing a record convention to the Westchester County Center, provided the cost isn't prohibitive. He believes the vinyl trend is best buoyed by the experience of listening to a record when the needle hits the groove.

"If you have a brand new piece of vinyl and a brand new CD, the fact is a CD could never sound as good as a record," he says. "And I'm not an audiophile , but any audiophile can tell you that. You get that warm, fuzzy feeling that you're not going to get from ... your iPod or your CD."

Pradlik agrees: "It's about time travel. You can put yourself back in the time this thing was made, even if you weren't from that era."

Chicago vinyl record stores survive digital music era.

Written by Katie Schweiker, Jeremy Mikula, and Leah Hendrickson

Audio Slideshow: Chicago On The Record – A visit to three Chicago Record Stores

In a world of iPods, Zunes, .mp3s, .wavs, .flacs, .aifs, .rms, .snds and other digital audio formats, 33 1/3 revolutions per minute still counts to some.


Despite Apple’s announcement that the 10 billionth song was downloaded from iTunes in February, many Chicagoans still listen to vinyl Long Play (LP) records from both new and old artists.

“.mp3s were really cool, and they still are,” said Dave Hofer, a new products buyer at Reckless Records’ Wicker Park location. “You could fit so many of them into a little thing, you know. You don’t have to carry a book of CDs in your car anymore, for example. But there’s just something about vinyl that draws people in.”


Reckless is a music store with three Chicago locations that sells new and used vinyl – LPs, 45s, and 78s – and used DVDs and CDs. In spite of the era of readily available digital media and an economic downturn, they still do a pretty good business, Hofer said.

“We have people who come in and only look for used DVDs and CDs,” Hofer said. “However, if we didn’t have vinyl, we’d go out of business. People come in with their old records because they grow out of stuff and are amazed that people are interested in [their old records]. I have people who come up and ask when we put out new stuff and I always say, ‘All day, every day, dude.’”

“No CD’s. Never had ‘em. Never will.” This sign hangs on the door to Dave’s Records in the Lincoln Park neighborhood. For owner Dave Crain, there is no other alternative to the sound of vinyl records. Dave’s, “will always be a store where vinyl is king,” Crain said.

Dave’s Records is one of the few strictly vinyl shops in Chicago with 40,000 titles to choose from. When you walk in you are greeted with the sweet, musty aroma of vinyl. The floor tiles beckon you further into the store with their checkered pattern. The walls are lined from floor to ceiling with vinyl. Each record in its spot is watched over by Crain as he sits at a raised counter.


These include new albums by new artists, used albums, imports, reissues and even albums that are out of print and difficult to find. Hand Crain a record and he will throw it on the store’s turntable for a spin to help shopper’s make an educated decision. Dave’s makes sure that if you can’t find what you are looking for in their store, they will send you to another local record store.

Crain said Dave’s is for “people who love records. They are part of the ever evolving and ever revolving world of record shoppers.”


Dusty Groove America is a hub for certain niche music lovers: jazz, soul and funk are what the store specializes in. Customers appreciate the specific target audience compared to other music providers.

“Best Buy is trying to cater to a broad audience,” said Phil Garrison of Chicago while he thumbed through a stack of records. “It’s going to be hard to find obscure items. That’s the main reason why I come to places like this.”


According to Nielsen SoundScan more than 2 million vinyl albums were sold in 2009. That is an increase of 35 percent from 2008.


While record sales are on the rise, CD sales continue to fall. Even though CDs cost nearly half as much as their vinyl counterpart, their sales have dropped 20 percent this year, according to Nielsen. However, vinyl record sales only account for about 1 percent of all album sales.

Statistics show that digital music formats aren’t going away, either.


According to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), the digital music industry grew internationally by about 25 percent in 2008, making $3.7 billion. Digital platforms now account for nearly 20 percent of all music sales, a five percent growth from 2007, IFPI said.

One reason for these figures is the ease and portability of things like the iPod, whose numerous models can store anywhere from 500 to 40,000 songs.


“iPods were a crazy new inventions when they came out, but I think the novelty of them is starting to wear off,” Hofer said. “.mp3s and digital music, even CDs, are functional but that’s about it. They’re like decorative buttons on a sport coat. Whereas something like an LP comes down to being able to hold it and having a thing, like buying a book that you really like instead of just reading it on the Kindle. If I were to sum it up in one word, I’d say ‘physicality’ plays a big part in it.”

But while the idea of having physical media is important to some, comparing things like audio quality and physicality is like comparing apples and oranges.

“Are [records] better? I don’t know,” said Stephen Sowley as he shopped in Reckless’ Wicker Park location. “For me they’re better, but for others .mp3s are better. ‘Better’ is a relevant term, you know? You can’t take a record player with you when you go jogging.”

Check out 18th St. Vintage and Metro Records!

I would love it if all my followers and anyone else who visits my blog, to also hop over to 18th St. Vintage and Metro Records and follow them as well. I am a huge fan of this store and am putting forth lots of energy to help them along. I have been "working" there for a few weeks and have created not only the blog link above, but a Facebook fan page for them as well!
If you're looking for some really cool stuff or some great music on vinyl, cassette tape, CD, or even 8-track, you'll find plenty to browse here! Pictures, classic board games, vintage glassware, knick-knacks and brik-a-brak! It's all here!