Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss.

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Friday Ephemera: Muddy Waters business card

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Brooklyn's loss is the Hudson Valley's gain: Dope Jams to re-open in Greene County

Former NYC-based vinyl spot and distributor, Dope Jams, have relocated to the Catskills in upstate New York - a welcome move to upstate music fans who still like their tunes on wax. To celebrate, the shop will be throwing a grand opening barbecue at the new location in Oak Hill, NY, on Sunday, June 9. Get the details here if you happen to be up that way.

This now adds to the growing amount of record shopping that can be accomplished in the Hudson Valley in a solid afternoon of browsing and driving. Download the Vinyl District Record Store Locator (free for iPhone and Android) for all of your record store locating needs, and hit the road!

The Rising Cost of New Vinyl (Or, Shove Your $30 Smiths Reissues Up Your Collective Asses)

Here's an excellent editorial by record store owner, Colin Tappe, recently published on Record Collector News. Many of his thoughts have crossed my mind as I see reissues reissued, and new releases released. Here are a couple of choice quotes. Read the entire article here.

Major labels notoriously blew it in the ‘90s by killing the single as a format and outrageously overpricing CDs, which of course lead to the downloading revolution and the crippling of an industry. Now that they’ve been given a chance to redeem themselves with the resurgence of interest in vinyl, not only are they shooting themselves in the foot, but it’s the same foot, the same gun, and they’re even reusing the bullet!

What the labels propagating these high priced reissues overlook is how vital teenagers are to the future of “the industry.” Of course teenagers and college kids generally aren’t dropping four figures on rare soul 45s or scrutinizing matrix etchings by any means, but the ancient craft of taking your allowance to the record store and seeing how far you can stretch it is alive and well. Every day I sell records to high school aged kids, and you don’t have to listen very closely to hear them groan and lament the high price tags on the reissue du jour as they flip past to swoop on the $5-$10 Van Halen and Black Flag records (and Rush, too…who knew kids were so into Rush these days?).

Slicing the music biz pie through the years

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