Independent sellers in Spokane seek to court new and old vinyl fans on ‘Record Store Day’

Sometime between stripping stereo wire with scissors as my obese cat batted the turntable toner arm I’d just dropped more than $120 on to make functional, I realized I’d been bitten by the vinyl bug.

You can read a dozen essays on the Internet about why my generation is getting back into record players. A simple Google search will get you there. The owners of Spokane’s independent vinyl dealers, several of which will participate in Saturday’s ninth annual Record Store Day, said they’re seeing a younger clientele walk through their doors.

“Young people are the ones who buy records. I’ve bought them since I was 11 years old,” said Bob Gallagher, who’s owned the independent store 4000 Holes since 1989. “I’m more surprised that guys my age are getting the record players out. It’s a young person’s thing.”

My obsession was not the long nostalgic march back to the culturally obsolete that is often cited as the reason the vinyl industry produced the highest sales revenue last year since 1988, when I was in diapers. My dad played the records of Styx and Kansas, occasionally, when I was a kid, on the stereo system in his bedroom, but I have no sentimental attachment to the turntable.

It’s the investment of time and energy, and the ability to share the enjoyment of records with friends, that has led to afternoons setting up a stereo system and scouring the Internet for working replacements to worn-down parts.

Looking for a replacement Empire conical stylus online, when you’ve grown up with the portable CD player and iPod Shuffle, can be a daunting task. Before the BIC 980, belt-fed turntable that has now consumed my work desk at home came into my life, I knew nothing of counterweights or amplifiers.

“The cool thing about records, versus a CD or obviously a download, is it’s art,” said JJ Wandler, who will host downtown store Garageland’s first Record Store Day with doors opening at 7 a.m. “You get the full-size art, you get colored vinyl, you get something for your money and it’s cool.”

Wandler said many of his customers walk in and buy vinyl before purchasing a record player or turntable. Gallagher, a purist, bemoaned the advent of all-in-one players, which come with a built-in set of speakers and an amplifier hidden within a suitcase-like compartment.

“On the other hand, people are buying records,” Gallagher said. “But you want to have a stereo.”

Joel Severson, owner of Groove Merchants in the Garland neighborhood, said new vinyl customers can be intimidated by the learning curve of audio technology and the sheer number of available albums.

“Sometimes people come here, and I think they feel a little overwhelmed,” Severson said. “We’re going to try to make it as simple as possible.”

For most of my music-conscious life, hopelessly simple CDs have ruled supreme. Sales numbers indicate the compact disc still holds a massive lead over vinyl sales, but audio and video streaming is now pulverizing both mediums and giving listeners the option to listen a la carte to their favorite music. Streaming accounted for roughly 550 million album “sales” in 2015, according to Nielsen’s metric for converting digital music listening into numbers that can be equated to actual consumer spending. By comparison, 125.6 million albums were sold on CD, and 11.9 million albums were sold on vinyl.

That means for every vinyl record that was sold in America last year, 10 CDs were sold, according to Nielsen. But the vinyl figure represents a nearly 30 percent increase in sales over 2014, and the 12th straight year annual vinyl sales have increased.

Gallagher said those sales figures don’t represent the real budding interest in vinyl, because a lot of independent shops – his included – don’t report sales.

“The last thing I want to do is report to the industry,” Gallagher said. “Screw those guys. They’ve been my problem since day one.”

Vinyl buyers also weren’t exclusively picking up albums by indie and classic artists. While the Beatles, Miles Davis and Pink Floyd all appeared in the top 10 vinyl albums sold last year, the top-selling album was Adele’s “25,” followed closely by Taylor Swift’s “1989.”

Spokane-area stores have turned Record Store Day into a celebration. 4000 Holes will feature in-store music from Danny Newcomb & the Sugarmakers. Groove Merchants will take over the office space next to their packed showroom for a day to display bargain-priced classics like Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the U.S.A.” from recently auctioned collections. And Garageland will feature a 6:30 p.m. signing with Portland-based rockers The Thermals, who will play a show at the Bartlett later Saturday night.

Wandler, whose own record collection totals in the thousands, said the thrill of Record Store Day is universal, for both seasoned collectors and young initiates who may be blindly poking wires into stereo speakers in their living room as impatient pets look on.

“I’ve always just thought of it as a fun scavenger hunt, where you try to find the cool collectible things,” he said.