How Charlotte record shops help fuel a vinyl boom, as US sales spin past $1 billion
Derek Patten dug through the crates at Hardy Boys Records in Charlotte, looking for rare vinyl treasures. His favorite section is the recently dropped bin.
“You get here at the right time, find something that you’ve been looking for and usually get a good price on it,” Patten said, holding Bob Dylan’s greatest-hits album during his recent visit to the shop in Camp North End.
Although digital streaming and downloads are the go-to for many music listeners, old-fashioned vinyl record sales in the U.S. surpassed $1 billion last year for the first time since 1983, according to the Recording Industry Association of America.
Taylor Swift sold the most, with her “The Life of a Showgirl” album selling more than 1.6 million vinyl records. Sabrina Carpenter’s “Man’s Best Friend” came in second with 292,000 copies sold, and Kendrick Lamar was third with “GNX,” which sold 272,000.
Charlotte-area residents like Patten contributed to the billion-dollar total. He uses digital streaming as a vetting tool for new records, and if one passes the Spotify audition, he buys it on vinyl. He has around 400 records in his collection.
“I love the sound of records, and I personally am glad that they’re coming back,” Patten said. “My wife and I listen to records every single day.”
The search for community and connection in Charlotte
Co-owner Dean Hardy has seen a 20% to 30% increase annually at his stores, which he attributes to digital fatigue and fans wanting to support artists more directly than through streaming.
“I think people are community-driven, and so they want the experience of hanging out with other people at a record store to talk about music,” Hardy said.
More than 140 people attended a recent listening party for the new Harry Styles album, Hardy said, citing it as an example of events such as Record Store Day on April 18.
“They just wanted to experience it with other like-minded people who loved Harry Styles,” he said. “We just played the record. That’s all we did, and it was a lot of fun.”
He also pointed to a surge in CD sales, speculating younger people still play them in their cars.
Some of the current big sellers are Bad Bunny, Lauryn Hill, Sade and Deftones. Records like Fleetwood Mac’s “Rumours” and Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” are constantly being restocked.
‘Wheels of steel’ and the road
The hunt for inventory often takes shop owners far beyond Charlotte.
Dillon Smith drove to Asheville to stock crates at his shop in Matthews, Noble Records. He spends a lot of time on the road buying private collections. Smith acquired the Voice of America radio archive last year, which had more than 100,000 records.
“Supply is a challenge when you’re selling used records,” Smith said. “But it’s a lot of fun for me.”
Big-box stores like Walmart and Target drive massive sales numbers for new records, and icons like Led Zeppelin and The Beatles are always big hits at shops. Noble Records’ inventory is about 40% new and 60% used.
People tend to think a well-known album is automatically worth a lot, but that’s not usually true. The priciest records are often the ones that weren’t popular when they were released. Examples include obscure psych or jazz titles, because far fewer copies exist, and they’re tough to track down today.
Smith mentioned a woman who came in looking to sell one of her albums. “She puts on these white gloves, and she pulls out a copy of ‘Thriller,’ ” Smith said. “She wanted $12,000 for it. I was like, ‘Lady, we have one over there for 15 bucks.’ ”
For Patten, an unusual find was a 1-of-16 pressing of a British hip-hop record (whose name he couldn’t recall at the time) during a trip across the pond.
“It’s a very unique record,” Patten said. “It’s really cool. I don’t play it very much because I don’t want to mess it up ... only 16 of them.”
But regardless of where the records are being purchased, vinyl wins. For older generations, it’s nostalgia; for younger people, it’s about holding an actual record, Smith said.
“Everything’s in the cloud, or everything’s online, and you don’t actually own anything,” Smith said. “I think people are starting to realize, ‘Hey, maybe we missed something ... maybe it is best to own something.’”
And that’s good for business.
“There’s nothing like going into a record store and seeing somebody behind the counter that you know, and them saying, ‘Hey, I know you’ve been looking for ... and I found one for you,’” Smith said. “That charm of a small business ... a local watering hole for like-minded folks, I think that’s unmatched.”
A pricey hobby?
But for Jimmy Parker, owner of Repo Records in Plaza Midwood, some of that may be lost because special variants are going to big-box stores, pulling customers away from local indie shops. One example is Swift releasing different color variants of her records.
“The record business is going to put itself out of business, like it did when CDs hit the market ... They are spending time pressing multiple copies of the same artist, the same title in four colors.”
He’s also concerned about rising costs, with prices jumping from $19 to $32, according to his research.
“What killed the record business was the burning of CDs and downloads. And what might kill it again is the high prices,” Parker said.
Despite rising costs, the habit seems to have stuck. Many collectors, including Patten, ramped up their hobby during the pandemic when concert money was redirected toward home listening. Patten has around 400 records in his collection at his home in Matthews, which began about 10 years ago.
“I bought a lot of stuff online (during the pandemic),” he said. “But I like supporting local businesses, and this town has a bunch of great record stores.”
