Feb. 16, 2016

By Brandon Bennett

In the age of digital entertainment, records are becoming popular once again.

“There’s nothing quite like opening a new record,” said Drew Metter, an employee at the Exclusive Company, 1259 Milton Ave, Janesville.

The company sells both new and used records, CDs and DVDs. Metter has been collecting records for about 15 years and says he has almost a thousand records. Although he claims the Exclusive Company sells more CDs than records, a large and evolving crowd continues to collect records.

“There is definitely a younger faction to the vinyl buying now, which has increased over the past couple of years,” Metter said.

Metter said he grew up listening to CDs as his main source of entertainment. Since records first started being pressed in the ‘30s, he never thought they would make a comeback.

“I think it’s the same as anything else; it’s nostalgic,” Metter said. “People like things they didn’t have before and it sort of creates a buzz around the music industry so people keep putting them out.”

He also says used records are being purchased just as often as new records. The more elusive a record is, the more people want to have it.  Hours could be spent looking through bins of used records, hoping to find one that is not very popular.

Many things have become popular and fizzled out shortly after.  Metter believes the same thing will happen with records. He hopes it is not just a fad, but said he thinks that it very well could be.

Ron Rolof, the owner of Strictly Discs, 1900 Monroe St, Madison, said his store sales are evenly split between CDs and LPs (long plays, 33 1⁄3 rpm microgroove vinyl record). Strictly Discs opened in Madison in 1988 and started selling CDs exclusively. Once records started receiving more attention, Rolof changed the name of his business and got back into the vinyl game.

“I used to be the addict and now I’m the dealer,” Rolof said, whose vinyl collecting has taken a completely different approach since he opened his store.  With an inventory of a few hundred thousand records, he doesn’t keep many records in his house.  Rolof is currently heading to Colorado to look at 35,000 more LPs for his store.

Rolof said he has seen an increase in the amount of people purchasing vinyl records, as well as a change in the demographic. There is a younger crowd of people, around 18-24 years old, buying LPs.

“Vinyl sales are up about a thousand percentile over the last seven years,” Rolof said.

Barnes & Noble, for example, has a large selection of books, as well as a small section for CDs and movies. In late 2015 they increased their inventory of records and made it known to their customers, resulting in a vast increase of sales.

UW-Whitewater third-year student Sam Krueger has been collecting records for about two years. She has 85 records and continues to purchase them on a regular basis. Krueger’s father had been a music lover his whole life and had a vinyl collection of his own. Her LP collection started when a close friend bought her “L.A. Woman” by The Doors.

Like most collectors, Krueger says she enjoys the tangible aspect of a vinyl record.  

“Music has always been an important part of my life, so it is more meaningful to me when I put a record on and pay close attention to the art,” Krueger said.

Stores like Strictly Discs and the Exclusive Company show that vinyl records are coming back stronger than ever, especially to a new crowd.  

Students can hear vinyl on 91.7 The Edge every Tuesday from 3 p.m. until 5 p.m.