At CT music stores, vinyl records are back in a big way

There aren’t many places people go to lazily stroll the aisles anymore, to take in the ambiance, strike up conversations with the like-minded, chat with the owner, happily kill the better part of an afternoon shopping for what they’ll realize they wanted when they happen to find it.

Most of us want things quickly and we want them dropped at our door. But at Connecticut’s record stores, it’s the experience that brings vinyl enthusiasts as much as the music. Young people are discovering the sound quality and the pleasure of listening to music on vinyl with an enthusiasm that rivals the love their parents and grandparents had for the medium decades ago. And older aficionados are digging their vintage stereo equipment out of the attic, and going in search of the albums they wore out in their high school and college days.

The feeling of thumbing through a row of vinyl records, looking at the photos and reading the liner notes, is very much the same whether you’re 16 years old or 60. It’s a tactile, comforting one, and for record store owners, that means a level of interest and sales they haven’t seen in a very long time. In 1989, when Douglas Snyder opened Replay Records in Hamden, the vinyl LP was well on its way to joining 8-track tapes, 78s and the Sony Betamax in the land of extinct entertainment technology. Instead, 34 years since opening, Snyder’s shop is rockin’.

Vinyl, which by conventional logic should have spun into oblivion long ago, has got its groove back.

“The ’90s were the amazing years because a lot of people were disposing of their record collections. So we were able to get a lot of good stuff cheap. But fast-forward to today, and that stuff’s all gone, man,” Snyder says from behind his raised counter, gazing out at what he guesses might be about 15,000 or so records. (“I don’t know, who wants to count ’em?” he shrugs.) “And now it’s all come back into demand. Either the adults [who] want it back, or the new kids who have experienced vinyl and appreciate it … want it,” Synder says.

It’s not just because vinyl might sound better — though most collectors will adamantly tell you it does — but there is a deliberative, ritualistic nature to vinyl that makes listening to records more of an experience than playing CDs or streaming, they say.

Connecticut’s record store owners, who are closer to music trends than most, agree there has been a swell in interest in recent years. Each has theories about why.

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“There are more people listening to vinyl every month,” says Johnny Konrad, of Johnny’s Records, which has been in the same building in Darien for nearly 50 years. “Because some things can’t be improved on.

“A record does what it’s supposed to do … ” Konrad says, pausing as a nearby Metro-North train races past, briefly overpowering his words and the background music, “… which is deliver music so it will not just hit your head, like it does with a CD, but it will envelop your body, because it’s coming from a sound wave from a needle going through a groove rather than a computer digitally transforming 0s and 1s into sound. It’s a totally different experience. It’s a more body-friendly experience … a more immersive experience.”

Vinyl records and record stores are a respite in a world where the emphasis on nearly everything else is faster, smaller, cheaper and easier to access than ever, and that’s certainly been true in the music industry. The Recording Industry Association of America reports that vinyl record sales peaked in 1978 with 341.3 million LPs sold that year. A nearly 30-year decline followed, picking up speed with the proliferation of cassettes, the introduction of compact discs (CDs) and then streaming services until vinyl album sales tanked to a low of 900,000 in 2006. 

Paula Kretkiewicz, owner of Exile on Main Street in Branford, opened her shop as a CD store in 1993, and a bit more than a decade later she noticed a renewed interest in vinyl. Then, “In 2010, 2011 it started to take off,” she says during a visit to her shop as customers look through her stock and listen to a steady stream of classic and alternative rock from her turntable and CD player. “People were no longer buying CDs, but still wanted to own. The kids who never grew up with [records] thought it was amazing.”

In 2022, vinyl sales eclipsed CD sales for the second straight year, with nearly 43.5 million vinyl record albums being sold, compared with just under 35.9 million CDs, according to Luminate (formerly MRC Data and Nielsen Music). To think that in 2011 vinyl accounted for less than 2 percent of physical sales of music, that increase is staggering. And that doesn’t include the massive number of used vinyl records sold in record stores and on online sites such as eBay. Sales estimates of used vinyl records are estimated to be 1½ times that of new.

There has always been a group of hardcore collectors who supported the used-record market, and the popularity of hip-hop DJs using multiple turntables and different “scratching” techniques at least kept hip-hop production on new vinyl alive during the ’90s. But aside from a small group of vinyl aficionados, demand for new rock, jazz, classical and every other genre of music on vinyl was practically non-existent. Many of the pressing plants closed, their equipment scrapped, and the last rites of vinyl records read. Estimates put the number of vinyl pressing plants operating worldwide today at about 40. 

Years back, “if you were interested in music other than radio … you had to buy a record, or maybe an 8-track or cassette,” says Johnny’s Records’ Konrad. “Nowadays, you’ve got satellite radio, you’ve got streaming, the options for listening to music are expanded. Just like when you watched TV, there used to be five stations … now there are thousands. The record industry will never be like it was then, just like the television industry will never be like it was then. That’s all gone.”

And yet, the trend of collecting vinyl continues to grow, and Johnny’s is still here.

Ronn Nagel is the president and one of the original members of the Connecticut Record Club, which meets every third Monday of the month at the Congregational Church in North Haven. Known as the “Guru of 45s,” the Norwich resident has been collecting records for 64 years, starting with singles, “because starting off as a little kid that was all I could afford. I bought my first 45 in 1958. I polished my father’s shoes, I sold Kool-Aid, I mowed lawns. Whenever I got enough money to buy a record I would walk 2½ miles to downtown Norwich, buy the record, come home and listen to both sides over and over and over again.” (His first? “The Book of Love” by the Monotones.)

Nagel collected 45s throughout his life, never having much interest in albums, “and I decided that when I turned 70 years old I would sell it all … and I did.” Three people looked at his collection of 18,000 45 RPM singles, and true to his word, he sold it all, “I packed them up and they took them away.

“Then,” sounding almost surprised at what he was about to say, “I started collecting them again the next day.” His new collection stands at about 27,000.

Nagel sums up the search for the perfect record like this: “For most collectors, ownership of the record is secondary. The hunt is everything.” Even when you own 27,000 of them.

Whether it’s the hunt, the nostalgia, or the emotional connection to a particular album, vinyl can make people wax poetic. “I think the strongest reason people like records is the visual aspect,” says Snyder, at Replay Records in Hamden. “It’s a shiny, round disk, spinning with a spiral … to me it’s as beautiful as the solar system or the rings of Saturn, the way they glisten and shine.” 

The visuals also draw Gabe Sopko, 18, of New Milford — but in a different way. “I’ve always gravitated to the next thing I’m going to listen to based on the cover art,” Sopko says during a visit to Gerosa Records in Brookfield, “and being able to have that art physically, like you collect photographs or books. For a while, my entire room, the walls were covered in old record covers.”

Sopko has about 270 albums, ranging from Crosby, Stills & Nash, to Yes, Van Halen and Earth, Wind & Fire. As far as new music, if he hears something he likes via streaming, he’ll seek it out on vinyl. Of course, he loves the sound as well. “Honestly I’m a sucker for the crackles and pops. It’s a physical piece of media and I can hear everything that went into pressing that record.”

Luckily, everyone enjoying vinyl should have plenty of used inventory to choose from for years to come, especially as the baby boomers continue to downsize. At Exile on Main Street in Branford, Kretkiewicz says that about two-thirds of her sales are used albums, and replacing stock is not a problem. “Every day I get five calls from people looking to sell their records,” she says.

“Once, we bought a collection of a couple thousand,” remembers Kretkiewicz, though she says that’s unusual. “I’ll tell them to bring some in and I’ll look to see if the condition’s good and if they are titles we need. But a lot of the older ones are all scratched up. They’ve been in floods, the covers are stuck together, and the people are like, ‘But these are good records!’ And I’m like, ‘No, they’re not … they have mold on them,’ ” she adds, with a sympathetic smile.

Theresa Landry drops into Exile, sporting a straw hat she says contains the long hair that usually hangs to her knees. Landry says she has not cut her hair short since 1967, and she hasn’t stopped listening to vinyl records either. At 70, Landry estimates she owns about 1,000 records, including every Joni Mitchell album ever pressed — except one. Blue Highlights is in the “New Arrivals” bin. Released last April, it holds rare recordings from Mitchell’s archives relating to her classic album Blue, which had its 50th anniversary in 2021. 

Landry scoops up Blue Highlights like it’s a shiny, new toy. “I was so happy that I was jumping up and down when I told somebody!” she says later. “I was ecstatic!”

It’s not difficult to understand the rekindled love affair between vinyl records and the people who bought up to 530 million albums and 45s a year in the 1970s. 

But what accounts for the popularity of vinyl among the young? Today, about two-thirds of record buyers are between the ages of 13 and 44. And there is a burgeoning market for refurbished turntables and receivers and a growing stable of companies producing new ones.

“A record is social,” says Konrad at Johnny’s Records, which has a vibe that’s more Venice Beach 1975 than Connecticut 2023. There’s a hint of incense in the air, T-shirts and posters on the walls, and a floor that looks like it was made from the deck of an old ship, tread on by an often-barefoot Konrad. “Listening to a CD with headphones like a Walkman is an estrangement.

“A record invites you to sit down and slow down,” Konrad continues. “And it presents the idea that a record is a work of art. It’s like a baseball game … you’re involved. It’s an immersion into a culture, and this culture is so fractured these days that it’s important to find someplace where you can actually feel community. And records promote that. A CD is a product. A record — a record is a work of art.”

That sensitivity to a vinyl record being more of a “work of art” than a CD, or streaming, is common to just about everyone who listens to vinyl, and it’s multi-generational. 

Andrew O’Farrell, 17, and Gavin Cardita, 18, are flipping through albums at Brookfield’s Gerosa Records. Both have been collecting records for about three years. Cardita had been listening to a lot of progressive rock, “Because my dad’s a huge fan,” he says. He started collecting CDs, but his dad kept taking him to Gerosa. “I didn’t even have a record player at the time,” he says. “My dad treated me and bought me a used copy of the The Yes Album.” He held on to the album until his birthday when he got vintage speakers, turntable and receiver from his dad. “When I got it, I put it on and really loved it,” the 21st-century vinyl lover says about listening to an album released in 1971 on stereo equipment from the 1980s. 

For O’Farrell, the enthusiasm for vinyl is in part related to respect for the artists. “I listen to a lot of artists who have come up during the streaming age, so a lot of them base their income on physical media sales,” O’Farrell says. He likes the fact that when he buys an album directly from an artist, that artist or band gets a much bigger portion of the profits than they could ever get from him listening on Spotify or another streaming service. 

O’Farrell also considers purchasing albums to be an expression of individuality. “I typically only buy albums from bands that I feel some kind of personal connection to,” he says after completing a purchase at Gerosa. But there is still room for streaming. “There’s that unlimited sandbox,” he says, “but there is never that personal connection to it.”

Brian Gerosa has been providing that personal connection for almost 40 years. He opened Gerosa Records in Brookfield in 1986, and he’s seen the popularity of vinyl records wax and wane. One thing, however, has stayed the same, and that’s the enjoyment people get from shopping for records. “It’s an experience,” he says. “People are always happy in a record store, they’re in a good mood, they’re looking for music and they’re sharing that experience.”

Consumers, especially younger ones, are in the habit of buying almost everything online. But that doesn’t hold true when it comes to records. Bob Yates has been working at Gerosa since 2018. “Sometimes I’ll start a four-hour shift,” he says, “and the same people who are here when I start are still here when I leave.”

Ian Schlein and Emily Lyon own Records — The Good Kind in Vernon, which opened in 2014, just at the start of the record resurgence. They met at a concert in 1997, and the first thing Lyon ever gave Schlein was a copy of her band’s record. “When we started hanging out that’s what we used to do together — go look for records.”

Over the years they established their own large collection, and when conditions allowed and the timing was right, they thought they’d take the idea of their own record store for a spin.

The store did OK in the beginning, but “I thought the revival was kind of dying down a bit right before COVID,” Schlein says. “And then COVID put the record thing into hyperdrive. I think people were stuck at home with nothing to do, and what better thing to do than listen to records?”

Stan Godlewski is a Connecticut photojournalist who wrote and photographed this article after coming across his old Harman Kardon receiver, JVC turntable, AR speakers and a box of classic LPs in his attic. After some cleaning, he dug Jackson Browne’s first album from 1972 out of the box and rekindled his love of vinyl.

Why vinyl seems to sound better

A “happy accident.” That’s how David Shuman, program director of audio engineering technology at the University of Hartford, describes the technical limitations that make vinyl “a more intimate, pleasing-sounding format.”

Vinyl technology is simply not capable of capturing the range that digital can. Not that it matters much, Shuman says, because “most peoples’ speakers can’t reproduce [the extreme highs and lows] anyway. It actually makes the speakers sound better … because the speakers aren’t trying to reproduce those [extreme] frequencies.”

“So the vinyl tends to be warmer sounding, it tends to be fuller,” Shuman says, explaining that distortion was inherent in the making of an analog recording.

A vinyl record groove is etched onto the surface in the shape of a V, with separate musical information pressed onto each side of the V. The needle moves on the diagonal, tracking vertical and horizontal movements that translate to sound that is ultimately sent to the right and left channels and heard through the speakers. 

“They’re cutting a groove into a piece of acetate or lacquer. It’s not possible for a needle tracking these vibrations to pick it up accurately,” Shuman says of the process. “It adds distortion to it, and when things have distortion, [sounds] tend to be somewhat smoothed over, and that adds harmonics and a sort of richness to it as well.” 

Today’s digital technology easily removes those distortions, but people have such affection for it that there are software plug-ins to emulate the sound of old studio equipment in modern digital formats. 

There is also the fact that the original recording on vinyl was never compressed to fit on a CD or stream at a fraction of its original quality to your phone or laptop. The sound that was in the studio is on that black disc in your hand.

Enjoying vinyl is inherently a multi-step process, Shuman says, rich with intentionality, from buying the album and the equipment to listen to it, to walking across the room to put it on or turn it over. “I think it’s much more of an experience, much more of a ritual,” Shuman says. “There’s more engagement, you get more out of it.”

Technically, high-end digital may be crisper, cleaner and will spare you the pops and scratches of a record, but sometimes that flawlessness might be too perfect. Shuman knows the limitations of old analog recordings, but when presented with the scenario of a rainy Sunday morning, a cup of of coffee, the newspaper, and the decision of listening to his favorite music via streaming, on a CD or on vinyl, there isn’t much hesitation. “I’m going to pull out my vinyl,” he says.

Record Store Day is April 23

First introduced in 2008, Record Store Day is an annual retail event intended to “celebrate the culture of the independently owned record store.” The event has since added a second date (Black Friday in November) and spread across the globe, bringing collectors to stores offering limited-edition vinyl records that are only available to purchase on that day.

This year on April 23, exclusive vinyl releases will include about 300 albums and singles from artists including Taylor Swift, Pearl Jam, the 1975, Wilco, Elton John, Stevie Nicks, Björk, Billy Joel, Madonna, Nas, the Rolling Stones, Carole King, Jerry Lee Lewis, Miles Davis, Dolly Parton, U2, Warren Zevon, the Pixies, the Ramones, Muddy Waters and three of the four Beatles — Paul McCartney, John Lennon and Ringo Starr.

While many Connecticut record stores participate in RSD, some do not. So be sure to call ahead to see if a store has the releases you’re looking for.