Record Town moves to the beat of its own gramophone. The independently-owned vinyl record store celebrated 59 years since first opening their doors on South University Drive in 1957. Employees spent the anniversary just as they had every year before–dusting off old records and placing a few new ones on the shelf. Costumers stroll in throughout the day sifting through a wide variety of records from ‘Another Side of Bob Dylan,’ to Adele’s latest album, ’25.’ “It’s like a dinosaur,” Sumner Bruton, the store owner, told IMAGE magazine in 2014. “There’s a lot of wear and tear, but [this store] has got a lot of stories to tell.”
While some might assume a record store to be shaky in the shadow of a digital age, Gerald Daily, the store’s long-time employee, said record sales have risen. “We are not always busy,” Daily said. “Still, there is a demand for records.” Vinyl sales in the 21st century are often chalked up to the niches of pop culture and trending hipsters, however recent data may indicate a consistency in sales growth that the vintage platform had not seen since the introduction of CD’s. According to the Nielsen Company, Vinyl sales have steadily increased since 2008. In 2014, sales spiked to 9.2 million units from 6.1 the previous year.
