Strolling through the empty streets of Los Feliz in Los Angeles late one night, 13-year-old Hudson Lehr stumbled upon an obscure gem. “Paradise City Records & Stuff,” read the black-and-white sign, featuring a pointed finger and a heart-shaped eye. Beneath that, a smaller sign: “Join us in service…worship at the feet of faded memories.”
Behind the black shutters and inside the glass-encased storefront, Lehr saw dozens of records waiting to experience the needle drop. Soon the teenager would be a regular at the store, browsing everything from Alice and John Coltrane to Death Grips.
For Lehr, the ability to hold and feel the music in his hands outweighs the increasingly expensive nature of the physical medium.
“It’s something more active to do, and sound wise, it’s a lot better because you hear a lot of things you don’t normally hear on a phone,” he said.
The independent record store has become a second home for Lehr. His mom will even call the shop from time to time to see if her son is there, in search of his next find. Unlike many kids his age, Lehr is not interested in the colorful array of comic books, nor does he want to try his luck at Street Fighter II. He headed straight for the record crates and started to dig.
“This kid has the craziest taste … I mean, he’s listening to stuff that I didn’t get into until my 20s and 30s,” said Ryan Smith, the owner of Paradise City Records.
Smith took note of the young teenager’s unique music palette and began to suggest artists he might like.
“Hey, have you heard of Stereolab?” Smith asked him. “You need this.”
Lehr promised to check out the nineties experimental band when he got home and come back with a decision. Shortly after hearing the group’s music, Lehr knew he needed that record.
During his very next visit, he burst through the door.
“Oh my god! That was amazing!” Lehr exclaimed. “Gimme!”
LPs, long-playing vinyl records, have been at the forefront of popular culture for years. The trend began to fade shortly after the introduction of the CD in the early eighties, but in 2021, vinyl experienced its greatest resurgence in decades.
After experiencing a 51% sales increase from 2020 with more than 41 million total records purchased, vinyl outsold CDs for the first time since 1991.
Antonio Staropoli and Chris Meyers, co-hosts of the Taste of Vinyl podcast, say that it’s about much more than the music.
“The appeal is the whole tactile experience,” Staropoli said. “Vinyl is providing that again…there’s so many cool colors and different variants. You have the art in the book, and the vinyl itself can be another piece of art.”
“It’s an art form to me in every way, not just the music…it’s something you can hold and something you can actually look at,” Meyers said. “For me, it definitely feels like being a kid again.”
Although vinyl album sales have been growing since the mid-2000s, the COVID-19 pandemic hugely boosted the upward trend. According to Statista, 27.5 million LPs were sold in the United States in 2020. That’s a 46% increase from the year before.
The surging demand has caused significant delays in production and placed an enormous amount of pressure on the vinyl industry supply chain that could threaten its future viability. The current demand is at almost 400 million units, but the global supply is half of that.
The most recent wrinkle came following the wide-scale release of Adele’s fourth studio album, 30. The highly anticipated album was reportedly accompanied by an order of more than 500,000 vinyl copies, causing a ripple effect throughout vinyl manufacturing and adding tension to an already strained industry.
Still, local record stores provide a welcoming entryway into the world of vinyl.
Upon walking into Paradise City Records, the store emits an immediate sense of comfort, in large part due to the vast assortment of nostalgic relics that occupy the room.
The walls are lined with vibrant records, posters, and vintage t-shirts. A standup arcade game sits next to an ancient turntable. High-tech JBL speakers tower over a setup that features a retro tube TV and a pristine Nintendo 64.
“I want it to seem like the cool kids’ basement,” Smith said.
Smith describes himself as an avid collector. He says his obsession started with comic books and then transitioned to other collectible items including toys, video games, fashion magazines and of course, vinyl records.
“You’re having an experience,” he said. “You sit down, put your headphones on, take the record out…look at the big artwork, read the notes, zone out. I think that’s what’s special.”
After months of being closed due to the pandemic, Paradise City Records reopened its doors to eager customers, experiencing an unprecedented spike in sales.
“People were stuck at home with unemployment money and nothing to do,” he said. “We did really well. I mean, it shot us from year one to year three.”
But despite the sales boost, the business is still unpredictable.
“It’s not an easy business, especially just starting … it can be tough. Once they said everything could open, it was like falling off a cliff, and we’re kind of back to year one,” he said. “It’s been weird. I don’t know. I can’t call it.”
And pressing plants couldn’t keep up. Like every industry during the pandemic, Erika Records was running into supply chain issues.
“Things are taking longer to ship as far as material goes … we’ve done our best to prepare ourselves for shortages and things like that,” said Ma Nerriza dela Cerna, a longtime project manager for Erika Records. “We are in a very lucky position to be as busy as we are, so we’re not ones to complain about the small things we have to adapt to.”
Inside Erika Records’ warehouse in Buena Park, California, an assembly line of more than 40 presses labor tirelessly to keep up with their immense workload. The intricate machines are broken up into groups: automatics and semi-automatics. Several employees staff the semi-automatic presses, which create the unique, off-the-wall records that the plant has become famous for.
In 1981, Erika Records started as a self-sufficient operation with just two presses. Now, it is one of the most prolific record manufacturers in the United States. Liz Dunster, the founder of Erika Records and the first female owner of a vinyl pressing plant, carved a niche in the market through unique pressings that set her company apart.
Pressing a record is no small feat. It involves cutting the mastered music onto a lacquer, creating a “mother” through the use of an electroforming tank, and testing the pressing to make sure the music sounds good.
Throughout the plant, there are barrels full of multicolored beads of PVC, the material that vinyl records are made of. An employee grabs a handful of these vibrant beads and clumps them together onto the press. The machine slowly crushes them into a striking red splatter pattern, letting out a gentle hiss.
“That one looks great!” Cerna compliments the worker.
A satisfying aroma for any vinyl lover, the mixture of steam and PVC fills the large room. Behind the humming presses, there are several wooden booths occupied by employees that check the beginning, middle, and end of hundreds of finished records. They’re scanning for any potential mistakes before the records are packaged and shipped.
Over the last few years, Erika Records has experienced a drastic increase in both volume and interest from customers.
“We’ve experienced a boom…we’re seeing orders around one hundred thousand again when we weren’t really seeing that 15 years ago.”
With this renaissance, however, comes inevitable setbacks. Cerna noted an uptick in the cost of materials as a reason why the price of vinyl records continues to climb.
“When our prices do increase, it’s only because so has our cost to make these [vinyl records],” she said. “It’s not something we enjoy doing. Obviously, it’s not easy news to break to a customer.”
Plant shutdowns due to the pandemic and the non-stop demand have lengthened the already extensive production process in recent years.
“When I first started, we could start a job and finish it in 10 to 12 weeks. It’s taking about a year now,” she said. “You have to have those difficult conversations about timelines.”
Dean Spunt, No Age drummer/vocalist and founder of L.A.-based indie label Post Present Medium (PPM) has a strong relationship with vinyl and has used it as the crux of his business model for more than 20 years.
“The physical record that you hold still resonates with people I sell music to,” he said. “Vinyl has been the mainstay of my label for a long time, so I’ve never really not done it.”
PPM was founded in 2001 using money Spunt received from a car accident involving a member of the Backstreet Boys. He used the money to fund a three-song 7” titled “The Exile” by The Intima. PPM released 500 black vinyl pressings of that and never looked back. The label has now put out more than 50 records.
Oftentimes independent record labels and their artists rely on vinyl sales as one of their primary incomes. According to Billboard, the total revenue for 2021 is estimated to be over $1 billion.
“When the pandemic hit, a lot of labels pulled back, because we didn’t know if anyone was going to buy music,” he said. “It turned out that everyone bought more music during the pandemic…so then everyone slammed on the gas and said let’s re-press the things [vinyl records] we were cautious or conservative about.”
Spunt said that not sticking to one format helped PPM withstand the added pressures that the pandemic put on production. Some of the label’s releases had to be shifted to cassette and digital-only.
“It’s been about weathering the storm a bit and just trying to stay the course,” he said. “I don’t plan on ceasing vinyl, but I’ve had to get more creative in the last year.”
This pressure trickles down and is felt mostly by independent labels.
“The smaller labels are the ones that are getting hit hardest,” Spunt said. “Even though we’re all in the same boat, it just feels like we don’t have the resources to really pull ourselves out.”
According to Billboard Bulletin, the average suggested list price for a vinyl LP has increased from $21.71 to $27.11 over the last 10 years. Spunt noticed this shift and questioned whether this increase is sustainable.
“I try to keep things at a reasonable price point, but the prices are going up,” Spunt said. “I don’t know how viable it is…we are getting kind of pushed against the wall, and we’ll see if there’s some sort of tipping point.”
The modern-day vinyl trend shows no signs of slowing down despite the overwhelming demand, supply chain issues, and price increases that are felt in every corner of the music industry.
Vinyl records remain at the forefront of popular culture and their sales dominance is fueled by the intense passion of fans, artists, and manufacturers alike. Their deep connection to this medium is the driving force behind its growth, and as long as that’s present, there is no end in sight for its resurgence.