LOS ANGELES — Who knew the future of music would be vinyl again?
Vinyl records are back in a big way, but for longtime vinyl enthusiast Alex Rodriguez, they never really went away.
Rodriguez was already managing Glass House Record Store in Pomona, but he decided to open something closer to home when he discovered a perfect space in Atwater Village.
“We saw that it had a parking lot, and it’s this cool 100-year-old building and it had standalone character, so we reached out and next you know, we're in here,” Rodriguez recalled.
Open for three months now, Record Safari has been doing well with a wide variety of vinyl, everything from classical to Death Metal, and Rodriguez, who is also known for running the pop-up vinyl shop at the Coachella Music Festival, said the rise in sales has definitely been fueled by the pandemic.
“People were at home with nothing to do. They were looking for things to keep them occupied at home and playing a record gives them something to do,” he said.
The first six months of 2021 saw 19.2 million vinyl records sold, topping CD (remember those?) sales for the first time since 1986. Although Taylor Swift's Evermore topped the vinyl sales charts, Rodriguez concentrates on bringing a wide variety of music into his store, and he wants to bring back the fun of shopping for music.
“Shopping for a record is fun,” Rodriguez said. “You have to dig, so there's a physical part about it. There's also looking at tons of artwork on covers. There's the discovery aspect of seeing stuff you don't know and then possibly talking to people about music. I think that's what during the pandemic made records boom.”
Record Safari took over a space once occupied by Sonora Recorders, a music studio where acts like Ben Harper, Los Lobos, and even Backstreet Boys cut tracks. A restaurant was about to move into the space when the pandemic hit, canceling that and Rodriguez and his team snapped it up.
They did a major build-out to create a place where vinyl lovers can feel at home and we're collectors can drop big bucks on rarities such as a Guns and Roses album that goes for $375 because of the artwork on its cover, which was deemed objectionable, was banned and re-released with a new cover.
However, if you do not have $375 to spare, 80% of the stock at Record Safari is used, handpicked by Rodriguez and Co. and reasonably priced for the everyday vinyl enthusiast.
Vinyl shopper Brad C. said the pandemic re-sparked his interest in records. He especially loves older progressive rock titles and is finding lots here today.
When asked, “Why vinyl?”, Brad said, “I can't explain it. It’s something that puts me at ease, and it has kinda helped me get through the weird times lately, so…”
Rodriguez said vinyl engages music lovers in a special way that streaming and digital formats often do not and collecting opens up a whole world of musical discovery, and many titles are rare and exist only in the vinyl format.
“I know some people will take pictures of some records and then they'll go home and check it out. So, it's a cool way to learn about music,” said Rodriguez. “And that's okay because I look at [the store] like a kind of like a museum…if you think about it.”
At a time when the pandemic has sidelined much live performance, Rodriguez said vinyl is also a great way for artists to stay connected with their fans and for collectors to dive deeply into that warm analog sound once again.