PARMA — Micheal Stutz knows and loves music. And as a DJ he loves sharing music with others.
“I love it. It's almost like music performance, which is something I miss too now,” Stutz said.
The last time he DJ’d for a large crowd was in February of 2020, but the coronavirus pandemic has not kept him away from his vinyl records or the turntable. Just 6 months ago, he and his wife, Marie, opened The Current Year, a record shop in Parma.
“There's about, I don't know, maybe a half a dozen record stores in Cuyahoga County, but no, none of them are competing with each other, they're all very different beasts,” Stutz said.
When you walk into The Current Year, you may feel like you’ve traveled to the past. The vinyl records that fill the crates are easy listening, groovy 60s, 70s, luxuria and classical music. The coronavirus pandemic has caused many to put off opening new businesses, but Stutz and his wife said it’s prime time for record shops.
“A lot of people are working from home, and they have the opportunity to put what they want to put on the turntable. So that's a lot of music a lot of people we've seen a lot of ages, young people to older people, all ages over the board,” Marie Stutz says.
Marie said with COVID-19 safety in mind, they offer private appointments, curbside pickup and they have a low capacity limit. Anything to safely share their passion for music with the Parma community.
“Probably the best part of, you know, the current year is being able to introduce people to things they didn't know about. New things and seeing them excited about, you know, different music that we were already excited about,” she said.
Micheal Stutz said although over the last year vinyl records have really made a comeback, for him, they never really went away. He said the resurgence of vinyl popularity has really helped his pandemic-driven pivot from DJ to record store owner.
“Vinyls always been produced, but all of a sudden the past few years, it's really going wild which is great, and that does affect us,” he said.