Culture
Flip it & Reverse it Through industry variations, record stores and their fans have held true.
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BY CHRIS DELINE
or the music industry, 2021 was definitely a memorable year. With concerts and live entertainment essentially on ice for much of the year, consumers pivoted, directing their expendable income to physical products instead, resulting in a landmark year for record stores. Variety reported in March that 2021 marked the first year since 1996 that both “CDs and vinyl records experienced revenue growth in the same year.” This boom saw vinyl records breaking through the $1 billion revenue threshold for the first time since 1986— an extension of the format’s resurgence, which has seen revenues grow for 15 consecutive years. That trend has started to slow a bit in 2022, however. “People aren’t hiding [from the pandemic] in their basement with their turntable anymore,” said Dennis Hite of NewBo Vinyl Emporium in Cedar Rapids. Discretionary income is again being spread across other outlets as society regains its equilibrium, and wallets have become tighter due to broader economic trends. Various stores cited everything from rising inflation and gas prices to political uncertainty as reasons sales have slowed down. “Now that people feel more comfortable going out and going to bars and restaurants and movie theaters again, some of that entertainment money is now going to other places,” said Nate Niceswanger of Zzz Records in Des Moines. With the holiday season fast approaching, we spoke with a cross-section of those still waving the flag for independent record stores throughout the state to better understand what today’s record store ecosystem looks like across Iowa, and how record stores continue to serve local communities. A quick head-count reveals no fewer than 30 stores around the state that sell new and used vinyl records. Yet while the format has largely returned to the zeitgeist, the evolution from vinyl to cassettes to CDs to digital took with it many retail casualties across the region. With the introduction of CDs 40 years ago, vinyl as a format was put on life support, and most albums lost the bulk of their value. “Records were almost getting phased out when I was getting started,” said John Rohlf, who opened Metro Records in Cedar Falls 28
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years ago. “This is not an industry that is easy to survive in,” said Niceswanger, who noted Zzz Records has largely hewn close to its market in music and selling ephemera since first opening in 2000. Current store owners and employees across the region frequently reflected fondly on other shops that have gone under over the years, such as Relics Records in Cedar Rapids, Peeples Music in Des Moines and Antiquarium, just outside the reaches of the state line in Omaha. Survival has been possible, however, even amid the rise and fall of various physical music formats. Many we spoke with persevered through not only the ebbs and flows of market trends, but also the generally unexpected nature of life. John Blabaum of Marshalltown’s Wax Xtatic Record Audio Stereo Shop might be the poster child for perseverance when it comes to record stores in Iowa. After shifting from the first iteration of his business into a new building, the shop was among the many damaged after a tornado struck in July of 2018. Unsuccessful in re-opening at that location, he purchased a building of his own only for his reopening to be derailed again by pandemic and derecho. Wax Xtatic finally reopened its doors to the public in April of 2021. Blabaum has been in the used vinyl business for over two decades. “We call them ‘pre-heard’ records here,” he said, with his trademark laugh. “Every one is cleaned and graded before it’s put in the rack.” However, in the span of just a few years, Wax Xtatic has shifted from primarily selling a curated selection of used vinyl to mostly new records. This is one of the most alluring aspects to looking at the state’s selection of stores on the whole: They’re all in the same business, but no two have the same footprint in terms of selection, specialties or character. Hite’s Vinyl Emporium offers a classic
Zzz Records opened in Des Moines in 2000. Pictured here on Record Store Day, April 2022. Tyler Erickson / Little Village
Weird Harold’s in Burlington stocks over 50,000 records between its three floors. The 50th anniversary celebration will be held in store Nov. 19. Jordan Selllergren
selection of some 7,000 records from the format’s heyday in the 1960s and ’70s, all hand cleaned and graded. But just a few hundred feet away in Cedar Rapids’ New Bohemia district is Analog Vault, which serves up a completely different selection and atmosphere. Analog Vault owner Jeremy Vega explained that his approach is unintentionally different from Hite’s, to a point where they almost complement one another. For “a reissue from the ’90s or even something brand new,” Vega said, he would be the better option, while Hite might be better suited
