$2 Scratchies

This week The Age reported that vinyl record sales for 2010 in the US were over 2 million. Given that Bieber probably sold more than that on his own it really doesn’t seem like a lot, but supposedly it’s the highest figure since 1992 and is up 14% from the previous year! Seriously? 1992? How the fuck is that possible! People were still releasing ALBUMS in 92! Surely we hadn’t all jumped on the CD bandwagon by then?

Either way, the fact that The Age is even bothering to do a story on vinyl is pretty impressive. They then go on to list a bunch of Melbourne’s finest vinyl vendors. “That’s it!” I splurt, “I’ll do a post listing Melbourne’s best record stores!”. But then I get to the bottom of the article and read this:

Digginmelbourne.wordpress.com lists more than 50 independent record shops throughout the city. Developed by Chris Gill (Northside Records) and Tim Bartold (Wax Museum), it’s a ”guide to what’s out there, who is specialising in what and how to find it”.

Ah well, there goes that idea! However, I was stoked to learn that it was created by Tim and Chris – both awesome blokes with amazing record stores – and I promptly pointed my browser in their direction and checked it out.

Not only have they compiled a list of every record store in Melbourne, they’ve divided them by zones and included a detailed description of the styles each store specialises in! And just when you thought it couldn’t get any better, they only went and plotted them all on a convenient, pocket sized map of the city! Look for the printed maps at select stores or there’s a PDF VERSION for you tech savvy diggers.

[CLICK IMAGE TO DOWNLOAD PDF]

Click here to read the full Age article; ‘TURNING POINT’.