In today’s digital age, there are many different ways to listen to music. Listeners can find music on YouTube, a smartphone, an iPod or downloaded on any computer. However, one way to listen to music you may not have thought about is on a vinyl record. What is a vinyl record? It is a 78, 45, or 33 1/3 rotations per minute disc that has grooves in it. To listen to music on a vinyl record, it is necessary to have a vinyl record player. This player contains an arm with a needle at the end that runs over the grooves in the disc to distribute the sound of the music.
This may seem like an ancient way to listen to music, but to the surprise of researchers, vinyl is making a comeback. According to Matthew Hughes, author of “4 Reasons Why Vinyl is Better Than Digital,” vinyl never died. Radio-Active Records is located in Downtown Fort Lauderdale at 845 North Federal Highway.
Radio-Active Records manager Natalie Martinez said, “Vinyl never died, people just forgot about it.”
I agree. Vinyl records have been around my whole life, people just simply forgot about them.
Radio-Active Records has been owned by Michael Ramirez with his business partner Sean Kayes for the last 15 years. I love going into their store and just perusing around. Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan, The Doors and Janis Joplin all released dozens of records throughout their careers. Their records can be purchased, along with hundreds of other genres and artists, in the store.
Record buying is also a fun experience. I thoroughly enjoy going to the record shop here in town and in other cities when I travel. Walking into a record store is exciting. There could be thousands of albums available for purchase. Prices vary according to artist and popularity, of course. Albums range from $1 to $100 and up.
When I first got into buying records in 2012, I knew where I could find records to buy, but I had no clue where to find the actual player I needed to listen to them. Thanks to a little help from my friend Google, I found a reasonably priced player with some added features at Bed Bath & Beyond. Who would have thought a national retail chain like Bed Bath & Beyond sold record players? Depending on the type of player and other features it may have, the record players range in price from $59.99 to $399.99.
Lastly, listen up college students: vinyl records can be sold for a profit. There are countless vinyl collectors and resale stores that will pay for records. Often records can be found for 50 cents at a garage sale, and a store may pay $25 for that same record. That’s a profit worth about six skinny vanilla lattes, plus tax, at Starbucks. Ramirez said that the most expensive album he has sold at Radio-Active Records was from a band named “Anonymous” from Indianapolis, and the album sold for over $1,000.
Vinyl has been around for decades and is showing no signs of going away.
Ramirez said, “Keeping our business around for 15 years has been because of knowing where to spend money and what to spend money on. It has nothing to do with the ‘death of vinyl.’ Vinyl never died.”
There are still plenty of places to purchase vinyl records and places selling players to listen to the music. Take a chance and try something new. Nothing compares, for me at least, to firing up my record player and putting on some Hendrix, cranking up the volume and dancing around my living room. The musical experience is one I have yet to replicate. Listening to Justin Bieber on a Beats Pill just doesn’t compare to the grainy sound produced by the start of a vinyl record.
