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says. We want people to actually touch and play these. It’s a conversation, not a museum.”
Much has been written about vinyl making a comeback, but in the eyes of Friend and Cruze, vinyl has never left. It’s been supplanted at various times by CDs, mp3s, and other emerging technologies, yet it’s always been there. Today it’s no longer on the fringes, with major artists and publishers routinely issuing new material on vinyl. However, what makes vinyl even more important in this day and age is that there is much material originally recorded on vinyl that will never see a re-release on CD or digitally.
Even the listening station they provide for shoppers harkens back to an earlier time that really was not that very long ago. Whether you remember the CD listening stations at Borders or recall an even earlier period where you would take a stack of vinyl records you dug up and situate yourself in front of the in-store turntable to sample your finds, Secret Record Store strives to recreate (or introduce) those elements from a bygone era for old and new fans alike.
Says Cruze, “We’ve seen several times when someone will look up (from the listening station) and be like ‘Man, it’s been so long since I did this!’ And that’s it. That’s rewarding. That’s what this is all about. When someone says that, we know we’re doing what we’re supposed to be doing.”
To find out where Secret Record Store will next appear, check them out on Facebook (facebook.com/SecretRecordStore) or on Twitter (twitter.com/scrtrcrdstore) to get the latest news.