On a recent Sunday afternoon, Craig Wright, the owner of Innersleeve Records in Amagansett, bedecked in an Innersleeve T-shirt that exposed his tattooed arms, was standing behind a counter examining a small stack of used records a man wished to sell. A soul compilation that you won’t find streaming anywhere, called “The World is a Cafeteria,” spun on a nearby turntable, the sound filling the store.
“It’s getting harder to uncover decent large vintage collections,” he said, picking up an album to look closely at the condition of its cover. “People who had record collections are breaking out old turntables, or their kids are taking them. The upside is they’re pressing more new vinyl and we’re more likely to have a new copy of just about anything. Vinyl is where it’s at.”
Mr. Wright recently knocked down a back wall in his store, breaking through to an adjacent space and roughly doubling the shop’s size. “It’s not as if we discovered along the way that we needed more room for CDs. We’re in the process of building more bins to hold more vinyl. The space will be used to showcase more of my overflow.”
How did this happen? According to Billboard, 49.61 million vinyl albums were sold in 2023. That marked the 18th consecutive year of growth in the format. Only 12 years ago, when Innersleeve first opened in Amagansett Square (it moved to Main Street in 2013), you might have expected to find a few middle-aged dudes digging through the crates, perhaps in search of classic rock. No longer. The appeal of vinyl has expanded. Some call it the Taylor Swift phenomenon.
Ms. Swift sold over a million vinyl copies of her album “1989” in 2023. That was the largest yearly sales total for a vinyl album since 1991. In fact, she was responsible for 7 percent of all vinyl sales last year.
“It’s the same thing I’ve been saying since 2016,” said Mr. Wright. “When you can experience what it sounds like to hear a record, and to hold it, it’s a whole different vibe of experiencing music. Finally, younger generations have figured it out. All of their favorite artists are putting their records out on vinyl.”
A 20-something approached Mr. Wright, looking for a record by Gal Costa, a Brazilian artist popular in the 1960s. “I don’t think I have any right now,” he said. “Brazilian is hot right now.” She took a second record to a back listening station. Customers can listen on headphones to used records they’re considering buying, to ensure there are no bad skips.
Other items soon to be available in greater quantity are T-shirts and trucker hats. (“Even people who don’t collect records like to leave with a keepsake, something that says Amagansett. Something that’s cool. Our trucker hats are cool.”) Bits and pieces for musicians and audiophiles, like instrument accessories, new turntables and speakers, will find homes too. In time, he hopes to sell refurbished, vintage turntables as well. Oh, and cassettes.
Even before the new Wim Wenders film “Perfect Days” romanticized cassette tapes, they had a Covid-era resurgence. Because record-pressing plants were having a hard time keeping up with demand, smaller bands who wanted to sell product at shows would run off some cassettes, and the format caught fire. “We get a boost out here too because of all the vintage cars,” said Mr. Wright. “A lot of them have tape decks.
Then there are niche items like coasters (four for $20) made from records so badly damaged they had to be reborn, and notebooks ($19.99) crafted by Mr. Wright’s wife, Anita, from old record covers. The expansion will give more room for a stage, set up in the corner of the store years ago. Mr. Wright hopes to have live music in the store again soon. “It’s the same old Innersleeve but bigger.”
On April 20, it’s Record Store Day, the most important day of the year for record nerds. (A list of all the offerings can be found at recordstoreday.com.) “The people who are into it are really into it. The people who like the obscure. You either know about it or you don’t care,” said Mr. Wright. “But it brings people out who haven’t been here before. We’re sort of a secret weapon for many record collectors. If they can’t find what they want in Manhattan, or UpIsland, they start driving east and can find it here. And I always reveal interesting, rare, holy grails on that day, from my deep collection. Records that aren’t part of the larger Record Store Day list.”
