On Saturday, April 18, store owner Campbell plans a party with live music, food and giveaways to celebrate two decades of musical milestones.
Small, mom-and-pop music stores “are kind of a dying breed, but I’m hanging in there,” she said. “I’m thinking the more big stores go down, the better it will be for me.”
 Barbara Campbell stands at the door of The Music Hut, which marks 20 years in business with live music and celebration on April 18. |
Campbell bought the business in 2002 from original owners Andy and Elizabeth Honneyman, and watched DVDs of music and movies increase on the shelves. Recently, she’s been seeing more of those LPs, and what she calls a “resurgence” of interest in vinyl.
She’s not sure why many customers who are young adults in their mid-20s are taking an interest in albums. “Partly nostalgia,” she mused. “For a while, you could hardly get a turntable. Now they’re making turntables again.”
But another big chunk of her clientele are Baby Boomers who have a soft spot for not just the music they grew up with but the ways they used to play it, she said. “There’s a big audience out there, collectors, so (albums) are making the rounds again.”
The albums reflect rock, jazz, blues, reggae and soul, and Boomer favorites like jazz, the Grateful Dead or Neil Young. Two boxes of those albums stand side-by-side with classical, country and world music — which Campbell calls a favorite with younger audiences, who seek out individual songs while Boomers prefer to follow bands or artists, she said.
Her secret for business survival has been constant rotation of stock to feed changing tastes. Still, she called the economic downturn a double whammy, on top of the existing problem of getting buyers in her doors.
“I need to work twice as hard to get people interested in music and artists, to come in and want to buy music.”
Of Saturday’s event, she added, “This is not a party to say I’m doing good, but a thanks to people who do come in. There’s not a day goes by people don’t say, glad you’re here.”
To defy the economy, she is adding a new sideline of “digitizing,” or taking old LPs or home movies and putting them onto new media, since the old ones won’t last forever.
Besides, she said she doesn’t think it will always be possible to get turntables.
Some customers have brought in home movies or albums from the 1950s, which, if they were well-kept, can be transferred. The cost is $15 per LP, and $15 per hour for VHS-to-DVD. She does not transfer commercially made or out-of-print, citing copyright issues.
Saturday’s event runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the store at 329 Main St. It coincides with Record Store Day, which commemorates independent music stores, she said.
Live music will be provided by local bluegrass pickers Tenbrooks at 12:30 p.m., and Montara acoustic guitarist Mark Kostzewa at 2 p.m. There will be refreshments and giveaways of music goodies like CD “samplers” of one area of music like world or jazz. There will also be drawing for concert tickets for the Grateful Dead, Fleetwood Mac and The Fray.
For information, call the store at 726-8742.
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