Vinyl revival: The wax making a comeback in Wilmington

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — After trailing behind CDs for decades, vinyl records have outsold CDs for the first time since the 80s.

A report from the Recording Industry Association of America showed that last year marked the first time since 1987 that more vinyl records were sold than CDs, which saw a revenue decline of 18% in 2022. The group said that 41 million vinyl albums were sold last year, compared to 33 million CDs.

The vinyl revival, and initial decline, is something Wilmington is not unfamiliar with.

School Kids Records first opened its doors in Wilmington in 1977. After changing locations a few times, it closed in 2003 as more people were buying CDs and turned to streaming. As record sales climbed, it reopened on South Kerr about a year and a half ago. It’s now run by Eddie Todd and Steve Levine.

“I think it started about ten years ago with the vinyl resurgence,” Todd said. “It seems to still be climbing right now. I think at a certain point it will probably plateau but right it seems to still be growing.”

For music lovers like Todd and Levine, there’s something special about vinyl. From the tangible connection to the artists to reading the details of the album on the cover, the experience is incomparable to other ways to appreciate music.

“Vinyl sounds better. It’s more of an art form. There’s something more to hold in your hand than a little piece of plastic,” Levine said.

When the shop reopened, one of the most exciting things for Levine was seeing so many college students come into the store.

“It’s great when somebody comes in here and finds something that they’ve been looking for or haven’t been looking for and get excited about something,” Levine said.

“You can either be a novice or you could be like an audiophile and that’s the cool thing about it,” Todd said. “The main thing is getting in the store, buying your first record, and then starting from there.”

While some are just getting started on their collections, others never stopped spinning.

“There’s something about a stylus hitting that record that creates a sound that is very unique to vinyl,” David Pernell said. “And then there’s also the imperfections. There’s the crackling, there’s the pops. If it’s an older record especially, there’s something familiar about that and I think people kind of crave that listening experience.”

David Pernell has been collecting records since 1984 when he was asking his sister to include a few albums on her monthly orders to Columbia House.

In his collection now 1,100 strong, he’s still holding on to the first album he ever bought — “Hello I Must Be Going!” by Phil Collins.

“I try hard to make sure it stays in pretty good shape,” Pernell said. “And my newest record, oddly enough, is a Genesis album. It’s a compilation of live recordings that came out just a couple weeks ago.”

While there was once a time wax that seemed harder to find than a Micky Mantle baseball card, Pernell says it seems like it’s here to stay this time.

“It’s not just the old rock and rollers who are doing it,” he said. It seems to be across genre, across popularity, across artists, that everyone seems to be putting out a vinyl version of their new album.”

Over at School Kids, Todd and Levine hope there will be a lot of spinning in their future.

Supporting a local record store is something that can be done any day, but Saturday marks Record Store Day. It’s an event that’s been going on since 2007 to help celebrate independently owned record stores. To find out what record stores are participating, visit the Record Store Day website.