2024-01-18 23:45:00

Vinyl records, cassettes, “8-tracks” and compact discs. These were the popular means of disseminating music in the last century and until the 2000s, record stores were essential for the public to be able to listen to the work of their favorite singers and groups.

But the arrival of digital audio players at the beginning of the 21st century caused a decrease in demand for these items and, consequently, the disappearance of the establishments that sold them… and Puerto Rico was no exception.

Faced with this scenario, Richard Soto, owner of Music Stop, decided to transform the store that his father Francisco Soto founded 49 years ago to keep the music lovers’ hobby alive, as well as the sustainability of the business that has managed to modernize its offering focused on vinyl.

Music Stop remains the store with the largest supply of vinyl records in the Caribbean. (David Villafane Ramos)

Soto spoke with Primera Hora regarding how the company – which had its origins in New York in the 1960s, but moved to the Island with its first store in Bayamón in December 1974 – modified its offering to expand its offering of new vinyl. once once more, following the boom that this format has maintained since it returned due to the interest of young audiences in exploring the musical productions of yesterday and their reproduction technology, and the renewed affection of traditional consumers.

“All music formats were formally established by record labels, they were the ones who were innovating and adopting systems to reproduce music. In the 80s it was the same record companies that pushed for cars to have cassette players, and then for them to have CD players in the 90s, when vehicles only had radios. They had that engine running. However, seven years ago, in Los Angeles, there began to be an interest in listening to LP (long-play) records, which led companies to study this trend carefully,” said Soto.

This trend, to the surprise of many, became the norm, the merchant explained, when it was revealed that the sale of microgroove records in the previous five years increased by double digits, which caused music companies to return to pressing both new productions , like albums from the past.

“There are two aspects here, a lot of material is being bought from ‘new’ artists, like Harry Styles, Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo. On the Latin side we see a lot of interest in the albums of Víctor Manuelle and Marc Anthony on vinyl. At the same time, you see that people searching for the productions of ABBA, Michael Jackson, that famous album by The Beatles, ‘Abbey Road’, which have had an immense demand, as well as the ‘soundtracks’ of films like ‘Grease’ and ‘Saturday Night Fever,’” the businessman revealed.

Richard Soto, who took the reins of Music Stop in 2005, maintains an offering of records and electronics for the public in Puerto Rico and the United States. (David Villafane Ramos)

In fact, that legendary production by the British group that was released in September 1969 sold more than 300 thousand copies in the year 2022. While the album “Thriller”, by the well-known “King of Pop”, sells an average of 200 thousand annually in this analogous format, Soto highlighted.

In the case of the Puerto Rican merchant, it was a trip in 2020 to the Consumer Electrics Show in the city of Las Vegas that made him curious when he saw that the most “innovative” offers in the activity included record players in various formats from the Victrola and Audio brands. -Technica, as well as collections of needles and cleaners.

“Seeing that at an event where you see the next TVs and electronics on the market gives you a harbinger of what was to come in the music industry, so we brought in turntables once once more, something that had disappeared from our shelves, and designated a section of four feet of vinyl as an experiment,” he said.

That experiment was successful for the company, since two years later this change led the business – which had more than 15 branches around the Island – to have the resources to expand the store from 800 feet to regarding 2,500 feet, and expand its range of vinyl, becoming the store with the largest collection of LPs in the Caribbean.

In addition, the establishment has an online store where customers can order their favorite records with the option of shipping on the island and to the United States.

“The Puerto Rican market is very different from the United States. A lot of physical music is still consumed here and in many of the meetings we have with the parent record companies, from whom we buy directly, we always bring the message that they should continue manufacturing physical products because Puerto Ricans like to discuss the physical musical product. , especially in the tropical genre, regardless of whether they have them ‘saved’ on their electronic devices. But vinyl has taken us by surprise,” he said.

Soto, on the other hand, assured that this trend managed to give life once more to a culture that lived in the principles of the business that he worked with his father, who can still be seen in the hallways of the establishment, where recognized figures such as Romeo Santos, Ednita Nazario, Manny Manuel, Alex Ubago, and the duo Jesse and Joy.

“I sold vinyl with my dad several decades ago, and for us it has been an immense satisfaction to have that dynamic once more from so many years ago, where people came on weekends and met up with others to make history regarding vinyl, and make history of what they have. “That had disappeared, and now this is here to stay,” he pointed out, while indicating that this “boom” has revived the vinyl industry in the United States and Spain.

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