MUSIC MOVES

For music lovers, the joy of walking into a record store, flipping through album covers and holding a physical disc cannot be replaced by clicking a download button on digital music platforms. The feeling is particularly missed and treasured during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic when many public spaces have closed their doors.

For music lovers in Chengdu, Sichuan province, there's something to cheer. On Saturday, music labels and record stores from around China will gather offline to mark the annual Record Store Day there.

As a global event to celebrate independent record stores and encourage music fans to support them, the tradition of Record Store Day started on April 19, 2008. It has since become a single day celebrated worldwide on April 23, with exclusive vinyl and CD releases only available at participating record stores. It often features a variety of activities such as performances and DJs spinning records.

The upcoming event in Chengdu was supposed to be held in April, which was postponed due to the pandemic.

This will be the fourth Record Store Day celebration hosted by Chengdu-based music label, New Noise, which will be held at the Yard Cultural and Creative Park, an incubator for small businesses in Chengdu.

According to Jef Vreys, owner and founder of New Noise, who is from Belgium and has been living in Chengdu since 2009, the Record Store Day event grew out of a small event, with around 100 people attending, into a yearly event where more than 1,000 people participate.

Around 40 independent records stores from all over China participate, which makes the event one of the country's biggest vinyl events and the event is growing, Vreys says.

Every year, New Noise releases special vinyl records for musicians from China and abroad to mark Record Store Day. This year, music labels, including Modern Sky, Maybe Mars, Caotai Music and Space Fruity Records, will join the Record Store Day event in Chengdu.

"I really think that it celebrates independent stores and it really connects artists and music fans from all over the world. Every year you have a very big amount of RSD(Record Store Day) releases, which is a great thing. I really like the fact that this is a worldwide event taking place on every continent. I feel right now there is still a big support for buying physical copies of albums to support artists, and the Record Store Day really helps in that regard," says Vreys.

He moved to China for his studies in 2007 and completed a Chinese history major at Sichuan University in Chengdu in 2009. He founded New Noise the same year and started to bring international bands to China. So far, he and his team have done more than 800 shows across Asia.

"Chengdu has one of China's biggest and most exciting indie music scenes. The great thing about this city is that everybody knows each other and fully supports each other, it's basically one big family," he says.

Since 2020, everything started to change and his label had to cancel many scheduled tours, which allowed Vreys to work on opening a vinyl store.

"Even with digital streaming services booming, a record store still has its place and will never disappear," says Vreys, who has been going to record stores since he was 11 years old.

Since he was 15 years old, Vreys started to promote shows for indie bands, which has always been his passion. He has been collecting vinyl since he was a teenager. Now, he has a few thousand vinyl records at his parents' home in Belgium and his in Chengdu.

"For me, it's one of the most fun things to do. Every time I travel to a new country or city, I will always try to find the local record store. A good record store is to have an owner who knows his things and has a big heart for music," he says. "It's such a magical moment when you can find a vinyl that you've been looking for a long time."

Vreys' vinyl record store focuses on releasing vinyl and acts as a label. Last year, they did 12 releases and sold more than 20,000 copies.

According to the 2022 Global Music Report released by the Federation of the Phonographic Industry, an organization that represents the recorded music industry worldwide, recorded music revenues reached $25.9 billion in 2021, an increase of 18.5 percent from 2020 and the highest revenue levels this millennium.

For the first time in 20 years, there was growth in the physical market. Revenues increased by 16.1 percent to $5 billion. This was partly driven by a recovery in physical retail which had been heavily impacted in 2020 due to the pandemic. Revenues from CDs grew for the first time this millennium and there was particularly strong engagement with the format in Asia.

"At the same time, the recent resurgence of interest in vinyl continued with very strong revenue growth in 2021 of 51.3 percent, up from 25.9 percent growth in 2020," according to the report.

Vreys says over the last three years, China saw a much bigger demand for vinyl records.

"I think the main thing here is that it's getting easier for people to buy records. Once you own a turntable there is no way back and you will start to collect more and more records," he says, adding that more Chinese bands have started to put out vinyl records as well.

He recalls helping Chinese rock band, Wang Wen, to release its album on vinyl 10 years ago. At the time, the band only did 300 copies and sold out after a few months. Now it sells thousands of copies.

"It's true that we have a lot of music digitally but there's nothing that beats that tangible quality of being able to hold some of your favorite albums in your hands, put them on the record player and listen to them," says Ma Chi, founder and owner of LiPi-Records, one of the biggest stores selling vinyl discs in Beijing, which is located in the city's 798 art zone.

Ma has also organized events every year to mark Record Store Day. This year, due to the pandemic, events in Beijing were held online in April. Having collected vinyl records of various genres from secondhand stores during his travels since 2007, Ma founded his store in 2009. He says business has been heavily hit by the pandemic and he has managed to keep his store afloat by selling products online.

"Hopefully, we will be able to survive this," he says.