Thus I went looking for vinyl record stores...
The vinyl record stores in Toronto are a true phenomenon since very few prophets would have predicted so many stores would still selling LPs, EPs and 45rpm records over a decade after the millennium, especially since in the 1990s collectors were shedding their records, and vinyl was selling by the pound.
Nobody could have predicted vinyl's survival years and decades later.
After its effective extinction by the compact disc, never mind the Napster and mp3 revolution... the revival of vinyl among young collectors who've embraced the iPod and brought back the turntable and effectively put the stake through the CD's heart. You will still find CDs in all the music stores like HMV, but they're not selling like they were during the 1990s.
But it is vinyl that will survive the test of time. CDs have lost to mp3s, but to the true music collectors vinyl is still king.
After all, what's a CD these days except one extra step between you and your mp3?
The vinyl revival is a sign of what is happening right now. It is a re-injection of new, quality, heavy weight LP pressings into the marketplace, and not just new titles, but classics and obscurities as well. Record store owners expected a surge in demand for classic rock, with a new generation discovering Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Led Zeppelin on twelve inch black plastic... and instead they're seeing sales in a wide variety. Everyone it seems is going back to vinyl.
Here is a list of Toronto's best vinyl record stores:
Rotate This
Hits & Misses
She Said Boom
Play De Record
Cosmos on Queen/Cosmos West Records
Vortex Records
Planet of Sound
Kops Records
Slinky Music
Paradise Bound
Second Vinyl
Pandemonium
So there is quite a few and they're mostly in downtown Toronto, which means for fun you could just do a walking tour of all the vinyl shops and make an afternoon of it. No plans today? Go for it!
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