{"id":231154,"date":"2026-04-14T12:11:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T12:11:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/231154\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T12:11:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T12:11:09","slug":"miami-vinyl-shops-weigh-in-as-sales-reach-1-billion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/231154\/","title":{"rendered":"Miami Vinyl Shops Weigh In as Sales Reach $1 Billion"},"content":{"rendered":"

Typically, the pendulum swings. This time it spins: Vinyl <\/a>sales surpassed $1 billion for the first time since 1983 \u2014 a year in which Michael Jackson, Men at Work, Lionel Richie, and Quiet Riot topped the charts. Or, to put it another way, for our readers without PhDs in pop-rock paleontology, a full six years before the birth of Taylor Swift,<\/a> whose 2025 album\u00a0Life of a Showgirl<\/a>\u00a0moved well over 1.5 million slabs of wax last year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Yes, it appears at least one of the physical media empires of yore has struck back. And, paradoxically, we might have the overwhelming triumph of streaming to thank for this reversal of fortune: The disembodying digitization of culture, particularly acute in music<\/a>, has turned a format once so wobbly it barely won a scrap against 8-track tapes before dropping marketplace title fights to cassette tapes and CDs<\/a> \u2014 though, in its 7-inch format, steadily remaining a prized medium in hardcore and punk \u2014 is now, once again, a prestige format; a totem signaling corporeal devotion to a particular artist or album in much the same way a cinephile purchases the Criterion or Arrow reissue. In a cascade of artifice, some of us are reaching out for the real. And that \u201creal\u201d often comes in collectible splatter variants.<\/p>\n

Does that mean the tide has turned against the zeros-and-ones cheapening of art via AI and streaming? Will Record Store Day<\/a> replace Columbus Day as a national holiday? Spoiler alert: Nope! In fact, that Magic 8 Ball is laughing at you right now, son: the World Economic Forum estimates between 2001 and 2010 \u201cphysical music sales declined by more than 60 percent, wiping out $14 billion in annual revenue.\u201d And of the $11.5 billion in recorded music revenue last year, streaming, at $9.5 billion, owned north of eighty percent of it. And, not to get geopolitical, but the last time there was a major disruption in global petroleum markets it was a near-disaster for vinyl<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Still, every great battle requires a beachhead. Here is how three Miamians see the state of play.<\/p>\n

Running a Record Store in Miami Today<\/p>\n

Mikey Ramirez was raised in record stores. Every day after school he would hop into his shitty, rusted out Toyota Corolla and make the rounds \u2014 Sid\u2019s Records & Tapes, Blue Note, the Record Bar, Peaches \u2014 for expeditions that were as much about finding his tribe as about picking up records based on a wish list, album art, the latest release from a trusted niche label, or recommendation from a knowledgeable clerk manning the counter. (Yes, that last bit is foreshadowing.) \u201cI played sports for a little while \u2014 and that went nowhere fast,\u201d Ramirez tells New Times. \u201cWhat moved me was music, movies, and books. That\u2019s what I cared about. And chasing that gave me everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those afternoons have echoed throughout Ramirez\u2019s life \u2014 from a long stretch at Fort Lauderdale\u2019s Radio-Active Records<\/a> to his current perch as a leading light at the cultural mecca of\u00a0Technique Records<\/a>. And while Ramirez is grateful his business has grown every year, his personal cut of that billion-dollar vinyl haul is so thin a stiff breeze might rend it \u2014 he\u2019s still carrying boxes of records to offsite events, not doing Scrooge McDuck swan dives into pools of coin. \u201cThat number is so astronomical, it\u2019s almost salacious,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s about as far from our day-to-day reality as you can get \u2014 especially here in Miami, where it\u2019s so expensive it feels like it costs money just to wake up and take the first breath of the day.\u201d (Not to mention the wholesale price of some of these new release records can sometimes rocket north of $30 \u2014 before anyone in the retail food chain has made a penny.)\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Photo\u201cA good record store isn\u2019t just a place to buy stuff,\u201d Ramirez says. \u201cIt\u2019s also a third place.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ramirez is quick to add, however, that value is not calculated only in mere cold, hard cash. \u201cA good record store isn\u2019t just a place to buy stuff,\u201d Ramirez says. \u201cIt\u2019s also a third place\u201d \u2014 a term coined by the late urban sociologist Ray Oldenburg to describe a spot that hosts \u201cregular, voluntary, informal, and happily anticipated gatherings of individuals beyond the realms of home and work\u201d \u2014 \u201cwhere like-minded people can congregate and meet one another. Under that roof, everyone has a common interest. That\u2019s important, always, but in a very polarized time such as ours, it becomes even more important.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ramirez also sees how a younger generation coming into the vinyl and physical media cultural folds is helping to nurture and bolster a social consciousness that has been a bit dormant over the last couple of decades. \u201cPeople seem to be increasingly aware of the reality of the economics of these streaming services for artists, which are essentially criminal and devalue art,\u201d he says. \u201cA lot of young people are showing up at the shop searching for something in a more human way. They don\u2019t want to have their decisions dictated by an algorithm that just serves up a constant stream of things they didn\u2019t ask for anymore. It\u2019s an invasion of privacy, in a way, and there\u2019s no human connection there anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

To see that rejected in favor of a more organic, symbiotic, social give and take, Ramirez says, is \u201ca very healthy full circle moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Why Miami Artists Are Still Pressing Vinyl<\/p>\n

Though all indie artists<\/a> face ever-tighter budgets these days \u2014 see the aforementioned art devaluing streaming revenue split \u2014 when it came time to release his latest album, the lush and affecting aptly-titled Miami-centric full-length The Cost of Living, singer-songwriter Dave Daniels<\/a> felt a vinyl pressing was essential. \u201cI think people want to hold something tangible,\u201d he says. \u201cI think music lovers miss going to shops and walking out with something in their hands and building a collection\u2026 There\u2019s also this notion of listening to old albums the way they were intended to be heard: It\u2019s like watching a movie in IMAX vs on your phone. The Oppenheimer explosion sure hits you harder when you\u2019re watching it on the big screen.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

There is, Daniels adds, something communal and substantive about having physical merch at shows. \u201cArtists and music lovers have this need to have something that\u2019s theirs \u2014 something that connects on a very human level,\u201d he says. \u201cWhile the vinyl boom began before the pandemic, I think something happened a year or so after the lockdowns. Do you remember the first hug you gave your friends and family members? They meant more \u201a to be able to touch. We need these human elements in our art, too \u2014 to listen and to hold our art more intimately.\u201d<\/p>\n

Where Vinyl Is Pressed in South Florida<\/p>\n

Though a vinyl evangelist today of the highest order, Tim Thrush only came to the format four or five years ago: Back as late as 2021, he was doing software project management and data governance for Amazon Web Services. Yet despite this background in digital, streaming never held much appeal for him outside of convenience. But he didn\u2019t quite see a viable alternative now that his beloved cassettes and CDs had gone the way of the dinosaur.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Can\u2019t fight (intentional scare quotes!) \u201cprogress,\u201d right?<\/p>\n

Or can you?<\/p>\n

A fateful reconnection with an old friend changed everything for Thrush: Enrique Abeyta had left the Wall Street capital markets for the music business, and exciting new frontiers were opening up\u2026in vinyl? The revelation proved a road-to-Damascus moment for Thrush. \u201cI don\u2019t think the vinyl resurgence is just about the audio aspect \u2014 which, when manufactured correctly, is definitely superior,\u201d Thrush says. \u201cThere\u2019s also the visual, aesthetic component. I look at this format as a visual expression of the art, too.\u201d Thrush became determined to bring the lessons he learned as a self-described \u201ccorporate animal\u201d to elevate the \u201cphygital\u201d presentation of music. Abeyta and Thrush went into business together at New Press Vinyl<\/a> \u2014 as founder\/CEO and President\/Creative Lead, respectively \u2014 pressing high-end \u201cnext-generation digitally enabled music collectibles and merchandise with a focus on specialty vinyl\u201d in an Opa Locka plant for artists ranging from Crosses and Pucifer to Ice Nine Kills and Ryan Adams. \u201cIt was a leap of faith,\u201d he says, \u201cbut it has been all blue skies and green fields for me \u2014 just a totally freeing creative environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"PhotoA record being pressed at the former SunPress Vinyl plant, now known as New Press Vinyl. <\/p>\n

Courtesy of SunPress Vinyl<\/p>\n

When news of the billion-dollar vinyl year broke, Thrush called it \u201ca fantastic milestone for the industry\u201d in a LinkedIn post. \u201cThe market is tilting toward variants and premium collectability \u2014 the exact space where NPV is pioneering the next chapter,\u201d he continued. \u201cFrom premium vinyl and digital enablement to ultra-rare collectibles, we\u2019re enabling deeper IP maximization for artists and labels.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think the one billion mark is a ceiling, but I can\u2019t say growth is going to be exponential, either,\u201d Thrush tells New Times. He worries about mass-produced albums by mainstream artists flooding and diluting the market. \u201cA cheaply produced vinyl record that sells a couple hundred thousand copies but is not of the premium caliber or interesting aesthetically does not do vinyl as a format any favors,\u201d he says. \u201cPeople want to get some value for their money. You don\u2019t want to see the greed of the music industry kill the golden goose. We have to protect this format with real care and quality releases.\u201d<\/p>\n

From his mouth to God\u2019s turntable.<\/p>\n

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