Minneapolis Central Library opens vinyl listening room to share collection

The library hosted the first event in its new "Vinyl Revival" series, which aims to bring attention to the thriving audio format. 


Right now, thousands of vinyl records are stored in the third floor of the Minneapolis Central Library downtown.

They’re not easy to find — the stacks are in a remote room, far from where patrons usually look for books, CDs and movies. But librarians are now beginning to bring the collection out, little by little, to the public.


On Saturday, the library hosted the first event in its new “Vinyl Revival” series, which aims to bring attention to the thriving audio format. Through June, artists will present vinyl-themed programming and curate records from the library’s stacks, many of which are the works of local musicians.


The library also converted a small meeting room on the third floor into a listening room equipped with a turntable and headphones, which people can reserve to listen to the artist-selected picks.


“We just wanted to connect people again with the collection, because it was being unused,” said associate librarian Elizabeth Cole. “It just felt like a really great tool for connecting generations.”


The vinyl market has steadily grown over the past decade. Record sales last year went up 15 percent from 2017 to a total 16.8 million sold, according to Billboard magazine. (This is still only a fraction of overall album sales, which are on the decline.)


That interest has been reflected in libraries, as well. The St. Paul Public Library system, for instance, allows people to check out vinyl from its collection.

Read more here: http://strib.mn/2U2qG3r​

House of Marley, the sustainability-focused audio brand owned by descendants of reggae legend Bob Marley, has announced a very cool update to its fantastic Stir It Up turntable at this year’s CES conference in Las Vegas.

House of Marley has added a Bluetooth 5.0 chip to the already awesome device, allowing buyers yet another great way to listen to their favorite analog audio. That’s on top of all of the connectivity options already offered by the original Stir It Up, which had a built-in phono preamp with RCA outputs, a forward-facing 3.5 mm headphone jack, and even a USB output for those looking to digitize their precious vinyl collection.

As with the original Stir It Up model, House of Marley has designed the Stir It Up Wireless to feature as many sustainable elements as possible. The turntable is built with fast-growing bamboo wood on its top, and the platter is crafted from recycled aluminum. It even uses upcycled plastic and aluminum, making it probably the most sustainable choice you can make in analog audio equipment if you’re looking for a brand-new device.

The Stir It Up Wireless is operated using very simple controls on the top right of its classy wooden top, with a knob that allows you to select between 33 RPM and 45 RPM playing speeds and a simple button for Bluetooth pairing. It’s even got an auto-return feature, which means that the needle of the turntable will return to its resting position next to the knob when it detects that you have finished listening to a single side of your record — saving wear and tear on both your favorite records and the needle itself.

Read more here: https://bit.ly/2ST575b​

All the cool kids are clamoring for vinyl these days. The LPs that took a back seat to CDs for 20-odd years are having a resurgence, and fun fact: Barnes & Noble offers a slew of vinyl LPs for your listening enjoyment. Here are seven reasons we think vinyl is here to stay—and why you should jump on this trend.

The sound of the music. There’s no disputing that listening to a song on vinyl is a wildly different experience than listening to the same song digitally. Vinyl offers a warmer sound that really fills the room, one that tells you more secrets and offers a richer story than an MP3 ever could. The whirring of the album on the table, the occasional scratch—they make the music a uniquely personal experience.

The experience. Listening to something on vinyl requires you to pay attention. Sure, you can putter around your apartment or dance while you listen, but you can’t bring your turntable on a run (oh, you can? I am impressed.) and you can’t bring it in the car. When you’re experiencing vinyl, you’re in your home. You select an album. You put it on the table. And you start it—at the very beginning. Then you listen to it, giving it your full attention. Kind of beautiful, right?

The cover art. Album covers give artists a lot of space to fill with an image that will provoke a powerful feeling and connect them to the music inside. There’s nothing quite as iconic as Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon. Thom Yorke’s The Eraser is a hypnotizing sweep of black and white shapes and scratches that seem to personify Yorke. And you probably had a poster of the Abbey Road cover on your wall in college. In contrast, album art for digital tracks means tiny thumbnail images on your iPhone. Not quite the same.

The tangibility. It feels so right to hold a record. You’re carrying around all the work and emotion the album contains. The LP drives home the idea that real people poured their hearts and souls into creating a lasting piece of art for their fans to enjoy. Carrying an LP in your hands is so much more satisfying than carrying a collection of bytes in your pocket.

The full album experience. Sure, you can lift the needle and skip to your favorite song. But when you’re listening to an LP, you’re a lot more likely to chill out and experience the album in its entirety, from start to finish, as the artist intended. In this way, you might come to love a song that you weren’t sure about at first. You’ll start to understand why the artist ordered the songs in the way she did. And you’ll really grasp concept albums like Pet Sounds.

It’s what our ancestors listened to. My parents have a large vinyl collection that I love flipping through when I’m home. What am I going to give my kids? The password to my Spotify account? When you buy LPs, you’re building a library that your friends and family can enjoy perusing. Looking at the albums you’ve selected will give them insight into your personality—and make them realize that you are one cool and trendy person, since you’re up on the vinyl craze.

Value. You can actually make a profit on your albums if you should one day choose to part with them. Vinyls new and old are highly sought after—mostly because they are hard to find. So aren’t you glad we’re selling them? We sure are!