Spin some discs with D.C. record stores

With digital music players, streaming internet radio, and file sharing services, our generation has greater access to music than any before us. But even with the ability to hear millions of songs almost instantaneously, sales of vinyl LPs are enjoying a resurgence even as CD sales are on the decline. Vinyl is coming back, and D.C. record stores have just what you need.
When Adams Morgan’s Crooked Beat Records first opened in 1997, vinyl was around 30 percent of the store’s total sales. It stayed that way until 2007, when sales of vinyl LPs surged past CDs for the first time. Currently, vinyl constitutes over 80 percent of the store’s sales, including Internet and mail order sales.
Bill Daly, owner of Crooked Beat, attributes this comeback to the artwork and nostalgia of the vinyl record. “People see an LP and it’s like an artifact,” Daly said. He also noted that the “warmer sound” of vinyl provides “a better representation of the bottom end, the bass and drums.”

Crooked Beat specializes in hard-to-find CDs and LPs from outside of the mainstream and the commercial. “Since we are a specialty store, we go after stuff our audience knows we will have,” Daly said. “We attract an artsy crowd. It’s an underground thing.”
Crooked Beat isn’t all the District has to offer in the way of vinyl. In Dupont Circle, Melody Record Shop has offered a selection of media since 1977. While specializing in indie rock, Melody will order any record not in stock. The store is open late, closing at 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday.
If you feel like venturing farther abroad, check out Red Onion Records and Books, located between Adams Morgan and Dupont Circle. The store specializes in used records, CDs, and books. Som Records on 14th Street opens everyday at noon and also offers a selection of vinyl records, from rock and go-go to salsa and electronic.
Although vinyl sales are at least relatively booming, some stores are feeling the effects of the frosty economic climate. DJ Hut, a Dupont Circle establishment that specialized in 12” dance records, announced that it would be closing its doors this past April, though it will continue to sell records online.
While vinyl certainly remains an inconvenient and anachronistic method of accessing music, digging up and spinning a few old LPs is a nice change of pace from replaying the over-compressed files in your iTunes. It’s a bit expensive, but D.C. has enough quality record stores to justify dusting off and absconding with your parents’ old turntable.

Crooked Records is located at 2318 18th Street NW; Melody Records is located at 1623 Connecticut Avenue NW; Red Onion Records is at 1901 18th Street NW; Som Records is located at 1843 14th Street NW.