Localized Crate-digging through Toronto's best vinyl outlets

In case you live under a rock shaped like an Ogg Vorbis file, vinyl is making a comeback. More artists are pressing their albums as long-players, members of a younger generation are discovering their parents’ record collections, and independent record stores everywhere have been catering to the developing trend. Despite the closure of longtime Toronto staples Sam The Record Man and Criminal Records, there are still plenty of great places in the city to get new, rare, and used records.

The A.V. Club recently spoke to employees and owners at four stores to find out just how popular vinyl has gotten and which records they can’t keep on the shelves.

Kops Records
Established: 1976.
Inventory: “Thousands and thousands,” estimates employee Patrick Grant. “It’s increased.”
Specializes in: Classic and alternative rock, soul, punk, jazz, and hip-hop. “We also have the largest collection of 45s in the city,” says Ian Chung, another staffer.
Demographics: Grant guesses the bulk of the store’s clients are anywhere between 20 and 50 years old.
Best sellers: Classic-rock standbys like Zeppelin, Floyd, and The Beatles.
Holy grail: “Northern soul singles are some of the most sought-after records,” says Chung. “Our owner Martin [Koppel] is the publisher of The Northern Soul Price Guide and has been collecting records for over 40 years. Some of those 45s can go for thousands of dollars.”
How to keep afloat: “Building good relations with customers is important to us,” Chung says. “We have people from Europe and the U.S. shopping with us, because they know we can get them what they want.”

Cosmos Records (607A Queen St. W.)The bins outside Cosmos Records.Max Mertens
Established: “About 14 or 15 years ago,” according to owner Aki Abe. Cosmos’ second location (just down the street at 663 Queen St. W.) is 6 years old.
Inventory: “We just bought about 15,000 records last week,” says Abe, who estimates that the two stores rack up about 50,000 records.
Specializes in: Soul, funk, early hip-hop, jazz, Brazilian, and psychedelic. 
Demographics: “Across the board,” says Abe. “If you’re a collector, it’s in your blood—and you’re a collector forever.”
Holy grail: “We’ve had a few first pressings of records that can sell for a few grand. Mostly these are records by jazz innovators like Hank Mobley or Dizzy Reece that are less in supply,” says Abe.
Oddest customer request: The original pressing of Alice Cooper’s School’s Out (1972), packaged with a pair of girl’s panties.
How to keep afloat: “We’re a small business, so it’s important for us to know our market,” says Abe. “Especially because you can buy records through sellers on the Internet today. By staying consistent and keeping good inventory, we can stay ahead of the game.”

Mike’s Music (105 Danforth Ave.)
Established: 1992
Inventory: “Around 3,000,” says owner Mike Waite. “We sell records faster than I can keep them stocked.” Though he also notes that Mike’s moves about four CDs for every record.
Demographics: According to Waite, “More younger people are buying records, though the majority of our customers buying vinyl still are older collectors ... It’s hip right now. I can’t say if this trend will last forever though. Sometimes a trend will stay hip, other times it will fall off a cliff.”
Holy grail: Waite keeps a copy of Howlin’ Wolf’s debut album behind the counter. He guesstimates that it could fetch anywhere between $600 and $1,200 on eBay. “I haven’t decided yet whether I’m going to sell it or hold on to it.”
How to keep afloat: “I think we work a lot harder to find stock,” Waite says. “I’m always hunting for rare records, and I have collectors out on the road that I deal with on a frequent basis.”

Sonic Boom Kensington (201 Augusta Ave)Sonic Boom's new vinyl speciality shop in Kensington.Max Mertens
Established: While Sonic Boom on Bloor has been a Toronto retail institution for more than a decade, it’s new vinyl-specialty location is only about seven weeks old.
Inventory: “I would say approximately 20 to 30 thousand,” says Sonic Boom staffer Matt Flook. “We’ve expanded a lot. The purpose of the Kensington store was to set up an older-style vinyl shop, though the focus on vinyl has not decreased at our other location.” Flook estimates that Sonic Boom’s split between vinyl and CD sales is about 50/50.
Specializes in: “We can’t help but carry a lot of rock,” says Flook. “Everything from classic rock ’n’ roll to punk rock to new wave to indie rock.”
Demographics: According to Flook, it’s not just twentysomething university students getting back into vinyl, but high school kids as well. In addition to records, Sonic Boom moves about 50 record players per month.
Bestsellers: Classic rock (Beatles, Floyd, Fleetwood Mac, Zeppelin), as well as newer titles. “Last month we sold a lot of copies of the new Tame Impala record. This month’s bestseller has been St. Vincent,” says Flook.
Strangest Request: “We have an artist named Tim Oakley who has been building our window displays for the past six years,” says Flook. “For one display, we had some fans in the window. We had people coming in asking if the fans were for sale.”
How to keep afloat: “You can’t be lazy in this business,” Flook says. “You always have to be coming up with new ideas to make people want to shop. People love Kensington Market, so it made sense to have this as another destination for people to buy records.”