Australia’s boom in record shops: ‘Our regulars are high school kids who can stream stuff for free!’

With revenue from vinyl sales nearing $37m in Australia last year, new retailers explain why they opened record stores post-Covid

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Joshua Hodson-Smith spent much of the pandemic listening to an obscure record called Panther Phobia, by Memphis band Tav Falco. It was the mix of swampy blues and dark poetry on tracks like Cockroach that seemed to capture the mood of endless lockdowns. And after dabbling in selling records online, Hodson-Smith finally quit his warehouse job to open Footscray Records last July.

“With the virus, no one knew what was going on. I hated work and wanted out of a bad situation,” he says. “I’ve been collecting records for years and so I just went for it. There was no real plan. I looked for a spot and then leant in. It hit me the day I signed the lease – I knew it was suddenly real.”