I’m certain the decision to bring a “factory” to Austin was an easy one. My favorite place, Waterloo Records, has been expanding the amount of physical space dedicated to vinyl while the CD racks have shrunk. I favor anything that keeps the lights on since numerous new and used music stores have bit the dust over the last 20 years around Austin: Cheapo, Technophilia, ABCD, Jupiter, Neptune and Tower (no one cried over the last one’s “death.”) Half-Priced Books has been jacking their used prices now.
Personally, I don’t plan on investing in the hardware to play vinyl…I might change my mind should the means to digitize via USB is relatively easy. I currently only buy 12″ records because they look even better when autographed as you may have seen with Matthew Sweet, Weird Al Yankovic, and John Carpenter.
Let’s see how it pans out.