Patchogue’s Record Stop Turns 50
If you were digging on the Jackson Five, Elton John, Barbara Streisand, or any other popular artist back in the early 1970s, chances are you copped your albums from the Record Stop, a Suffolk fixture celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.
“It was a time when buying music was an experience,” said Jeff Berg, whose father, Bruce, started the outlet before there were tapes, CDs, or digital downloads. “People collect albums, enjoy the liner notes, and appreciate the warmth and rich sound of vinyl records. They like to handle them, flip them over, listen to the full album,” he said, noting that the difference between vinyl and digital music is “quite apparent.”
The miracle of recorded sound found its start in 1896 with Thomas Edison, the “Wizard of Menlo Park” in New Jersey, who figured out how to transfer musical vibrations onto wax cylinders that could be played on a phonograph. He found that platters were better than cylinders, and soon, wind-up machines with large horns were the rage. Turntables have come a long way since the days of the Victrola, incorporating diamond-tipped needles and strobe lights to set an LP’s exact 33 1/3 revolutions per minute, but the mechanics have stayed the same.
Back in the early 70's, before Record Stop, Bruce Berg was selling 8-track cassettes out of the trunk of his car when he decided to open the first Record Stop in Ronkonkoma.
He witnessed the transition from vinyl to tapes to compact discs to digital players. His son worked in the store, and when he was in college, he scanned all of the shop’s CDs onto his laptop and sold them online. “It was an instant success,” Jeff says, explaining his entry into the business world. They opened a warehouse in Shirley and soon after closed the store in Ronkonkoma as CD sales were slowing and vinyl was starting to surface again.
In 2017, he was looking for a permanent home and bought the first place his realtor showed him, the well-trafficked Record Stop on Railroad Avenue in Patchogue. Here, you can snatch up both new and used LP’s CD’s, DVD’s, Blu-Ray, turntables, and music accessories.
“Vinyl has made a comeback,” Jeff exclaimed, noting that many artists are making sure their new releases are pressed into records. Classics in almost every genre are being reissued on vinyl, and sales are hot, with his operation moving about a million units per year. The phenomenon hasn’t escaped popstar Taylor Swift, whose records make up about 10% of Berg’s sales.
He attributes a big part of the store’s success to his staff, audiophiles with a knowledge base in all areas of music. “As a collective, they have a great deal of experience,” he said of his crew, some of whom have been with him for over 20 years.
About 75% of the Record Stop’s clients are repeat customers. “This has been my local place for music for 15 years,” said Rob Festa of Ronkonkoma. “They have a great selection, a knowledgeable and friendly staff, reasonable prices,” the heavy metal fan said as he picked up some works by Mercyful Fate and In Flames. “I want to have physical copies of my music, not just online streams. You need to support the artists you like,” Festa said while thumbing through offerings from Styx, Iron Maiden, and Judas Priest.
Serving as a wholesaler to other stores, Berg has recently expanded his operations with a warehouse in Bohemia and another shop in Charleston, SC, where his family also works with artists to take their music to the public. The Record Stop buys collections, with vintage Blue Note Jazz and underground punk among the most desirable, as well as first pressings of rock and pop classics. Check them out at www.recordstopny.com or www.record-stop.com.
It’s hard to forget the joy of a needle dropping down on a record and hearing the crackles and pops before its deep sounds fill the air. There’s no other experience in recorded music that compares, and that’s why people keep coming back to the Record Stop.