Vinyl sales are booming. At this point, it’s less of a revival and more of a full-on second coming of the long-playing record.
While turntables are becoming common in homes once again, the classic vinyl jukebox is also on the comeback trail.
NPR reports business is booming for one of the only full-time vinyl jukebox repairmen in the United States.
Perry Rosen from New York travels the US doing up old machines from the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s.
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Rosen (pictured) dismantled and rebuilt his first broken Rock-Ola jukebox aged 16, and he’s been doing it ever since. He explains that most of the older machines have up to 1000 working parts, including electrical contacts, gears, levers, and mechanisms used in transferring the records.
Because these parts aren’t made any more, they’re in very short supply.
Image credit: Perry Rosen (via NPR)
Recreating the days
Rosen says his clients include older generations looking to revisit the tunes of their youth, while younger people are also stocking the jukeboxes with their own collections.
The revival comes in the era of digital TouchTunes jukeboxes streaming vast libraries of millions of songs, while many establishments use the likes of Pandora stations to provide customers with musical entertainment.
Punch even details the 15 best bars in America that are still rocking old-school vinyl or CD jukeboxes.
“Most of my customers have older machines from the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s,” Rosen told NPR.
“They’re using them to play their collection of records that they grew up with when they were teenagers. They try to recreate the days when they went to a candy store or a bar. They remember the jukebox playing because there’s always a specific song where they met a girl or a guy and it kind of brings back memories.”
Would you like to fill a vinyl jukebox with your 45 collection? Drop us a line @TrustedReviews on Twitter.
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
