Vinyl lives

>> Music merchant believes in
the lasting quality of the LP

by CHRIS BARRY

Name: Dan Hadley

Age: 43

Occupation: Proprietor of Nice Music/ Death of Vinyl

Bio: This spirited Outremont hunk first started labouring in a used Ottawa record store called Second Time Around at age 16. Today the owner of music distributor Nice Music and vinyl record outlet Death of Vinyl (435 Beaubien W., 4th floor), Dan, who holds an MA in Communications from Concordia, says he “decided to permanently leave academia 15 years ago because I thought I’d always have a job in the music industry—although the past few years have really made me question that assumption. Still, given the situation the industry is in, now that I’m not fighting it, just trying to make the best of it, it’s a lot of fun, incredible fun. I’m using all my skills, referencing everything I’ve ever done just to keep on going. And it’s a very similar story for the other people I know in the industry, those of us who haven’t left it, at least.” He “tries not” to drive his 1997 Subaru Legacy.

Why Nice Music has finally opened their warehouse doors to sell directly to the public: “Well, especially after DNA closed in February, we realized we had all these titles in our warehouse that were never going to reach the streets of Montreal. There just weren’t any stores here to take these records anymore.” For Nice Music’s hours etc, go to deathofvinyl.com or nicemusic.ca.

The number of local record stores Nice Music once sold to which have closed recently: “Let’s put it this way, in 2000, during the heyday of vinyl and the DJ craze, we used to sell weekly to 15 stores in Montreal, and now, basically, there are two.”

One music product that still sells: Used vinyl.

Why anybody might want vinyl in the digital age: “There’s a whole generation of young kids raised on classic rock like Led Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones who are now seeking these artists out on vinyl—even though they’ve had the re-mastered deluxe CD version for years, they want to have the album the way it originally came out, hear it the same way people originally heard it, hold it in their hands and do the whole thing.”

Another reason people might want your un-cool mom’s copy of Frampton Comes Alive: “Because there’s still so much on record that’s never come out on CD, and also, because it can be cheaper. To a lot of people, CDs and cassettes aren’t real in the same way a record is. CDs don’t last well on your shelf. They all look very much the same, and after everyone got into CD copying, people now have hundreds of CDRs in generic sleeves lying around in piles in their living room. There’s just something about CDs that doesn’t seem real, where with vinyl it somehow never feels like a copy—which is kind of stupid when you think about it, because of course vinyl is also a copy of the original master tapes, but it’s the only type of copy that seems to have a certain enduring quality.”

Last book read: The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan.

Musical preferences: Kode9, CSS, Battlefield Band.

Words of wisdom: “Que sera, sera.”

Comments: dimwit@hdot.net