Indy CD & Vinyl co-owner Andy Skinner, World Record Shoppe proprietor Keith Reinart and Luna Music owner Todd Robinson each spoke on the record about their music stores.

Skinner co-owns and manages Indy CD & Vinyl with his wife, Annie, at 806 Broad Ripple Avenue. "Annie worked in the store in its prior location in Utah. She moved here in 2001 from Salt Lake City when previous owner Rick Zeigler (Gazette columnist 2006-2011) brought the store to Broad Ripple. When he was retiring in late 2013, he offered the shop to purchase from him. So, we bought it and renovated it, but everything else stayed the same. Rick and Annie had a long professional relationship and he and I were close as well, so buying the store was a natural progression for all of us," he explained. Andy met Annie in the store when they were introduced by a mutual friend, who remains close to them. They have been married for 11 years.

When asked about new vinyl pricing, he discussed the economics and marketing of vinyl records and their resurgence. "Over the years, independent record stores have continued carrying vinyl records with compact discs. When there was a decline in sales in the early 1990s, there were some companies that stopped manufacturing vinyl records because they didn't want to take the risk of not selling what they made. The biggest change and why many larger retailers stopped carrying vinyl altogether, is the distributors stopped accepting unsold records (returns) from retailers. Now with the resurgence of vinyl's popularity, there is a little bit of a bottleneck with the production process, causing some record prices to go up. This pricing gets passed along to retailers and we then have to pass it on to customers. Some more vinyl manufacturers have come online, but increasing production depends on finding more record pressing plates and machines. The Holy Grail is looking for mothballed record pressing machines that can be restored and be used to help the bottleneck. We have some manufacturers here in the U.S., but demand is currently outstripping production, resulting in some higher prices that you see," he noted. This may have leave some customers singing the blues.

"At Indy CD & Vinyl, we offer deep selections of every genre of titles. We order and carry just about everything and are also bolstering our children's music section. We make it a kid-friendly environment here, where we have a Kid's Day once a month with a live performer. This will be true even on National Record Store Day (NRSD) when we will have two hours of kid's music, face painting and games," Skinner said. Indy CD & Vinyl notably has a kid's play area in the back of their store so children can play while parents and older siblings can shop. He continued, "There will be live bands scheduled and food trucks will provide refreshments." A list of bands and more information is on page 8.

"I think there is a good future for independent record stores. I find our store is a community center a lot of times. This place is like a local newspaper," Skinner surmised. With their musical selection, there is always something new to discover at Indy CD & Vinyl, whose hours are Monday through Saturday Noon a.m. to 8 p.m. and Sunday Noon to 6 p.m. Inquiries about specific music titles or genres can be answered at (317) 259-1012.

In addition to Indy CD & Vinyl (www.indycdandvinyl.com), Andy and Annie own A-Squared (www.asquaredindustries.com), a marketing and promotion company specializing in problem solving. Their clients have included Indianapolis Motor Speedway, The Vogue and Live Nation. He is also a business manager at Butler Toyota.

Keith Reinart opened World Record Shoppe in 1979 at 5218 Keystone Court. His 800-square foot location sells blues, classical, gospel, contemporary and classic jazz, musicals, reggae, rock and soul.

"When I was younger, I had many different jobs, mostly in the entertainment industry, but have always had an ear for music. I was formerly a Billboard Magazine reporter, manufacturer's representative, worked in radio and with musical artists. They still visit the store and play their music for me. I've worked in a retail background from the time I was 15 to 18 years old. It's a generational business. I have customers I've known for 30 to 40 years who have followed me from different locations. Some people return to visit out of nostalgia. I see their lives, marriage, divorces, births, deaths, relationships and changes in their lives. There are thousands of customers that I've known over the years. It's been an interesting life. I've been offered other jobs over the years and even been asked to be in politics, but this has been a drug of choice," he mentioned.

Hundreds of records in the back of the store include Phil Collins' Face Value and No Jacket Required, The Doors' Morrison Motel, The Kinks' State of Confusion, Emerson Lake and Palmer's Trilogy, Sting's Nothing Like the Sun and Pete Townsend's All the Best Cowboys have Chinese Eyes in addition to picture disks of the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and Yesterday and Today.

In addition to LPs, World Record Shoppe sells 12" singles, (45s) 7" singles, cassettes, VHS movies, DVDs, burners, incense, oils, carved boxes, record sleeves, cleaners, shot glasses, mugs, decals, bumper stickers, cigarette cases & lighters, ryo (roll your own) papers, black lights & posters, new & old releases, pipes, ashtrays, grinders, scales, hats and more.

World Record Shoppe was the first store in Indiana to sell compact discs and has always been a pioneer or leader in the U.S. with most genres of music with formats such as 12" singles, Beta, VHS, laser discs, digital tape, pagers, cell phones, prepaid cards and the establishment of the CD. "There was an episode where I was asked to help some major companies with their internal problems. I created my own position and reorganized their retail stores and helped at the warehouse. Distributors took care of the retail operations and I had a blast. I helped establish what is known as the 12" single format. The 12" single was a new format that took years to establish because the customer didn't understand it and manufacturers didn't like it because it sold for $3.99 when albums sold for $10. But, it established musical genres like funk, disco, hip-hop and rap. It was hard to talk retailers into carrying it. We built displays that explained the 12" single, why it existed and created a chart for the store to inventory. We agreed to accept 100% returns with retailers to get it established. We made specials to displays, created charts, reviews and definitions. There were a lot of artists (hundreds) like Prince and Madonna who got established by this format or resurrected careers like Michael Jackson, ZZ Top, Bruce Springsteen, Tina Turner and Barbra Streisand. Hip-hop music was established with efforts from WTLC, Indianapolis Record Pool. Almost any major or minor hip-hop or club music artist would contact WRS to sell their music. WRS had the power and ability to break and make hits throughout the 80s and 90s," Reinart recalled.

"I was in the office with the buyer for a major distributor in 1979. The Warner Brothers representative visited and said, 'We don't know what to do with this project. We've got this new artist, Prince.' He said, 'Keith you're the guy. . . what do we do with this?' The WB representative played it and I said, 'This is very good. Can't you get him to change his [album] cover or his name?' I started calling accounts all over the U.S. Nobody would carry the record. [The cover] was ugly. There was prejudice against this album from EVERY single type of store. We had to ship it to them free on consignment and guaranteed 100% percent returns. I took it to WTLC. They played it and the rest is history. Who knows? If that didn't happen, there might not have been Prince," Reinart noted.

World Record Shoppe's hours are Monday through Saturday 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. and

Sunday Noon to 5:00 p.m. Their number is (317) 253-5812.

Luna Music owner Todd Robinson described his store at 5202 N. College Avenue [PP23 on map]. "I started Luna (on West 86th Street) back in 1994 after visiting my brother here from Ohio. One of the things that I always used to do growing up was go record shopping. At the time, I expressed disappointment that there wasn't a record shop in town that I could go to. In high school, I cut my teeth working at a Dayton, Ohio record store. Eventually, either I had to get a job at a record label or open a store of my own. I decided to move to a capital city (Indianapolis) and come up with the idea of opening a retail store in 1994. One of my earliest memories is playing the Boxtops record, "The Letter," he reminisced.

Robinson described the store's selection: "We stock a lot of different music. We establish a rapport with the customer at the counter, asking where they heard about the music they are purchasing. It's about what the customer wants that determines how we stock the shop."

He mentioned some of Luna's Music events for NRSD, "As far as the performers, (see page 8) we have a fanatically solid band line-up from Noon to closing time. There will be variety of music from hip rip to rock and punk. We will be producing 70-year technology by using a hard piece of plastic where one copy of a single is cut in real time from a song played by a band or solo artist. It's like a local album project. Music performances will begin at Noon behind the record shop when Upland Brewing will begin serving beer. La Margarita restaurant will bring their taco truck at 11 a.m. Sometimes the line leading into the store crests at about 150-200 people in the morning before we open at 8 a.m. We sell special record store releases and we do special glow-in-the-dark keychain. I am also a board member of a coalition that runs record stores all through the country. Hiss Golden Messenger will be playing with proceeds from their performance going to the ACLU. Service and Michael Raintree will be performing as well. They give us tracks that are unreleased and we record them."

The most rewarding thing about my work is the people I work with. If I didn't have a fun, smart crew of employees, I wouldn't be doing it. It's the people that make the difference," Robinson noted.

Luna Music's (www.lunamusic.net) hours are 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday and Noon to 5 p.m. Sunday. To inquire about specific titles, call (317) 283-5862.

You can discover diverse genres of music at Indy CD & Vinyl, World Record Shoppe and Luna Music.