VMP Magazine

The 50 Best Record Stores In America is an essay series where we attempt to find the best record store in every state. These aren’t necessarily the record stores with the best prices or the deepest selection; you can use Yelp for that. Each record store featured has a story that goes beyond what’s on its shelves; these stores have history, foster a sense of community and mean something to the people who frequent them.

The essential staple of Soundcloud is that it places the keys to the proverbial gates of the industry directly in the hands of new, enterprising content creators. The little orange and white streaming engine-that-could has been the go-to hub for grassroots beginnings of musicians, podcasters, and blogs. And it looks like it’s going to die.

SoundCloud abandoned its core principles and isolated users by moving away from what made it unique to the everyday listener, and because of that it’s on life support.

Collectors of vinyl know the distinct pleasure of flipping a record over to the other side after the first half of the record is over. What might be considered an inconvenience to users who use modern music listening measures, the physical act of moving the turntable needle to the beginning of second side of the record can provide a sense of clarity, flipping to the next page of the story told through songs. The second side of a hit single 7” or 12” record can give one further appreciation for songs that weren’t destined to be hits on the radio, but hits to your ears all the same.