Vinyl Always in Style at Hideaway Music

Ten years ago, Brian Reisman decided to open a record store with his son Sean.

Music had always been a passion of Reisman’s, and he saw it as a good business opportunity.

“Chestnut Hill didn’t have a music store,” Reisman said.  “They said the same thing now about a bookstore that they said then about a record store.  ‘How come Chestnut Hill doesn’t have a bookstore?  How come Chestnut Hill didn’t have a record store?’”

So, Reisman opened Hideaway Music.  He turned his passion into an opportunity.

“If I had been aware of iPods at the time, I don’t know if I would have opened the store,” Reisman said.  “We opened right before the bottom fell out.”

That bottom was the massive cultural shift from purchasing compact discs to buying everything online, if you even paid for your music in the first place.

Reisman argues that vinyl record sales kept his business afloat more than anything else.

“We started off with two racks of vinyl,” Reisman said.  “Now it takes up more than half the store.”

Reisman said that vinyl sales have increased nationwide by over 500 percent since 2007, and turntable sales have gone up 40 percent.

Reisman is a Beatles man himself, and he says that the classic rock records are his best sellers.

“A lot of younger people get into vinyl because their parents give them their record collection,” Reisman said.  “We sell a lot of Led Zepplin and ‘Dark Side of the Moon.’”

Reisman added, “People like vinyl because it’s something you can hold in your hand.  Something you can collect.”

Besides classic rock, Hideway Music runs the gamut of genres including jazz, blues, world music and comedy records.

“We have a lot of stuff that you would never find on C.D.,” Reisman said. 

“I think people are coming back to vinyl because they enjoy the experience of listening to music,” Reisman said.  “They like the audio quality.”