While exploring the Queensland State Library’s catalog, I uncovered a fascinating artifact—the EMI World Record Markets Report. Published in 1976, this report offers a vivid snapshot of Australia’s booming vinyl industry at its peak. In the year it references, 22 million LPs, 38,000 EPs, and 5.9 million singles were pressed. Additionally, 285,000 record players were sold.
Discogs and the Mystery of Australia’s Missing Vinyl Records
Fast forward to today, and Discogs, the largest online platform for cataloging and buying music, reveals a surprising gap. Only 11,072 LPs from 1976 are listed for sale in Australia. This may seem like a significant number. But it represents less than one per cent of the 22 million LPs produced that year. Put simply, for every 2,000 records pressed, only one is listed online. Where are the rest?
Comparing Australia’s Vinyl Market to the US
This trend is reflected in other countries as well. In the United States 276 million LPs were produced in 1974. Today, only 175,389 of those records are listed on Discogs—approximately 0.06% of the total. While this percentage is slightly higher than Australia’s, it still means fewer than one in every 1,500 records is currently cataloged online.
The Untapped Potential of Vinyl in the Digital Age
Even the biggest vinyl sellers on Discogs, like Germany’s Record Sale, with over 1.2 million listings, only scratch the surface. For example, Germany produced 132.5 million records in 1974 alone. While many records may have been damaged, discarded, or forgotten, a vast number are likely still out there, waiting to be rediscovered by dedicated collectors and archivists of physical media.
The Mission That Drives Glitter Records
This realization informs my mission with Glitter Records. With 26,000 titles in the store’s collection—one of the largest in Australia—I am committed to uncovering more of vinyl’s hidden history.
Another brief point I will make is this. While the humble record store might seem like a timeless institution, it’s essential to recognize how its role in preserving legacy media is evolving. In 2024, record shops, particularly in the US, have been transitioning away from high-rent, high-foot-traffic locations. Instead they are moving to expansive warehouse-style spaces. This shift is pragmatic—it reflects a response to how digital media has reshaped the culture of collecting records, our shopping habits and created greater demand for stores to offer broader and more unique catalogs of music.
The Vision for Vinyl’s Future
After refining my philosophy on objective record store curation and immersing myself in works like Archive Fever by Jacques Derrida, I have also developed a growing passion for libraries and archives. Reading a book on the legendary Library of Alexandria, believed to have housed anywhere between 40,000 and 400,000 scrolls—including the works of Plato and Aristotle—led me to reflecting on the institution’s vast collection and its enduring cultural impact. It caused me to consider whether my own work with Glitter Records might play a more humble role in transmitting our past culture to future generations.
As an Australian record store Glitter Records has great potential to grow in its role as promoter and protector of past music. In doing so a record store becomes a place where the stories, sounds, and culture of music are preserved, and reignited in the hearts and minds of others.
To achieve this in a practical sense, I am actively studying warehousing, using my spare time to read resources like the textbook Warehouse Science by John J. Bartholdi III and Steven T. Hackman. This knowledge helps optimize how I organize and manage my collection back-of-house, with the ultimate goal of scaling into a larger, more efficient space.
This growth isn’t merely logistical. It represents a symbolic commitment of my record store to preserving the past. And to shaping the future of music appreciation.
Remediation: Using the Past to Shape the Future
Remediation is the process of drawing from the past to inspire and shape new ideas, innovations, and systems. In their 1998 book, Remediation: Understanding New Media, Jay David Bolter and Richard Grusin explain that remediation occurs when a new media borrows from, refashions or improves upon older media. They emphasize how this process fosters a continuous dialogue between past and present mediums, integrating historical practices to drive innovation. They argue that no medium operates in isolation—each builds upon and transforms its predecessors, enabling growth and evolution over time.
This concept provides a valuable framework through which to understanding the work of modern record stores. By housing the physical and cultural artifacts of earlier times, like vinyl records, stores such as mine offer others a wealth of intellectual and creative resources. Far from being mere nostalgic objects, vinyl records, along with other formats such as the CD, can act as instruments through which we rediscover forgotten stories, techniques, and creative of expression. In this way music can connect us to the artistry and craftsmanship of previous generations, acting as both an inspiration and a foundation for the future.
In merging historical reflection with modern innovation, Glitter Records aspires to create a vibrant future for physical media. This synthesis is about more than just uncovering rare and interesting finds. It’s about tapping into the past as an wellspring of intellectual and personal growth.
Key Points
The hour is late as I write this. And I fear I may have strayed from EMI’s Market Report into something resembling a lecture on Abraham Maslow‘s psychological theory of motivation. For this reason, I will reiterate my key points.
There is much that remains unexplored in Australia—and indeed the world—when it comes to vinyl and music. The production output of a single country in just one year appears to surpass all efforts made by those in that country to collect and catalog it’s music. From here, we must consider the evolving role of the modern record store. How the practical needs of collectors and the influence of digital technology are reshaping its purpose. Additionally, we must explore how these stores, by leveraging new technologies to celebrate and preserve older works, create a unique sense of meaning that warrants our deeper philosophical consideration.
