You might say music is in the bricks of the storefront at 377 S. Limestone St., a venue that has been home to record stores since the early 1970s, spanning five different businesses over 40 years. Since 1999, the location has been home to CD Central, the record store that houses Lexington’s largest collection of compact discs and vinyl records.
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Owner Steve Baron and his South Limestone record shop CD Central will celebrate 20 years in April. | Photo by Emily Moseley
“I think that’s kind of cool, to be a part of that historical continuity,” said CD Central owner Steve Baron, adding that he hopes to continue there for many more years.
Launched 20 years ago at the height of the compact disc’s ubiquity, CD Central has thrived even as its namesake audio format has been supplanted by digital downloads and the retro resurgence of vinyl. Baron will celebrate the store’s 20th anniversary April 18 during Record Store Day, a yearly event created created eight years ago by a national group of independent record store owners.
In addition to selling limited edition titles from a variety of artists created especially for Record Store Day, the celebration will feature live bands and a food truck in its parking lot. Among the bands slated to perform are Ancient Warfare, The Footsteps and Doc Feldman and the Infernal Method.
Baron opened CD Central in 1995 at a location on Bolivar Street, moving four years later to its current spot on South Limestone, where it took over two storefronts.
“The bottom line is you’ve got to listen to your customers and try to do the best you can to respond to what people are looking for,” he said of his store’s success.
A big part of that has been adapting to those shifts in audio formats.
When the store opened, CDs represented 98 percent of the inventory. Today, vinyl is king for independent stores.
Over the last few years, while music sales have increased, CD sales have declined due to the popularity of digital music. In 2014 alone, CD sales were down 16 percent. Despite this, vinyl sales, although a much smaller number, were up by more than 40 percent.
Baron said the vinyl’s relative scarcity at big-box stores such as Best Buy or Wal-Mart, left an opening for stores like his, which tend to foster a tighter relationship with customers who are often something more than just casual music fans.
“For us, vinyl is part of our bread and butter,” said Baron. “It’s something we’ve devoted a lot of resources to. Vinyl can be hard to get, can be hard to restock. It’s a niche market, but it’s our niche.”
The store currently carries 10,000 new and used records, in addition to 25,000 CDs in stock. Vinyl account for about half of all sales at the store, said Baron. He attributes the resurgence to a generation of music lovers who want to experience the intimate, physical side of listening to music, which is hard to find in the digital age.
“They like the sound, they like the experience of putting a disc on a player,” he said. “It’s so different for a person who’s grown up where everything is digital. I think it’s people kind of getting back in touch with stuff that’s real. It’s just a different experience.”
CD Central’s
Record Store Day &
20th Anniversary
Celebration