The music industry has taken a hit this summer with festival goers left disappointed after cancellations, but Cowley Road’s Truck Store is keen to get music lovers back in and buying records.
Today is record store day and usually it would have been the store’s biggest day of the year.
Previous events at the Truck Store have seen queues winding down Cowley Road with bands or DJs welcoming them in to grab a limited-edition vinyl.
However, store manager Carl Smithson has described this years’ event as ‘stripped back’.
Today music lovers will have the chance to buy a rare record with morning appointments and later in the day there will be a socially distanced queue with further drops ins later in September and October.
Truck Store has made some slight changes for customers, there is now hand sanitiser stations and a Perspex screen at the counter. But albums are still on the shelves and the coffee bar run by Mostro Coffee is now open serving drinks in takeaway cups and the store's vibes are much the same.
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Although the shop has had to cancel some of its album launches and acoustic events, the record store has ideas for the future.
Mr Smithson said: “The music industry is obviously taking a bit of a battering; we do a lot of stuff in collaboration with local venues like selling tickets. We had to unfortunately cancel a lot of events that we would have been doing at local venues.
"We do a lot of stuff in terms of promo launches for albums that we have just not been able to do as much of, that is an aspect of what we do which has unfortunately had to be put on pause."
He added: “We have done one virtual album launch with Polly Scattergood. A lot of the things we do are acoustic indoor sets with artists, but we are looking to do something virtual with acts going forward. The ideal would be getting people back in the store properly.”
The independent record store is urging people to rediscover the shop and the range of music it has to offer.
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Mr Smithson said: “Every business needs help, but in particular anything music related. We are lucky that the new release schedule has kept going through lockdown, but the great thing is every week there are always new albums to get excited about and we are always stocking new stuff. So, we have been able to keep that going and get new albums on the shelves each week.”
While the store was closed over lockdown, they took their music online and ramped up their home delivery service, providing new releases when everything was else was shut.
Now their website is providing a service for music lovers currently shielding and not able to get out to the shop.
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