The Tables Are Turning
Bob Roccanti says vinyl is enjoying a resurgence among people of all ages.
As he was explaining why vinyl has been staging a dramatic comeback over the past decade, Bob Roccanti stopped, reached into a box, and pulled out a Stevie Wonder album, circa 1972.
“Look at this … you buy this, you’ve got some artwork,” he said as he showed the cover. “And there’s lyrics, inside you’ve got some more things …a lot of these record albums tell a story.
“It’s a lot warmer than this,” he went on, holding up his cell phone and opining that this is just one reason why some Baby Boomers are rebuilding the record collections that filled their dorm rooms in the ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s and also why their children and even grandchildren are embracing vinyl — although Taylor Swift is probably the biggest reason there.
All this also explains Raspberries Records, a long-held dream and entrepreneurial gambit (although he says it’s not much of a gamble) for Roccanti, a retired wireless industry executive.
“You can put a record store anywhere, and they will find you.”
“It’s something I’ve always wanted to do — I’ve always been into music,” he said, adding that he opened his first location in Ludlow, where he lives and plays much of his golf, in 2022, and then expanded into a strip mall near the center of East Longmeadow roughly 18 months ago. Neither location is in a busy urban area, but they don’t have to be, he explained.
“You can put a record store anywhere, and they will find you,” he told BusinessWest, adding that ‘they’ means visitors from around the corner, halfway across the state, or even another state who arrive in person or go online to browse or find a specific item.
That list includes everything from a copy of the Beatles’ White Album — he generally has a dozen or more in the inventory that sell for $30 on average — to vintage band T-shirts; from blank album covers and frames to put them in to eight-tracks, tapes, and CDs; from 45s to vintage ’60s and ’70s stereo systems.
“We’re like the old Sears — we have good, better, and best, he said, pointing to a few stereos on the floor and on racks selling for between $500 and $1,000.
But the albums, new and vintage, are the big sellers. They cross all genres, and they’re being picked up people coming into stores or ordering them online, he said, adding that he ships out 10 to 12 a day on average.
“We get a lot of Baby Boomers in here, but we also get their children, and they think this is the coolest thing,” he said, adding that he believes this renewed interest in vinyl has legs and is not a fad.
For this issue, we talked with Roccanti about his venture, the record business, and the still-growing interest in vinyl.
Music to His Ears
As he talked with BusinessWest in the back room of the East Longmeadow store, Roccanti was surrounded by thousands of albums covering every genre and every letter of the alphabet.
Along the top row of shelves, many albums were separated by artist, with names written on tape along the bottom: Linda Ronstadt, J. Geils Band, Cat Stevens, Loggins & Messina, and the Beach Boys, among many others. For Boomers, these albums represent a trip in the ‘way back machine,’ while for the younger generations, it’s a new fascination and something more visual — and personal — than streaming music services.
One of the ’70s-era stereo systems for sale at Raspberries.
When asked where the 71,000 albums he has between the two stores came from, he said simply, “everywhere,” meaning everything from collections from other stores to area residents cleaning out attics and basements.
“A typical call would be, ‘we’ve got a bunch of records. We don’t use them anymore. They belong to my kids; I called the kids, and they said to just get rid of them. Before we take them up to the Goodwill or Salvation Army, we thought we’d give you a call.’”
And while people are still getting rid of their vinyl, others are buying it. When asked who, Roccanti said this runs the gamut as well.
“Collectors come in, other record stores come in and buy from us, people looking for something specific,” he said, adding that prices range from a few dollars to more than $2,000 for a rare funk album from the early ’90s.
“We’ve sold some old jazz albums for more than $1,000,” he said. “And then, you have some different albums that are unique in their own ways because they’re promo copies, or they printed very limited amounts of them, things like that.”
“We’ve sold some old jazz albums for more than $1,000. And then, you have some different albums that are unique in their own ways because they’re promo copies, or they printed very limited amounts of them, things like that.”
Roccanti anticipated all this when he conceptualized Raspberries. He said he started by visiting other record stores — and there are many of them, including maybe a dozen in the 413 by his count — and asking those behind the counter about the business and his prospects for success.
“Some of them would be very encouraging, and others were less so — many of them were retired, and they said they’d seen the industry change,” he recalled. “I saw opportunity, with Taylor Swift coming on board creating a huge amount of interest from young people — everything she came out with was on vinyl.
“All these people were buying record players that had never owned record players,” he went on, adding that demand remains high, and it’s from several different generations of music lovers.
Bob Roccanti, seen here with a copy of the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, has amassed more than 71,000 records in his stores.
“We’ve got customers that are 12 years old and customers in their 80s,” he explained. “Some of them are just getting into vinyl, and some of them have been into vinyl their whole life. It’s unique in that sense because, when you’re planning your marketing and your strategy, you have to look at the big picture — who’s my target? Our target is anyone and everyone.”
Spin City
Roccanti said he started in Ludlow with a decent amount of inventory, and it didn’t take long to “fill the bins,” as he put it.
“As soon as we opened, from the first month, we were getting calls — the phone was ringing off the hook; ‘do you buy records? Do you buy records? Do you buy records?’” he recalled. “We were very fortunate because people were just getting rid of them.
“Sometimes, people just want to give them to us; other times, they want to sell them,” he went on. “One thing we generally do if someone just wants to give them away … if there’s value in them, I don’t let them leave without taking some money because I’m going to make money, and I want to be fair. If you found out one of those records you tried to give away was worth 100 bucks, you’d be pretty upset.”
Elaborating, Roccanti said there was obviously a learning curve involved with knowing just what an album is worth, and there have always been knowledgeable sources to rely on, as well as the internet.
“Everyone has a story about music.”
“I was fortunate that I had several record store owners that I became friends with,” he said. “I always had someone I could call and say, ‘hey, I’ve got a chance to buy this Beach Boys album.’ They’d say, ‘let me call you back, Bob,’ and when they did, they’d say, ‘grab it, Bob, it’s worth some money.’
“I’ve learned a lot, and the internet is fantastic — you can Google anything,” he went on. “And there are apps that are dedicated specifically to record stores and collectors.”
As for the business side of things, Roccanti said it has been steady, with solid numbers of customers visiting the stores or perusing items online.
A good start in Ludlow prompted thoughts of expansion, and the site in the strip mall in East Longmeadow, a former juice bar, fit the bill.
The nearby rotary — or infamous rotary, to be more precise — detracts a few, but it’s also a good reference point because everyone knows it, even if they don’t want to drive around it, he said.
Meanwhile, that aforementioned learning curve continues — with regard to what items are worth and what they can be sold for, and also what customers are seeking.
“They’re coming in with lists,” Roccanti explained, adding that the bulk of what is sold falls into the category of classic rock, but there is interest in many other genres as well.
“I’ve got a lot of customers my age who realize that this stuff is available again,” he said. “Now, they’re thinking, ‘I had these albums,’ and, little by little, they’re rebuilding their collections, whether it’s Springsteen, Bob Dylan…”
With that, he went back into the bin and pulled out a Traffic album from the early ’70s.
“People will come in, see this, and say, ‘I had this album,’ and then they’ll tell me a story — ‘I was dating this girl, and I loaned her this album, and I never got it back,’” he told BusinessWest. “Everyone has a story about music.”
And that’s why this entrepreneurial venture has taken off, and why Roccanti believes it has a solid future.
