Ian Feasy, who has owned Relics Records in Leeds for 35 years, said his shop in the city centre was seeing an increasing number of customers through the doors in search of CDs - particularly classics. He spoke to the Yorkshire Evening Post ahead of Record Store Day 2025.
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00:00So I've got in my hands here a selection of things that we sell a lot of, always sell.
00:06So, Beatles Revolver, always a good seller.
00:10Dylan's Desire, fantastic album, always a good seller.
00:15Hendrix, again, great seller.
00:18A little bit more recent, but not that recent, Joy Division, people love Joy Division.
00:25Pixies, always a good seller.
00:27Smith's, hardly a surprise, but a fantastic seller.
00:33David Bowie, that particular album, people love this album, rightly so.
00:38And this, which sells all the time, can't keep this in the shop, fantastic.
00:44Pink Floyd, Dark Side of the Moon.
00:46And lastly, Pet Sounds, a brilliant album, sells all the time.
00:50Just putting this one out because I've just sold one.
00:52We've been here since 1990, must be doing something okay.
00:59We sell CDs and vinyl.
01:02Around about 10 years or so ago, the sales of CDs began to fall quite dramatically with the increase of streaming.
01:10And it looked like that was probably going to be the end of CDs, but no, they've come back and a whole new generation of people are buying them.
01:18Lots of young people, people in their 20s.
01:21Never thought we'd see them buying CDs again.
01:23I'm really pleased by it.
01:25I think that actually physical music is so much better than digital music.
01:29It's better because it's better because it sounds better.
01:32It's nice to have a collection of things.
01:34It adds to your personality, your character.
01:37So I'm really, really pleased that the digital market is being overtaken or coming back again with a physical market.
01:44I think that's a great thing.
01:46The experience of coming in here means that you are surrounded by the things that you're interested in, hopefully love.
01:52You've got other people who are in the shop who are also interested in the same thing.
01:57So it's that part of the environment.
02:01You can browse.
02:02You can ask us questions behind the counter.
02:04We're very happy to chat to anybody about things.
02:07The experience is just a far more community-based experience than the solo experience of buying something online.
02:15But they tend to be looking, in our experience, they tend to be looking for older music.
02:20Music from the 70s and 80s.
02:23We do sell some new items, recently released things, but not as much as, let's say, Beatles or Led Zeppelin or Bob Dylan.
02:33And that's a surprise as well, but a very, very pleasing surprise.
02:36We'll see you next time.