(exciting music) - It's all in New Jersey: the home of Bruce Springsteen, Frank Sinatra, going from the Feelies to Bon Jovi, Lauren Hill, Deborah Harry, and My Chemical Romance.

Now, New Jersey has seen both the good, the bad, and the ugly when it comes to the music industry.

We're going to only check out the good part of the music business in this state.

We're going to see a wholesale company that helps indie record stores, as well as some impressive stores here in New Jersey.

(exciting music fades) (light rock music) Now, our first store has a long history that spans decades.

I'm talking about the Record Collector.

We've got the road show here in Bordentown, New Jersey, and I'm sitting with a gentleman that I know has been in this game of record stores probably as long as I have.

Name of the store is the Record Collector, aptly put, and I'm here with John.

And, John, you grew up with a father that was operating restaurants, but that you were always exposed to music.

- Correct.

- And there just came a point where you decided you had to jump into the pool.

- As a little kid, I must have been seven or eight years old, my dad would bring home things like, you know, Perry Como, Pat Boone, Connie Francis, that very middle of the road, Frank Sinatra.

And I liked it all because that's all I knew, and I was very happy to listen to it.

One day, I put on a black label record with a dog on top and out of it comes ♪ You ain't nothing but a hound dog ♪ And... - It blew your mind.

So you've had the store here you were telling me for around 40 years.

- I would never consider myself a musician.

I never had that kind of confidence that I thought that I was that talented.

So you do the next best thing.

You know, it's sort of like if you can't do, you teach.

So if you can't do music, you sell it and enjoy it and share it with other people.

Years ago, you remember two years ago, I think it was, where this girl comes in and she's looking for Nat King Cole, Billie Holiday, fair enough, right, Pat Paulsen, and the Who.

I said, "What?"

And it turned out that she started going down the rabbit hole with Billie Holiday, but she somehow found her way to The Smothers Brothers Show," which had the Who on it and also Pat Paulsen.

And she bought all of them.

So it's interesting how people, you know, will find their way and what they'll have an interest in.

And fortunately for a lot of people that come in the store, we have such a vast amount of music that we probably have it, and we probably can find it for you.

- Well, I wanted to talk about that because you have a very extensive warehousing of vinyl that you've collected over the years.

You got a handle or an idea of how many LPs you have back there?

- It's going to be close to a million.

It will be close to a million.

The 45s alone are around 300,000.

And then they're the ones that are filed.

They're the ones that are online in the database.

What about all this and the stuff that isn't?

And if you go, you see crates and crates of boxes that we're always processing.

And, of course, they're either going to come out here, or they're going to be put online.

There's always new crop of albums that people want, whether they're new or whether they're collectible.

And there's always people revisiting.

Like my daughter, for example, she loves the Velvet Underground.

Well, that's not her time, but she loves the Velvet Underground.

She loves Nico.

There's a lot of kids or younger people that identify with stuff that's not in their time.

- So over the years, what do you remember as your most notable in stores from artists?

- We have so many stories.

I don't know if you've had the time, but I've been very blessed, very blessed to meet some of these artists that to me growing up, they were like, you know, like heroes to me.

We have, you know, a lot of nice signed stuff.

We have the Rolling Stones signed with Brian Jones, which is unusual to have them all sign it.

Another one, of course, is the Velvet Underground, the Velvet Underground with the peel and the man in the back that's upside down.

The thing is, and my daughter, as I had told you, she's saying that I can't sell it.

I have to give it to her.

So that's fine.

- Tell her it'll be in the will.

- It'll be in the will.

Hey, John, thanks for taking the time to allow us to come in and find out about the Record Collector story.

(bustling music) Our next visit takes us to a town known worldwide for an Ivy League education, and we're going to go to the place that gives that town a musical education at a higher rank.

It's a Monday afternoon here in Princeton, New Jersey, but it's a busy day at Princeton Records.

This is a very impressive store.

Been around for a while.

I'm here with the owner, Mr.

Jon Lambert.

And, Jon, needless to say, anybody that walks in here is going to have a musical day.

Am I right?

- You are right.

And you could spend the whole day doing it.

- Give me a little bit of history on the store.

- So late '70s, the founder and first owner, Barry, was a Long Island disco kid.

He had this idea of buying used records and selling them again, which really was pretty novel at that time.

He went up and down the East Coast, hanging out in the university stores.

And He would set up a table for a couple of days, he'd buy stuff.

After about three or four years of that, he got a little tired of being on the road all the time, figured he wanted to settle down.

And us being between pretty much equidistant between Philly and New York and a cultured area, figured that was a good place to start.

So in 1980 was our first incarnation.

That was around the corner.

There was a little, not all that much bigger than this space we're in right now.

Completely outgrew like in a day or two.

So in 1985, we moved to this place, which is about five times bigger.

That barely fits what we have.

We actually use the bottom bins.

We buy and sell roughly 30,000 pieces a month.

I became general manager about 24 years ago, something like that.

So for 20, 25, 30 years, walking the same products up and down, up and down, just like you.

- Well, going through your stacks here, very impressive rock, pop collection, a lot of vinyl, a lot of CDs, but unlike most stores, you're really doing a lot with symphonic and classical music.

So not only on LP, but on CD.

What percentage of your business is online and what is, you know, done right here in the store?

- Online, one-half of 1%.

- Wow, one-half of 1%.

- We don't do holds, we don't do mail order because I want people to be in the store.

I want them to be here.

I want this to be an event, not just a place.

We have quality merchandise, that's certainly important, but it's the caliber of people and the tone of the store.

There's a long way in making this successful.

So I want people to be able to walk in here and, "Hey, there's that Hank Mobley for two grand.

Oh my God."

You know, I don't want who's quickest on the computer button.

That's not exciting to me.

- It creates a sense of music community where people are living, and that's to me crucial.

- We want to be connected with everything music in a town.

We want to be the hub of musical activity, but as much as we can, you know, I advertise in the high school papers, and I sponsor the gift card for the whatever charity of the day, you know?

And that's all great to have that reputation.

It just feels good, you know?

Working for the forces of good instead of evil, you know?

Like, what's selling music?

Cool.

That's about as good as it gets in my book.

- Every indie store I go to has what I would refer to as memorabilia pieces of the cross, so to speak.

- [Jon] The relics.

- [Tom] The relics.

- [Jon] Right.

- What is the most notable piece of memorabilia that Princeton Record Exchange has?

- Okay, so David Bowie's "Diamond Dogs," when that was coming out, I was just starting production, and one of the executives freaked out because the animated genitalia of the dog that was Bowie in the alley, you could see the testicles too much they thought.

So they scrapped it, unlike the Beatles' butcher, it never left the warehouse, to my knowledge, but some workers got their hands on it.

So someone walked in not long after it was put out and we bought it, and it came with dog tags, promo dog tags, everything.

And there were the genitals, which, really, today's standards are not particularly offensive genitals.

We sold it in a day for like two grand, and the next day we got a call from Bowie's new American tour director that Mr.

Bowie was interested in the copy because he didn't have one.

I was like, ah, missed by a day.

I like to think that I had the opportunity, if I just had played it right, that I could have seen Bowie.

- [Tom] Great store.

- [Jon] Thank you.

- Great vibe.

I want to thank you.

And as the young people say, a safe place for music lovers.

- [Jon] Absolutely, thank you so much for coming by.

- Of course, independent stores sell fresh and used vinyl, but today we're gonna go to the best source for record stores looking to buy the latest vinyl from around the world.

(laid-back music) The old R&B, as in record business, is right now in a very unique situation as far as the resurgence of vinyl and the fact that the independent record stores all over the world are experiencing an incredible amount of business, often in stores that at one point were wondering if they were going to be able to keep the doors open.

I'm right here with a good friend of mine, Mr.

Steve Parelman, who's been in the record business for many, many years.

His current business, 33 & 1/3 Record Distribution, is one of the best friends that independent record stores have.

Steve, how long have you been in the music business?

- It'll be 50 years next year.

- You don't look it.

- Ah, thank you.

Thank you.

- I tell myself that too.

- Yeah, I have mirrors at home.

It's different.

- So, you know, at one point you were the head honcho of operations of a place called Scorpio Music, where people in the music business could purchase albums that the labels had made too many of, and the term used for them was cutouts because they tended to have a little corner of a cutout so that that album would not be returned.

So you did that for many years, Scorpio Records in Trenton, New Jersey.

- Right across the river.

- Right across the river.

But now you have your own company, 33 & 1/3.

How's business?

- [Steve] Business has been great.

33 & 1/3 is eight years old.

We started in this building with two record racks.

We are now in half of this warehouse.

- [Tom] And would you have an estimate as to how much stock you have in right now?

I mean, there's rows and rows of record racks here boxed up.

- [Steve] Roughly quarter of a million records.

- [Tom] Quarter of a million records.

- We like our customers, the indie record store, to make money.

If they're not healthy, we're not healthy.

It's really important to me.

- Kind of record business symbiosis.

- (laughs) A little bit.

Yes, sir.

- I take it that like the record store owners I know, you're not only enjoying the resurgence of vinyl, but you enjoy your work.

- I love my work.

50 years, I've probably never worked a day in my life.

- Well, I have a few albums here that I just pulled off of the shelf random.

Here we have Lynyrd Skynyrd's 2LP live set, "One for The Road."

Of course, Lynyrd Skynyrd is a worldwide popular group in their day, still selling records too.

We have one of the best Roxy Music albums, English group, Roxy Music.

This is their album that is called "Stranded."

And then finally, the very first album by the English reggae super group, UB40.

The name for their band UB40, that was the form in Great Britain that you filled out for unemployment, something musicians know a whole lot about.

(Steve chuckles) And, you know, this album to its day still sounds great.

All these records sound great.

If you're a independent businessman, music lover, music veteran, you knew that you, you know, could find yourself, so to speak, walking in the shadows of the music industry, but still doing really well.

Fair amount?

- [Steve] True enough.

- [Tom] How many people on staff do you have here now?

- I think we're about 10 to 11.

We started with two.

Two of the women that work for me have been with me.

Kathy's been with me 41 years.

Barbara's been with me probably at least 20.

I have good people.

I have great staff.

It makes- - [Tom] All the difference.

- [Steve] They make me proud every day.

- So in 2026, what do you see the major labels doing wrong?

- They're almost forced to be in the vinyl business by the musicians and by indie retail.

And what you've seen, what I see is the demographic has gotten wide.

Kids are buying records.

Families are coming in and buying records.

Old guys like us still buy records.

And with the demographic wide, vinyl's not going away anytime soon.

- This isn't going away.

- No, that's right.

That's right.

It's, you know, selling their first record, they keep coming back for more and more and more.

- Well, in the course of swimming in the music business, no doubt you've met some musicians that are pretty notable figures.

When you were working in Trenton, New Jersey, would you have artists coming in perhaps?

- Funny enough.

So at Scorpio, back in the day, we had a section of the warehouse that was called the back aisle, and it consisted of things in those days we didn't have enough to put on a printed catalog that would last a month.

So we didn't put the stuff on that would sell out.

They would all go to the back aisle.

And we get lots of pickers that would come and just dig in the crates.

But back in the '80s, '90s, we would get, Q-Tip would come in to dig in the crates looking for samples.

These kids would come in with their record players and literally look for samples to put out on their records.

And they were, you know, all these early hip-hop guys sampled, you know, all that stuff.

- So a lot of the vinyl that you're carrying in the warehouse has come from the major labels and their subsidiaries.

There's also, of course, a very vibrant independent label community.

Would you say there's much of a difference between dealing with the majors and dealing with the indie label folks that you know?

- So what we've done through these eight years is we started as an overstock distributor, but as we've grown, we also really try to curate what we have on our B2B.

We have great buyers who have extensive knowledge in punk and metal and electronic and things that I have no idea.

And we've curated a lot of non-exclusive distribution deals with independent labels and other independent distributors.

And because we are international, a lot of that stuff doesn't get overseas quite as quickly, and it's good for us.

It's a good mix.

- Well, and the indie label stores have been so beneficial and so fundamental to indie label releases and artists.

I mean, it's just the perfect symbiosis.

Steve, it's always great hanging with you.

Wonderful to be able to be here again, see the growth of the business, realizing that what's good for 33 & 1/3 Records is good for what all the independent record stores in the world do.

And as the church folks say, blessings.

- Thank you.

Thank you.

- Our final store in New Jersey brings us to one man's musical man cave.

Oh, dearly beloved, there are many, many musical mansions in the northeast area of the United States, many that are devoted to the vinyl physical music, but we are here in a place that is referred to as a man cave.

I think of it as a man cathedral.

Mr.

Randy Ellis of Randy Now's Man Cave right here in New Jersey.

And needless to say, this is a place where I could find some music.

How long have you been doing the Man Cave?

- Man Cave has only been alive for 14 years.

We started in our hometown, which is Bordentown, New Jersey, very colonial town.

I was there for 10 years, and we just had a chance to move into a little bit bigger space here in Hightstown.

So here we are 4.5 years now.

- [Tom] Clearly, you've got the vinyl edge covered, you've got CDs, but as far as genres go, pretty much a hardcore rock clientele for you?

- Yeah, yeah.

It's so hard to find like punk rock records.

Nobody wants to get rid of theirs.

And people were keeping their collections of the punk and some of the metal too, the old early Metal Blade Records.

Fetch good money, hard to find, hard to get.

But then when they do come in, they go right back out again.

Right over here, there's a book over here.

It's a Lou Reed autographed book, and that's going to be sold this weekend.

Actually, it's already sold.

- You weren't at all tempted to maybe put that in a frame and have it here as, you know, a slice of the cross?

- Tom, I have no more room on the walls.

If you look around all the autographs of bands that I worked with, I mean, that's just a small portion.

I've sold a couple.

I had an autographed album of the Skatalites, four of them who are all passed now.

I was their tour manager in St.

Louis, as a matter of fact, at the Mississippi Nights.

I was there with them.

- They played there for our 20th anniversary.

- Wow.

- Our 20th anniversary party with the Skatalites.

- Right, with Tommy McCook.

- Tommy McCook, Roland, Lloyd Knibbs.

- Knibbs, yep, yep.

I have a great St.

Louis story.

We were having problems on the road.

The buses were breaking down.

The guy that booked it, he didn't care if we had to drive 1,000 miles in 24 hours.

He booked it.

And I actually learned how to drive a bus so the bus driver could get, you know, a couple hours sleep.

And we had a meeting one day of the heads of each band, and Tommy and Lloyd Brevett, the bass player, didn't show up.

So I said, "Well, let me go up to Tommy's room."

He's laying like this.

I'm like, "Oh, Jesus Christ.

Tommy McCook has died on this tour, and I'm responsible."

- Well, it's very, very typical for independent record stores to be engaged with their community.

It's very, very typical that they have in-stores, but I can tell just from looking at the roster of artists that you've not only had here but you have coming up, you really have it down to an art.

- Thank you.

(chuckles) It's just from all the years of me being a promoter at a club in Trenton, New Jersey.

I booked over 4,000 bands at the club called City Gardens.

There's a film called "Riot on the Dance Floor" that talks about me and City Gardens.

- Out of the almost countless number of in-stores you've had, what is the one that is most favored by you?

- Well, at the club, man, I just really enjoyed Sparks.

I mean, I actually screamed like a little girl in the front row, "Ah!"

I couldn't believe it.

But Sparks still stands out.

Another one was UB40 way before "Red Red Wine," first tour of America.

They were great, but it's only like about 100 people there.

I had R.E.M there for 50 people.

I can remember the rider was a six-pack of beer and four towels.

That was the rider for R.E.M.

- I love it when the British acts come into our stores.

You know, they immediately transform from being rock stars into curious customers.

- [Randy] Yes.

- Thank you for having us.

- Thank you.

- Great, great store.

Great stories.

And there's nothing cookie cutter about the Man Cave.

From spinning the wit and wisdom we found at 33 & 1/3, going to the Man Cave, going to the Record Collector, as well as the Princeton Record Exchange, we were able to see how those involved do what they do, and this is what they do.

But the big question that has to be asked, what was your first record?

- Okay, don't judge me now.

Allan Sherman, "My Son, the Nut."

You got to remember, I was probably like seven or eight years old.

What else would a seven or eight year old buy?

- If you've been born in the South, it would have been a Brother Dave Gardner record.

- Okay.

- What was your first record?

- Rolling Stones "Hot Rocks."

- [Tom] Ooh.

- It was hard because it was a double album, and it was like $9.

Still holds up, I gotta say.

- It does hold up.

What was your very, very first record you spent your money on?

- It was on Sansom Street in Philadelphia, and it was Zappa's "Absolutely Free."

- [Tom] The very first Frank Zappa album.

- That's right.

- A 2LP set.

- 2LP set.

- I bought my copy and it was a cutout.

- Ah.

- For 4.99 at JCPenney's.

I looked at the cover and said, "Oh, this looks weird."

- Yeah, it did.

It did.

It's wonderful.

It's still wonderful today.

- I got one more question that I have to ask.

What was your first record?

- It would have been the Buddy Holly.

(Randy vocalizes) It was the B-side.

♪ I wanna how it's gonna be ♪ - You know "Not Fade Away."

- "Not Fade Away," yes.

And then the Stones did it.

(chill music) (chill music continues) (chill music continues) (chill music continues) ♪ What they do ♪ (chill music continues) (chill music fades)