Record-Rama
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This article is outdated. Please update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. Please see the talk page for more information. (November 2010) |
| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Music retailer |
| Founder(s) | Paul Mawhinney |
| Headquarters |
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania |
| Area served | North America |
| Key people | Paul Mawhinney |
| Products | Records, Tapes and CDs |
| Owner(s) | Paul Mawhinney |
| Website | RecordRama.com |
Record-Rama was the name of a Record and CD store in Pittsburgh, PA. It was founded by Paul Mawhinney, who over the years claims he has built the world's biggest record collection. [1]
Contents |
[edit] Beginnings
Record-Rama was founded by Paul Mawhinney, himself a collector of vinyl records, and a significant help in restarting David Bowie's career by getting RCA boss Tom Cossie to re-release the album Space Oddity in 1972 after its initial release in 1969 failed to hit.[2] Mawhinney started the shop after his personal collection reached the many thousands. It was his wife who told him to get rid of the records, or start up a business around them. By the mid-1990s, Record-Rama was doing $5 million dollars a year of business.[3] In the years that followed, Mawhinney built the world's biggest record collection. He also cataloged records in a directory he released called the MusicMaster.[3] The first edition was released in 1982, and it came in two volumes; one listing by artist, the other by title.[4] By 2003, the business had dropped to $500,000 a year, one tenth of what it had been. Mawhinney cites big chain stores like Wal-Mart undercutting his prices as the main factor in the drop of sales.[3]
[edit] Closure
Record-Rama closed in the Summer of 2008, during the global credit crunch. Mawhinney stated that he'd been squeezed out of business by the recording industry and large retailers who can sell compact discs to the public for less than his wholesale costs.[5]
[edit] The biggest record collection on Earth
Mawhinney started his record collection in 1951. The first record he ever bought was Frankie Laine's "Jezebel". He built his collection into the thousands before he founded Record-Rama. After he set up shop, he decided to keep one copy of every record he sold in the shop, thus the final copy of anything was kept and archived. In 2003, at over 2 million items, Mawhinney's collection was more than twice the size of the collection at the Library of Congress.[3] By the time the store closed in 2008, the collection stood at more than three million items and was valued at $50 million.[6]
[edit] Selling the collection
One of the first attempts to sell the collection was in 1997. CD Now offered $28.5 million for the collection plus a $100,000/year job to Mawhinney to administer the archive.[1][6] The sale fell through three weeks later when CD Now went to bankruptcy court.[1]
The library of Congress was set to purchase Mawhinney's collection for several million dollars, as recently as the fall of 2002.[3] That agreement fell through because of budget cuts and difficulty in justifying the purchase using taxpayer dollars.[3]
Mawhinney decided to sell the record archive again in 2008.[7] The collection went on sale on eBay in February 2008.[8] A winning bid of $3,002,150 came from Ireland.[9] The bid turned out to be a fraud a few days later.[10][11] The collection went on sale again on eBay in March 2008 but did not end in a sale.[12][13]
[edit] Current plans for the collection
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This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (August 2010) |
The most current plans for the archive were enacted by William Vanden Dries. Vanden Dries, despite having a degree in aerospace engineering, decided to do something to save the collection by forming a non-profit organization, The Audio Preservation Fund, with the intent to open a museum, online database, and shop under the name The Worlds Greatest Music Collection, while expanding the collection via both donations of records by individuals and by incorporating other major record collections from around the world.[14][15]
The first step was finding half the $3 million asking price, mostly from donations and good will gestures from wealthier philanthropists, then approaching outside agencies for grants to finance the building of the museum, with the location yet to be decided. At the same time, the mammoth task of cataloguing all the duplicates in the collection and making them available for sale was planned to aid raising the initial sum.[16]
Initial efforts to raise funds to purchase the collection did not meet goals required by the Mawhinney estate. It was decided by the estate and the Audio Preservation Fund to discontinue work together. This allowed Mr. Mawhinney to pursue other options for fund-raising, as his health was of great concern. The Audio Preservation Fund continued as an establishment and currently accepts donations of recordings. It places these recordings in libraries, archives and museums around the United States, including the Library of Congress (Culpeper, VA), Texas Music Museum (Austin, TX), Center for Texas Music History (San Marcos, TX), and ARChive of Contemporary Music (New York, NY).
[edit] References
- ^ a b c Schooley, Tim (April 25, 2003). "Failed deals for fabled musical archive strike sour note with owner, page1". Pittsburgh Business Times (American City Business Journals). ISSN 1549-1927. OCLC 40562053. http://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/stories/2003/04/28/story6.html. Retrieved 18 August 2010.
- ^ David Bowie Story. Retrieved 2009-10-19. Archived 9 February 2011 at WebCite
- ^ a b c d e f Schooley, Tim (April 25, 2003). "Failed deals for fabled musical archive strike sour note with owner, page2". Pittsburgh Business Times (American City Business Journals). ISSN 1549-1927. OCLC 40562053. http://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/stories/2003/04/28/story6.html?page=2. Retrieved 18 August 2010.
- ^ Record-Rama Archives blog on Blogger. Retrieved 2009-10-19. Archived 9 February 2011 at WebCite
- ^ "Record-Rama closes". Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Associated Press (Tribune-Review Publishing Company). August 22, 2008. OCLC 33822100. http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/breaking/s_584384.html. Retrieved 19 August 2010.
- ^ a b Michaels, Sean (19 February 2008). "World's greatest music collection goes on sale". The Guardian (The Guardian). ISSN 0261-3077. OCLC 60623878. http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2008/feb/19/news. Retrieved 18 August 2010.
- ^ Behe, Regis (January 18, 2008). "Pine record collector selling 'history of music'". Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (Tribune-Review Publishing Company). OCLC 33822100. http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/ae/music/s_547964.html. Retrieved 18 August 2010.
- ^ Van Buskirk, Eliot (February 19, 2008), "‘World’s Greatest Record Collection’ for Sale on eBay", Wired (Condé Nast Publications), ISSN 1059-1028, http://www.wired.com/listening_post/2008/02/worlds-largest/, retrieved 18 August 2010
- ^ Semmes, Ben (February 22, 2008). "Record-Rama collection sells for $3M". Pittsburgh Business Times (American City Business Journals). ISSN 1549-1927. OCLC 40562053. http://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/stories/2008/02/18/daily43.html. Retrieved 18 August 2010.
- ^ Michaels, Sean (26 February 2008). "$3m vinyl sale is scratched". The Guardian (The Guardian). ISSN 0261-3077. OCLC 60623878. http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2008/feb/26/news. Retrieved 18 August 2010.
- ^ Mervis, Scott (February 23, 2008). "Record Rama bidder turns out to be a fraud". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (John Robinson Block). ISSN 1068-624X. http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08054/859659-42.stm. Retrieved 18 August 2010.
- ^ Van Buskirk, Eliot (March 24, 2008), "‘World’s Greatest Record Collection’ For Sale… Again", Wired (Condé Nast Publications), ISSN 1059-1028, http://www.wired.com/listening_post/2008/03/worlds-greatest/, retrieved 18 August 2010
- ^ Semmes, Ben (March 13, 2008). "Record-Rama music collection for sale again". Pittsburgh Business Times (American City Business Journals). ISSN 1549-1927. OCLC 40562053. http://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/stories/2008/03/10/daily34.html. Retrieved 18 August 2010.
- ^ The plan, accessed 2009-10-19[dead link]
- ^ The man behind the plan, accessed 2009-10-19.[dead link]
- ^ The man behind the plan, accessed 2009-10-19.[dead link]
[edit] External links
[edit] Further reading
- Record-Rama closes, article on Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.
- The Archive, video about the plight of the Paul Mawhinney and his collection, on Vimeo.
[edit] Main links
- Record-Rama — official website.
- The Worlds Greatest Music Collection at the Internet Archive — (former) official website.
