Josh Castleberry, owner of Toxic Beauty Records since its conception in 2007, offers a wide selection of albums and concert posters, and orders records that his customers want but he doesn’t actively carry.
“The reason I opened this store is to get music out to people.” – Josh Castleberry, owner of Toxic Beauty Records in Yellow Springs
Vinyl revival keeps local store alive while others wilt Toxic Beauty Records is one of the last record stores in the Dayton area
YELLOW SPRINGS — The imminent closing of Dayton’s Gem City Records leaves only one retailer in the area who primarily deals with vinyl records, and he doesn’t plan on going anywhere anytime soon.
Toxic Beauty Records in Yellow Springs is one of the last real record store in the Dayton area, standing alone after the fall of the neighboring Dingleberry’s and Gem City Records. Its owner, Josh Castleberry, doesn’t believe he’ll be following the same mistakes that the other record stores have made.
“I love records, but I was going to open a CD store,” said Castleberry, who worked at CD stores in Cincinnati before moving to Yellow Springs. “But over the last five years I watched where the market was going and I was like ‘Why would I open a CD store?’ That’s getting to be like opening a VHS store.”
Now that Toxic Beauty Records is the last of its kind in the area, Castleberry’s realizing that having a monopoly is a double edged sword. “It feels good but I would rather there were 10 of us all rocking it right now.”
Two and a half years ago Castleberry opened Toxic Beauty Records as a specialty shop that focused on pressed records. CDs and digitized music, Castleberry says, are convenient, but not necessarily good. “Some of the stuff sounds like a night and day difference between the CD and the record,” said Castleberry.
“When I opened this store people looked at me really funny for only carrying records and not CDs,” said Castleberry. “But now people have been coming around and realizing I was on to something.”
In order to meet his growing customer base’s needs in a balance with his limited store space, Castleberry makes it a point to special order records that he doesn’t carry at the customer’s request, without a surcharge. “A lot of bigger stores they just carry what they carry and you get that,” said Castleberry. A number of newer bands that aren’t normally associated with vinyl have records available. “It’s amazing to me how much vinyl is really out there.”
In addition to selling records, Castleberry travels to concerts around the nation to take photos and collect posters, both of which he offers for sale at Toxic Beauty. But Castleberry’s main goal in opening a music store is simple. “The reason I opened this store is to get music out to people.” He sells the records in his store online and to people across the nation, and has plans to create a music label sharing the name of his store, to press local musician’s recorded work onto vinyl.
And to the people who say that vinyl is a dead format, Castleberry knows better. “As much of new music is still coming out on vinyl, people still see it as an old thing. They’re coming back, as a format they’re coming back. I sell a lot of used stuff, but I sell a lot more new records.”
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