Dear Vinyl - 365 RPM Later

Birthday interview with Alain and Arthur,

the spiritual father and son of the Dear Vinyl webshop

The lockdown does not appear to be a bad period for local startups. At least not for Dear Vinyl, the authentic webshop for vinyl enthusiasts that Alain and Arthur De Bruyn, respectively father and son from Oostkamp, West Flanders, started up exactly one year ago. We look back with them on their first year of musical entrepreneurship. Love between father and son, love for music, love for vinyl and love for the customer: that is what sticks after this interview. And that vinyl works well in times of solitary confinement. Especially when you run your webshop with a warm heart and a personal touch.

To stay in the vinyl atmosphere: you have 365 rpm on itto sit.

How do you look back on you start-up year?

Arthur (son): It's been a year of discovery, especially for me, I wasn't very familiar with the vinyl world before. I got to know the target group. Via the messages we received from the customers on our social media. People can be very satisfied when their package of vinyl records is delivered to their home and everything is perfectly fine. They also don't hesitate to share their satisfaction. I also saw two age segments clearly. On the one hand customers of my age who are just diving into the vinyl world and on the other hand customers of my dad's generation who used to be intensively involved with vinyl and are now picking up the thread again with the vinyl revival. They dust the records and the record player in the attic, and the old love returns. Also due to the lockdown: we saw sales clearly peak in March, without any additional advertising. The following months there was fairly stable and steady growth, until a few months ago we were again inundated with orders. Perhaps partly due to the arrival of the second lockdown, but also because from then on we have started to use Google and Facebook to increase our reach.

So Corona did play to your advantage?

Alain (father): Sure, as much as we hate Covid and the lockdown, it did help us a bit. The really passionate vinyl collectors you meet at record fairs on Sunday mornings also had to resort to the internet to buy their records due to the Corona measures. We were able to reach those people. And the good news is that they keep coming back. We have about 30% repeat customers, which means we do some things right, right?

Did you learn anything during the year?

Things that you have started to do differently?

Arthur: The site's genres have been refined over the year, as well as constantly tweaking the browsing experience and layout. People initially pointed out a number of teething problems: the payment process that didn't run smoothly in the beginning, or records that were available but that people weren't getting added to their shopping cart. That has all been resolved in the meantime.

Alain: During the first two months we also quickly realized that we needed to give a more detailed description of the quality of the cover and the record. That is useful for the real vinyl enthusiast and in part justifies the price. We have also adjusted our range somewhat. I myself am a big fan of rock music from the seventies and eighties, albeit with a broad love for all music. But I didn't think there would still be a demand for Abba, Boney M and Kool & The Gang records. To my great surprise, there turned out to be an audience for that good seventies disco. Barry White and Lionel Richie are also extremely popular. That's great, being able to appeal to such a wide audience. You get a lot of warmth in return. People also explicitly ask for those kinds of records, and we are happy to look for them. That goes for all the records that people ask for. I make it a personal challenge to find it.

Then you can look for the original debut album of The Slits for us.

Alain: That is noted. Nice that you ask about that. I was not familiar with that relationship yet, but we are still learning every day because of the questions from our customers. Or when purchasing a lot of records; there are also sometimes things that you do not know, but that arouse your curiosity. Recently there was a record from The Sound. I hadn't heard of that yet, but when I put the record on, I was surprised by the incredibly strong new wave songs. As soon as I placed the record in our webshop, it was immediately sold. Now of course I am looking for more records from that band.

Rightly so, they are also one of our favorite post-punk bands.

So you get to know a lot of new music yourself?

Alain: A lot, and that makes it even more interesting for us. I learned not to be prejudiced about music genres, take that disco. I thought that as a DJ I already had a very broad knowledge of music, but I must admit that I probably only know 10% of all the good music that has been made. I'm a rock fan, but I wasn't very familiar with progressive rock, for example. Groups like Camel, Uriah Heep, Jethro Tull, I had heard a few songs from them before, but I only really learned to appreciate them last year, during our search for albums. Musically Dieprogrock is usually very well composed.

May I conclude that there is mainly demand for second-hand records?

Arthur: We also have a nice selection of new records, but we sold more second-hand records in the past year. People like to own the original album. The local record store, where people usually find that original record, was closed. You can of course spend your time on Discogs looking for old albums, but not everyone finds their way. And on the Bol.coms of this world you will only find new LPs. That's how people end up with us. I think that with Dear Vinyl in Belgium we are one of the only ones to offer second-hand records via the internet. Music Mania only offers new records online, and the new players who join it also keep it new.

You don't plan to sell on platforms like Discogs?

Alain: That's a good question that we honestly haven't thought about yet. We also want to keep it fun and manageable for ourselves. The love for music and personal contact with the customer must continue to prevail. It should not become a routine job. It must remain authentic. We want the feel of the local record store that his customer knows translate into an online experience. We are curious whether we can also deliver on this internationally, but let's not rush. Passion and business must be nicely balanced. That is also the reason why we started this. Now, if we can ever reach someone from Japan in the same way, or have fun with a particular record he or she is looking for, then please.

What about the division of labor between father and son?

Alain: Arthur handles all communication and marketing, as well as the layout of the website. We work through the well-known Shopify platform, and Arthur has injected the soul of Dear Vinyl into it. He is constantly updating the website.

Arthur: Often through applications that I add to Shopify. We are now working on a translation site, so that people can also order in French. This already results in more Walloon customers. We also started adding testimonials: customer testimonials. I try to put myself in the mind of the vinyl lover. He clearly wants to see the records, he wants to be able to search in them as he would in a record store (alphabetically, by genre, by period), but he is also interested in the story behind them. So we are now also adding a "story section" to the website. This storytelling helps us to be found more often via Google. SEO (search engine optimization) as it is called. That is one more of the tasks I take on.

Alain: And I'll take care of the rest. Mainly our range. A good purchase ensures a good sale. This mainly concerns second-hand, but I also try to expand our range of new records. With preference for great old albums that have been re-released. I am also concerned with the business aspect. The intention is that we can also keep the records running financially, isn't it. We make large investments in stock, so we have to link the love for music to common sense.

We saw on your social media that family members are involved in addition to father and son. Is Dear Vinyl a family business in the making?

Alain: Yes, I am lucky that my wife can and wants to deal with sending the parcels, because that takes a lot of time. She really does a lot of work. This way we can focus on the other steps in the process: the selection of the plates, the quality control, the pricing, the placement on the website, the cleaning of the plates, because that's what we do too: before we send the plates to the customer, they all receive an anti-static cleaning, they are visually double-checked and provided with a new inner cover and outer cover. Only then do they end up in a well-packaged package and go to a collection point of DPD, the courier service. Thanks to my wife.

Did I not see a daughter or daughter-in-law in the photos, or am I anticipating the facts here?

Alain: (laughs) I don't know if there is a daughter-in-law in the making yet… No, I have four children, Arthur is number two. Charlotte is the oldest, and you have seen her in the pictures several times. Jules and Louis, our other two sons, are also featured in the photos we use for our Facebook and Instagram pages. The photo shoot was a bit of a family happening. The party's neighbor and wife were also part of it. Always atmosphere and music at home with us.

Arthur: Sometimes homemade music. Charlotte is a singer in a band, I also make songs on the piano now and then and Louis is also busy with music. And there are three DJs in the family. It was brought up at the spoon.

Dear Vinyl is not your main business. How do you combine it with your work (in the case of Alain) and studies (in the case of Arthur)?

Arthur: The advantage is that my job responsibilities are flexible. I can do that wherever and whenever I want. Which does not mean that I have fixed days on which I post messages. Then I also make sure that everything is ready, but I will update the website when I find the time. I regularly have tough weeks at university, and if something really needs to be done online, my parents sometimes jump in too. During the holidays I also try to help send the packages, but that is of course something that has to be done every day. And especially my mom and dad take care of that.

Alain: That's how it goes.

What immediately struck me with a first order is the personal, handwritten text that you add to the plates. Who writes those texts? I suspect Alain.

Alain: Yes, that's my daily routine in the morning. I prepare the orders every morning and write a text for each customer. One day with a little more inspiration than the other, but always with the same amount of love. I try to deduce from the choice of record who the customer is, and then I try to make a connection in a few sentences. What always binds us is the love for music, but if someone orders a record from Joy Division, The Cure Of Simple Minds, then I can completely let myself go. Then I can recount an anecdote from the past.

Which plates turn into it most often purchased?

Alain: It may surprise you, but the best-selling record is the reissue of "Eisbär" by the Swiss band Grauzone, on twelve inches. A fantastic underground electro record from the eighties that I also played as a DJ. I owned it twice, but it was sold immediately. But so it's the reissue of that cold-sounding polar bear that sells like hot cakes. Still selling very well: "Rumors" by Fleetwood Mac, "Dark Side Of The Moon" by Pink Floyd, "Alchemy", the beautiful live album of the Dire Straits ...

Arthur: The funny thing about "Alchemy" is that every time we place that record in the webshop again, it is invariably sold to a Dutchman within two days. At least six times in a row now. Apparently they have something with that record in the Netherlands.

Alain: That is indeed noticeable. Albums by Bruce Springsteen, Lou Reed and The Police are also very popular.

Arthur: Everything about the Beatles, anyway. And the twelve inch of Joy Division's "Love Will Tear Us Apart", a very neat reissue. With the post-punk revival there is really a renewed focus on that new wave classic.

Alain: Also because of a series like "Peaky Blinders" the music from the eighties is completely back. That series has a beautiful soundtrack with songs from Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, among others.

"Save Right Hand" in that version of PJ Harvey, you mean? Fantastic isn't it?

Alain: Yeah… What a number. By the way, the "Peaky Blinders" soundtrack is on our webshop. That is an absolute must for those who do not have it yet.

Which ten records do you think should not be missing in any collection?

In other words what are your top favorites?

Alain: Limiting to ten is a very difficult, and of course also a very personal choice. But here we go:

1 / FleetwoodMac - "Rumors"

2 / Radiohead - "OK Computer"

3 / Dire Straits - "Brothers In Arms"

4 / The Cure - "Seventeen Seconds"

5 / Tool - "Fear Inoculum"

6 / R.E.M. - "Automatic For The People"

7 / Tom Waits - "Closing Time"

8 / The War OnDrugs - "Lost In The Dream"

9 / BlackSabbath - "Paranoid"

10 / Neil Young– "Harvest"

From my number 1 is also an unmissable documentary about the recordings. In it you really feel the tension between the band members that was in the air at that moment. Beautiful record.

Arthur: My favorite is Eddie Vedder's "Into The Wild", the soundtrack he made for the fact-based film about a young guy who leaves everything behind and heads to Alaska. Although I'm not much of a Pearl Jam fan, I think what Vedder created there is truly masterful. That record immediately evokes that whole story in me. That's my number 1. And then again, in random order:

-       Dire Straits - "Alchemy" (live)

-       Royal Blood - "Royal Blood"

-       Fugees - "The Score"

-       Fleetwood Mac - "Rumors"

-       Simple Minds - "Don't You" (maxi single)

-       Depeche Mode - "Speak And Spell"

I'm going to stop because the choice is too difficult.

Alain: Wait, in the meantime I am thinking of a number 11: Buena Vista Social Club.

I can already hear it, if we continue, we will soon be at a top 100. Another, last question then: are there sometimes people That to very weird records questions?

Alain: Someone recently asked me about The Slits' debut album, I had never heard of it (laughs). So we keep learning and look to the future with great enthusiasm and curiosity.

Barely two hours after this interview, Alain emails us to report that he has already got hold of "Cut" from The Slits. A second-hand version for a reasonable price. Dear Vinyl, they are men of beautiful musical words and deeds.

Interview - Tom Berth (Dancing Bears)