PORTLAND, Maine - Record stores have not only survived pirated music, digital downloads and online streaming services. They're now growing in numbers, giving music lovers something to cheer as Record Store Day turns 10 on Saturday.
The annual event pays homage to the neighborhood music store, the brick-and-mortar spot where people have long gathered to thumb through vinyl records. Hundreds of them went out of business at the onset of the digital music revolution.
But Wes Lowe from Alliance Entertainment, the nation's largest wholesale distributor of compact discs, DVDs and vinyl record albums, says they're now popping up in smaller communities again. He says the number of independent record stores leveled off at about 2,000 before growing over the past five years to a number that's closer to 2,400.
