Green Country record stores seeing surge of customers wanting to own physical media

Green Country record stores say some customers are moving away from streaming and digital media, to owning their own copies.

This comes as some of today’s artists are releasing their albums on vinyl, CDs, and cassette tapes.

Many trends come back, but for some, they never went out of style.

"I'm vinyl," said Paul Taliaferro. "I never did really, I mean I sort of got into CDs, but I just prefer the sound of vinyl. I think it sounds better."

Taliaferro prefers having the physical copies of his favorite music.

"It's something that you can actually hold in your hand," said Taliaferro. "I like the artwork, I like the liner notes that come with it, you don't get all that with streaming or digital."

It's not just vinyl that people are heading to record stores to buy.

Record stores say it’s a surprise that some of the hardest items to keep on the shelves are CDs and cassette tapes.

Cassette tapes have been a huge hit at Screaming Earth Records in Owasso.

"We just expanded it last weekend, so I am still filling and processing the inventory that we had just recently purchased," said Rosario Sloma, the owner of Screaming Earth Records.

Sloma has been trying to keep up with the high demand.

"We're constantly hunting for them," said Sloma. "We spend our days that we're closed typically traveling. We've gone to St. Louis, even the panhandle of Oklahoma, to buy tape collections."

Over at Josey Records in Tulsa, people have been flocking to the CDs.

"You have your phone, it's right there, and you can scroll on your screen and see it, but to go into a room somewhere and see it physically, it just hits a little bit different," said Makayla Bearpaw, an employee at Josey Records.

Stores say it’s been people of all ages who are buying up the physical copies.

"You'll see the three generations," said Bearpaw. "The grandparent, the kid, their kids. It's really neat that it literally can be a family thing."

"It's really cool just to kind of see that the music I was listening to when I was in high school, you've got this whole new generation coming in, asking for it," said Sloma.

Because what's most important is being able to pass down music from generation to generation.

"I love it when I come in a store like this and I see younger people browsing," said Taliaferro. "I remember when I used to do that; now I'm doing it again. It's fun to see that."

Record stores also say they’ve been seeing more artists release exclusive content on physical copies, like different artwork, for the record stores to sell.