On the bustling Ventura Boulevard that houses sleek new shopping and dining stops like TAKE A BAO, Freakbeat Records offers passers by a sentimental time warp. The new and used vinyl records, CDs, and DVDs sit in thousands on the shelves, just waiting for some music collector or well-bred hipster to sift through them. 

The owner of the shop, Bob Say, sat at his desk tending to phone calls, saying things like, “Oh, Mutemath! I haven’t heard that name in a while,” and gossiping with customers about the latest fate of old rock bands. The store was decked out for the holidays in the only way it knows how, playing songs like the Charlie Brown classic, “Christmas Time Is Here” in between soft jams from forgotten groups like Small Faces. 

Scott Abramovitch, a frequent customer, walked in searching for a Tear for Fears CD; he'd used the remnants of time left on his car meter to peruse the DVDs and music.

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“If I have a half hour to spend in here…I’ll look and see if there’s anything new and talk to people and see if there’s anything that might be something worth trying,” he said. “But Spotify and iTunes have apps that do the same thing.”

He was referring to the online streaming service’s radio feature, which allows listeners to begin a playlist based on any chosen genre, artist or individual song. The iTunes radio works in a similar fashion. And, both models can be made available for the convenient price of zero dollars. 

With all this technology readied at one’s fingertips and the phrase “time is money” taking on a new 24-hour meaning in this global age, how do places like Freakbeat Records remain afloat?

“You gotta pay attention to what people want and what they ask for and what they’re looking for. And that’s one of the big, obvious secrets to me,” Say said. “The whole point of staying in business is to flow with the changes.” 

He was careful to jot down the name of an artist the store was missing after someone mentioned it for the second time that week.  

But still, even with oldies-but-goodies stacked next to new top artists, the shop’s selection hardly compares to the infinite options available online. 

“There are always going to be customers for used, physical merchandise because as the general public loses interest in it, which has definitely been happening, there’s still collector people, and they want to buy this stuff,” Say said. 

He noted that he’s also seen a sharp increase in record buyers in another demographic: teens and young adults. What draws them in? 

“Maybe they just grew up listening to downloads only and they just discovered records had covers and everything else,” he said. “I know that when you go online to stream or download, there’s very little information that goes with the record that says who wrote the songs, who produced it, who played on the record and things like that.”

He began to think of other reasons, but, ultimately, his own question still stumped him. “What is it that attracts them to it?” he asked. “Because if it’s just the uniqueness of it, that could be a temporary, fleeting thing, but maybe they really get into it.”

Then, like clockwork, the door swung open and in walked a young hipster-looking couple to match the record shop’s growing age group. 

John Bobek is a musician, so going to record stores like Freakbeat is mostly for education and sheer curiosity, he said. He also collects vinyl.

“A friend of mine got me a record player for Christmas one year, and it’s just been a collection problem since. I just I love it; I love the sound of it,” he said. 

Bobek even has listening parties with his friends, during which they bring records over and listen to them with bottomless glasses of wine in hand.

“[It] never happened with iPods, I don’t think,” he said. “[Listening to records is] much more of an experience than I think listening to music on the Internet is…it’s so passive.”

He said he’s happy to buy records, because it’s a good way for artists to earn back some of the money they aren’t receiving through online platforms. 

“Especially for people who want to support music, it’s a really unique way to do it,” said Bobek. 

His fellow music lover and girlfriend Erin Barnes agreed. 

“You get the arc of the album and the story that they’re trying to tell by listening to the songs in the order that they intended them. And aside from that, it looks cool. I think that’s honestly a lot of people’s draw to vinyl these days.”

As long as people still search for the experience, Freakbeat Records is there to help them find it.