Independent music retailers have said chain stores can learn from their longevity.

Having struggled to compete with music downloads and online shopping, indie record shops are showing the high street how it’s done ahead of Record Store Day this Saturday, which celebrates a vinyl revival.

Derry Watkins and Natasha Youngs, husband-and-wife co-founders of Resident Music in Kensington Gardens, last year celebrated a decade in business.

Mrs Youngs said big-name retailers lost their way trying to be “everything to everyone”.

She said: “High street retailers spend so much time and energy comparing themselves to each other, trying to out-do the other, that they forget to focus on just being good at what they do and celebrate their differences.

“Of course, all businesses can learn from each other but we don’t need to duplicate.”

Chains have also been slow to adapt to the vinyl revival.

Mrs Youngs said: “You can’t afford to wait to make changes when they are needed and that’s where the chains suffered. They were slow.

“We don’t have to have board meetings, write project plans or go through approvals processes to make things happen.”

In its eighth year, Record Store Day involves nine stores in Sussex – Resident in Kensington Gardens, Cult Hero in North Street, One Stop Records in Sydney Street, Rarekind Records in Trafalgar Street, as well as Union Music in Lewes, The Vinyl Frontier in Eastbourne, Pebble Records in Eastbourne, Music’s Not Dead in Bexhill, and Future Audio in East Grinstead.

Each shop will stock a selection of the 541 vinyl releases available this year.

The limited releases include songs by chart heavyweights Mumford and Sons and Foo Fighters to help bring in the masses.

More than 40 new independent record shops have opened in the UK over the past five years, with an 800% increase in vinyl sales during the same period.

The total vinyl album market stood at just £3.3 million in 2009 and by 2014 had increased to £25.9 million.

Mrs Youngs added: “I think Brighton has a really good balance of big chains and small independent shops and every high street needs both.

“However, one of the huge benefits of living here has always been the incredible support for local, independent businesses.

“A small business can flourish here among other small, like-minded independent businesses.

“So many big chains are run from head offices that are completely out of touch with the day-to-day reality and demands of their shops.”

Kim Bayley, chief executive of ERA, said more indie record shops was a response to chain stores leaving the high street, and highlighted the growth in vinyl sales, “fuelled by customers falling in love once again with this format”.

She said: “I believe Record Store Day has demonstrated that large and small retailers can co-exist and serve different customer needs.

“For independent retail to thrive it needs to develop a point of difference – in the case of music, this is vinyl, customer service and experience.
“The bottom line is that good companies large or small can co-exist.”
This year will be the fifth Record Store Day for Union Music in Lewes.
It will run in-store performances with a Harveys beer license and operates its own record label, with one of its releases – a 10in four-track yellow vinyl by Police Dog Hogan – coming under the Record Store Day umbrella.
Co-founder Stevie Freeman said: “It’s about the quality of shopping experience.
“With chains, you can have a high turnover of staff – it’s about building that trust with the community, and independent shops do that.”
Frank Henwood, founder and owner of Cult Hero, was more cautious about the vinyl revival.
He said: “It has not become some big orgy in record sales. There’s a revival in a sense that it has stopped us going out of business but there won’t be any millionaires selling records in the future. Record Store Day is our best day of the year but no one plans what yacht they are going to buy afterwards.”
Others said tight margins meant there was no room for error.
Richard Wortley, a director of Music’s Not Dead in Bexhill, said: “For us it’s about the love of the product, that’s why independents work.We make a real effort and I think people feel like they are part of something.”
Mr Wortley’s shop offers coffee for customers and promotes gigs at the nearby De La Warr Pavilion.