In our latest edition of Records In The Time Of Cornona, we speak with Max from Brewerytown Beats in Philadelphia, PA about how he’s dealing with the record game in this trying time, what he’s been doing differently at the shop, and what else he’s up to. We’re thankful that he took some tie out of his busy day (dude is busy!) to sit down and talk with us.

How has the global pandemic affected your day to day record store?
We have closed our physical shop, it’s been over a month now.

What are you doing differently to get sales?
I personally have been focusing on the record label side of things, still tracking producers, labels owners, musicians down in hopes of finding old reel to reel tapes, photos and flyers. This has been a source of income outside of the day to day sales of the shop is good for.

Can you explain if you’re doing anything different, and how selling online mostly has helped or hurt you now?
At first, Discogs was kind of slow, but after the dust settled it began to pick up and has stayed steady, we haven’t been able to list new items like I’ve wanted, that’s the only downside at this point.

Are people still getting rid of collections at this time?
We have had very few contact us to get rid of stuff, however, Calypso Richard has brought in three decent loads of Latin/Caribbean/Soca/Reggae joints for us over the past few weeks.

Is this downtime at the physical shop forcing you to dig through your own collection more?
I’ve had about 6-7K records in boxes in my basement Since a move a few years back, this time has allowed me to start unpacking and organizing those records.

What gems have you revisited in your own collection?
I’ve been able to isolate the Philly 12”’s and Philadelphia gospel albums, somewhere around 400-500 of each genre, that’s been the funnest part of all this so far.

Are you doing anything else non-record related during this time?
Again, I have always been tracking down the music of the past, so continuing to do that through emails, phone calls and even meeting a few guys in person has kept me busy.

What has this global pandemic shown you about the record game?
It’s kind of opened up my thinking about what it would look like to find a warehouse, and make an effort to get the entire inventory listed on Discogs, it’s forced me to think about what I’m actually paying for by having a physical storefront and if I need one at all.

Any tips for record heads that are going nuts by not being able to go to a record store?
Support your local record shops any way you can, gift cards, merch, or online shopping. There won’t be any physical shops left if you don’t. Even the big indies are having problems, Ameoba has set up an gofundme ect.. Shit is real!

Last comments, whatever you want.
We have made a special run of T-shirts called The Soul Of Philadelphia

Also our Discogs page can be found here:

https://www.discogs.com/user/BrewerytownBeats

And last but not least, we have been working on new releases, we have a few lines up for the near future. Stay tuned!

Peace from Brewerytown.

Dig Deeper!