by David White
According to Nielsen Ratings statistics, sales of vinyl records have increased more than 2000 percent since 2006, from .9 million sales in 2006 to 18.8 million sales in 2019. That was a fortunate trend for Andy and Caroline Roach, owners of Fourth Rock Records, at the same location as Mars Beads, 2 Moons Art Loft and Mission Control Candy on Highway 290 in Dripping Springs. All are owned by the Roaches.
Trading in vinyl albums was a passion for Andy many years before moving the business out of his home to a brick and mortar location, which he did about two years ago. And since the Roaches added Fourth Rock Records to the business model, the couple has seen a 50 percent increase in vinyl record sales over last year. Caroline credits the more recent uptick to the pandemic. “A lot of our business is done online,” she says. “Everything in our store is online.” And she says, in store, there are about 3,000 albums, but many more off location. If customers want something not in stock, Fourth Rock will try to and get it. Caroline said they can, in most cases, find old covers for albums with damaged covers, or vice versa.
