A café and record store is coming to Newark.
The Long Play Café is slated to open in the spring in a portion of the former Fusion Fitness site at 280 E. Main Street.
The business’ website said Long Play will serve as a meeting place, with simple dining fare. A lease was signed for the fusion space late this year, with a collection of thousands of records last year.
Fusion closed in December after more than a dozen years as a fitness center and organizer of running events in the Newark area. Owner Nic De Caire is expected to focus on the event side of his business, the Newark Post reported.
The café is the latest sign of a revival for vinyl records, which have become popular with millennials as well as baby boomers who stuck with their record collections.
Over the decades, there have been periods where LPs have seen a revival, with specialty stores opening and closing. Independent music stores have also stuck around in college towns like Newark and big cities.
Also, turntables have long been available that converted LPs to CDs or formats such as Apple’s iTunes.
LP enthusiasts have long claimed that CD and other formats lacked the sound qualities of vinyl.
Of late, mainstream artists, some of whom started out in the vinyl period, have been returning to LPs, offering new albums and boxed sets. Some long-running independent record stores have also survived and reduced their CD offerings.
Meanwhile, sales of compact discs have been plummeting as one-time retail giants closed their mall and big city stores. Car companies are now getting rid of CD players in favor of streaming.
