At Fresh Produce Records in downtown Macon, owner William Rutledge has watched a new generation rediscover an old way of listening.
“It’s a pretty even mix,” he says of the store’s customers. “It’s more about what people buy. I have people of all ages coming in.”
Over time, Rutledge says the line between generations has blurred.
“The longer we go on, the less age matters as far as what you listen to,” he says.
Teenagers now browse through the same records as lifelong collectors, each looking for the kind of connection to music that streaming can’t provide.
Rutledge believes the appeal of vinyl, CDs, and tapes lies in their substance and their sound.
“Streaming music is a really, really poor example of listening to an album,” Rutledge says. “Spotify streams everything out as absolutely low quality as they possibly can. Comparing physical media to what you get on Spotify would be like comparing a picture of the Mona Lisa to going and seeing it in person.”
Physical formats, Rutledge explains, capture the full scope of what artists create.
“Streaming is giving you a percentage of what the artist originally intended you to hold in your hand,” he says. “You can’t hold anything digital.”
Rutledge points out that record stores also change how people discover music.
“A record store is a grand equalizer,” he says. “That used to be how people found new music. It was still up for you to decide not some invisible algorithm being like ‘oh, we know what you like.’”
Rutledge also emphasized the vast inventory of Fresh Produce Records.
“You can walk down any aisle in here and see probably 50 percent stuff you don’t recognize,” Rutledge said.
For Rutledge, the renewed interest in analog formats is less about nostalgia and more about reconnecting with artistry.
“These are releases that time and effort and money and blood and sweat and tears were poured into,” Rutledge says. “It’s not meant to be represented by a three-by-three-inch graphic on a screen.”
Beyond the sound quality and experience, Rutledge says physical media directly sustains the music community, and that purchasing it is the best way to support.
“Buying one new album from an artist is like a month or two’s worth of Spotify streams,” he explains. “Streaming takes food out of artists’ mouths. Spend money on local art. That goes dollar for dollar into artists’ pockets better than any way you can imagine.”
At the heart of it, Rutledge says, “I just love music. I’m fortunate enough to do what I love for a living, and at the heart of every bit of local support we give people is just making sure artists can pay their rent.”
