Amidst a ‘vinyl revival’ across the U.S., a century-old player in the turntable industry has relocated its headquarters to the Mile High City in anticipation of continued growth.
For the first time in decades, vinyl sales surpassed CD sales in the first half of 2020, according to a report from the Recording Industry Association of America. Vinyl records accounted for $232.1 million of music sales in the first half of the year, compared to CDs, which brought in only $129.9 million.
Riding that wave, Victrola CEO Scott Hagen has moved the turntable company from its New York offices to a new Denver headquarters, with hiring in the future.
When he joined the company a year and a half ago, Hagen was passionate about the brand and excited for its future. He grew up winding an old Victrola at his grandmother’s house and has fond memories of that experience to this day.
“I still smile about it every time I say it,” he told Denver Business Journal and Colorado Inno.
Hagen had spent a career in music and electronics, graduating with a degree in recording engineering and working much of his career on Best Buy’s corporate team.
At the time of Hagen’s joining, Victrola had an office in Port Washington, New York, just east of Queens. The space was isolated and not ideal for the company’s employees or partners, Hagen said, and they began searching for a new spot.
Just as the pandemic was starting, Victrola had zeroed in on an office in Brooklyn. As the pandemic worsened, they pumped the brakes on a new lease and began to consider an alternate option.
Hagen consulted his mentors and asked them one question: “If you could do it again, where would you?”
The resounding answer was to open widen their gaze to the entire country, partly spurred by the benefits of the now-remote workforce. So, Hagen and Victrola went back to the drawing board.
They were looking for a location that was easy to travel to, had access to new talent, and was attractive to customers and partners. The first list included 19 cities across the country and was quickly whittled to six.
Ultimately, Denver won out.
The company has slowly moved into an office at Shift Workspaces in Denver’s Capitol Hill neighborhood. Currently, they have three employees in the space and hope to grow that number to 10 by the summer. Hagen said Victrola expects to have 45 total employees by the end of 2021, with two-thirds of those based in Denver.
After resurgent interest in vinyl, Victrola is doubling down on product development and customer engagement.
The company did a study in 2020 that identified that over 40% of consumers between the ages of 18 and 60 are considering buying a turntable in the next 12 months. With that in mind, Hagen said the company refocused its energy on filling the needs of this potential market.
“What we weren’t necessarily doing is investing a ton of time in learning who the consumers are and what’s next,” he said.
So, Victrola built a new product development team.
As it settles into its new Denver space, Hagen said the company is building new hybrid turntables in 2021 that offer improved sound and ease of use.
