Music Goes Round and Round Again

When Fred Wilber opened Buch Spieler Music 35 years ago, there was only one way to get music – on vinyl.

"LPs were it, there was no other format," said Wilber, 57, recalling what people with more years of experience call albums, which stands for a long playing phonograph record.

In case you're of a newer generation, records are small-to-large black, flat circles made of vinyl imprinted with circular grooves. Those grooves are where the music was recorded, and when a needle passes over them, the hits are heard.

Back in the day, a full album had an average of six songs on each side, a smaller 45 LP usually had a single song on each side.

A lot has changed since then.

Now people download music from the Internet or their personal computers into MP3 players, iPods and other dodads with names Wilber couldn't have dreamed up when he and a friend opened their store in 1973.

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