00:01We were established in 1894, so we've been continuously selling music in all that time.
00:07So from day one we were selling wax cylinders, obviously seeing the whole evolution of music formats and music buying and preferences.
00:19Spillers Records is a true icon in Cardiff.
00:21It opened over 130 years ago and has sold millions of records since they were first mass produced.
00:26It's more than just a shop, it's a part of the city and an integral part of Cardiff's music scene.
00:32It has moved around a few times over the years, but has never stopped selling music to the people of Cardiff in all its years around the city centre.
00:39Actually says though that it's the people who make Spillers what it is, the community which has grown from within it which makes it.
00:45As you can imagine, we have some customers who have been literally shopping with us for decades.
00:50It's fonts of information, guys in their 80s who have literally been coming here for nearly 70 years.
01:00And yeah, I mean, it's like on any given day you'll see people turn around and go, oh, there's my mate so-and-so.
01:07And they'll start chatting or people just making friends in the shop, especially when we have in stores as well.
01:14You know, lots of regular faces who come and support those.
01:19Record stores are a part of a massive community all across Wales and the rest of the UK and around the globe.
01:24So being the world's oldest, Ashley says she gets people travelling to Cardiff from Spillers.
01:28And when she goes abroad to different record stores, they all seem to know each other.
01:32Yes, regulars, but obviously as Cardiff has become sort of like, you know, more of a destination, which I've certainly seen happen in the last 10 years,
01:46you know, with events in the stadium, with the gigs in the castle, even with, you know, rugby and sporting events, it brings new people in.
01:59In the late 90s and early noughties, Spillers, the world's oldest record store, came very close to stopping selling records entirely.
02:06She says that some of the younger staff in the shop were adamant that vinyl had to stay on the shelves.
02:11And she's happy that they kept it that way.
02:13I'm really proud of the fact we never stopped selling vinyl.
02:16It was only out of stubbornness, really.
02:19I sort of recognised the people that were still buying vinyl from us were very, very committed.
02:30And it wasn't recognition out of some sort of lucrative, because as I say, it was losing us money at the time,
02:36but it was something about the way that these people were with their records, you know,
02:42because at the time streaming was coming in and you could get music for free, which really shook the industry up.
02:49And yet the counterpoint to that were people who were avid vinyl enthusiasts.
02:55And actually it's thanks to them that the whole revival is even happening.
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