Since 1982, Joep Siepman of Velvet Ede has been serving the Edese music lover.In his elongated shop there is something for everyone’s taste in music. Yetafter more than 40 years it comes to an end, Joep has sold his shop. In thisinterview he looks back on the past few years.
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“My love for music started at a young age and as I grew older, I traveled allover the country for certain LPs,” says Joep. “I still remember the DeepPurple and Pink Floyd singles. I like pop music, jazz rock, crowd rock, butalso psychedelic music and soul music from the 60s. The only things I don’treally like are Dutch and German Schlagers.”
Session 38
“When I came out of military service at the age of twenty-three, my brotherand I thought that we wanted to start a record store together. We then made aplan and focused on various buildings in Wageningen. You don’t think itpossible now, but at that time there was not a single retail propertyavailable. We heard through the grapevine that the owner of a record store inEde was looking for a new owner, and we took over that store. We called thecase Session 38.”
“My father had to guarantee the loan for the shop, my brother and I both hadbenefits. Fortunately, after six months that was no longer necessary and wegot our income from the shop. I remember my first week in the store thinking:what am I getting into?! Of course I had some knowledge of music, but I knewvery little about many genres. You didn’t have Google back then, so I readthrough music magazines and I learned a lot from customers. They often knoweverything about their favorite music.”
50 guilders
Joep opened his business in Ede in 1982, in the first few years he only soldLPs, until the CD was introduced in 1984. “I remember well when the first CDscame on the market, we immediately ordered everything that came out, aboutfour hundred pieces. The retail price of a CD was then about fifty guildersand a CD player cost around a thousand guilders. We also had one in the storeso customers could listen to the CDs before buying. In the first few weeks weonly sold two CDs, but over time it grew to 100 to 200 a week. The mid-1990swere boom times, and it continued until the year 2000, when it started todecline. In 2004 there were six music outlets in Ede, which have alldisappeared. The arrival of the MediaMarkt in 2005 also did us no good, weimmediately noticed a drop in turnover.”
During the heyday of the CD, vinyl almost disappeared from the store. Joeponly had one box of LPs left. Nowadays there are bins full of records inVelvet Ede again. “This revival of the long-playing record is mainly due toRecord Store Day, a holiday dedicated to the LP and on which bands perform inrecord stores,” explains Joep. “In 2009 the first edition was in theNetherlands and since then the LP has taken off. The vinyl was put back on themarket by the physical stores and suddenly they held up an LP instead of a CDat De Wereld Draait Door. And not only the elderly love LPs, the youngergeneration also has a record player and collects records. Corona has alsogiven vinyl a boost, people were at home a lot and spent more money on goodmusic. Unlike a CD, an LP is really an experience.”
Joep talking to one of his regular customers, some customers come by threetimes a week. Photo: Eline van Noppen
Ofcourse you can also listen to the latest CDs in the store. Photo: Eline vanNoppen
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Joeptalking to one of his regular customers, some customers come by three times aweek. Photo: Eline van Noppen
Ofcourse you can also listen to the latest CDs in the store. Photo: Eline vanNoppen
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Stop
Last May 7, on the day of the store’s fortieth anniversary, Joep announcedthat he has sold the building and will stop his business. “Many people thinkI’m quitting because the store is going bad, but that’s not the case. I’mquitting because it’s been nice after more than forty years. The store willremain open until December 31, after which we will close for good and startpacking on January 1, 2023. It must be completely empty here on February 1.The complete inventory is taken over by music store Discords in Nijmegen. I amgoing to make myself a bit useful there after the closure, by transferring myknowledge about music and retail.”
“I will miss the store, especially the contact with the customers. Some peoplecome in three or four times a week. Then we drink coffee and talk about music,but also about other things. I had to get used to that when I opened thestore, people came with their problems after a few weeks. At first I thought:I am not a psychologist. But if you talk to people more often over the years,you automatically start empathizing with them. Regular customers havechildren, you experience that from the sidelines and I have also been to thefunerals of loyal customers.”
Cool atmosphere
“My best memory of the store is probably the Record Store Days and especiallythe performances in the store. The fact that there are a hundred peoplewatching a tape in your store was a really cool atmosphere.” Joep finds itdifficult to say where his loyal customers should go for their LPs or CDs.“There is actually nothing comparable in Ede or the surrounding area, then youreally have to go to Arnhem, Amersfoort or Nijmegen.”