Written by Lucia Winkler
17-year-old Jessi Zilka didn’t imagine that her record collection would become a vinyl store on Kentucky Ave. But now she owns a flourishing business, Jesse Carl Vinyl, which has a rich history and a retro appeal perfect for Lakeland music lovers.
Despite the CD trend of her age, Zilka decided to start building a record collection during her junior year, inspired by her family’s love for music. Even her parents thought it was a crazy idea, as physical music was on its way out.
Owning a record store wasn’t what Jessi had imagined doing with her life. She dreamed of moving to Nashville to be a tour promoter and travel with all the up-and-coming bands. However, she had trouble getting hired in Tennessee, since she wasn’t living there. It was then that she decided to start up a small record flipping business using her collection, visiting local markets and events. She was determined to save up money to move to Nashville.
She anticipated only making $100 to $200 per Saturday. However, with only four or five milk crates of records, she was soon making $500-$600 each weekend. After having been approached about starting up a brick-and-mortar record store, she opened up a physical location in March of 2016.
“My dream of Tennessee seemed to never work out, yet my efforts to connect with people through the commonality of record collecting exploded in a way I never expected,” Zilka stated. “I knew then that this was what I was supposed to do with my life.”
Though digital music has grown more prominent since Zilka began collecting records, it’s clear that physical music formats are not dead. In fact, record sales increased by 20% in 2023, with an increasing trend over a 16-year period. And though Gen Z grew up primarily with digital music, in a survey by vinyl packing firm Key Production, 59% of the surveyed 18–24-year-olds reported listening to physical music releases.
GJHS student Lily Bray commented, “I bought a record player because I really love listening to music, some of my friends had gotten one themselves, and I wanted to see if the sound was different from digital music. I started collecting records because it sounded like a fun hobby.”
Zilka reports that, though her store’s customer base is primarily Gen X and Millennials, there is a good deal of Gen Z customers.
“That’s a great thing to see because it means that music media will likely sustain itself for a long time to come!” Jessi stated.
One way to support Jesse Carl Vinyl is to visit their upcoming Vinyl Fair, on Sunday, February 23. There will be several vendors selling records, CDs, tapes, and more! There will also be food and a DJ. However, Jesse Carl Vinyl is absolutely worth visiting on any average day! There are nearly 30 sections of albums, as well as CD and cassette tape collections. They have $1 CDs, an array of collectibles, a variety of genres in all formats, and a nostalgic vibe that any audiophile would love.
