The Hustle - 🎙️ The vinyl gold rush

Happy Trends Tuesday!

Today we’ve got:

• 1 trend alert

• 1 piece of operator wisdom

• 1 startup you should know about

• 4 tabs we have open

Let's get to it.

🚨 TREND ALERT

Our ears perked up earlier this year on hearing that Metallica bought a majority stake in one of America’s largest vinyl record producers.

Turns out vinyl’s been on a hell of a run.

For the first time since 1987, kids, hipsters, and your deadbeat uncle bought more records than they did CDs:

Sales have climbed every year for almost two decades, and were up 17% YoY in 2022 alone – pointing to some interesting opportunities:

• Vinyl production. Production lags demand. Per Mixmag, global output is limited to ~160m records per year, but demand is closer to 300m-400m.
  
  
• Turntable sales. Audio-Technica is pulling in $8.4m/mo. from a single model on Amazon alone, according to JungleScout. Or, take a page from Wrensilva, which custom-builds beautiful models for $6k-$12k each.
  
  
• Record storage. This crate does $119k/mo. on Amazon. Just a crate… You’re welcome.

💪 100 MISSION STATEMENTS

🧠 OPERATOR WISDOM

Help A Reporter (HARO) connects reporters, bloggers, and other content creators with industry experts who serve as sources for their writing.

It’s a win-win: Writers find credible sources, and industry experts get free PR.

Many Trendsters have successfully used HARO to get featured in publications like Women’s Health, Forbes, Business Insider, The Washington Post, and even The New York Times.

This is what they have to say about using HARO (and other PR hacks):

1. Craft the right response to source requests: Sincerity is key, so don’t use a template. Be concise. Think about what makes you unique. One Trendster said: “I really use the angle of being a pre-IPO PayPal employee to get journalists to open my emails.”
   
   
2. Use filters to save time: Wading through ~300 source requests every day can become a full-time job. Tyler Cook shared a video showing how he sets up very specific inbox filters to lighten the load.
   
   
3. Skip the middleman: Dan Chen uses LinkedIn Sales Navigator to pitch journos and start conversations to stay top of mind. But if you’re just starting out, he recommends going after local media and smaller publications first: “It’s easier to get their attention, and you’ll get better at telling your story each time you get featured.”

🔥 STARTUP YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT

The stock market goes up and down, but a really good bottle of wine never fails us.

That’s the idea behind alternative investments: Where assets can take the form of anything from antique cars and fine art to high-end alcoholic beverages.

Vinovest is a startup working to make investing in bottles of wine more accessible, transparent, and, of course, profitable.

Read more about the business on The Hustle blog. 

OPEN TABS

🍦 Star scoop: What do Snoop Dogg and Cher have in common? An ice cream business, apparently.

🎧 Podcast: Listen in for 6 AI tools that will save you an hour a day. 

🥊 Duke it out: This nifty site lets you pit generative AI models against each other to see which reigns supreme. 

🚀 Fellow founders: A comprehensive list of 15 of the best startup communities you can join right now.

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