Cassettes, vinyl, live music and big dreams—everything all at once in a small record shop down the street.
Co-owners Blake Gederberg and Nick Cotrufo of Speakertree, a record shop located in downtown Lynchburg, hope to benefit locals by giving life to the record selling business under their new management.
Being past workers for Uphold Live, an event planning service created by Gederberg, these two strive to give Lynchburg the venue for upcoming artists, the latest and classic vinyl technology and more to serve the community as Lynchburg’s record store.
“All these entrepreneurs could of went anywhere and started their coffee shops or their candle companies, but they chose here,” Gederberg said. “I think there’s something that they can keep in mind that Lynchburg is not necessarily a boring city. It’s tough for people to get out and do what they need to do or do what they want to do, but we’re trying to make this a fun city.”
Gederberg, 25, graduated from Liberty University with a degree in business and said he had found his calling for music during a youth ministry class he was minoring in.
“(The professor) said this one thing that will always stick with me,” Gederberg said. “Sometimes when we ask for a calling and ask God what are we supposed to do in our life, it’s not always going to be like ‘hey, you’re going to do this.’ It comes in passion, the way you think and the way you operate. It’s the one thing you can’t wake up without thinking about and you can’t go to bed without thinking about.”
As a promoter, Gederberg says the re-opening of the shop is the perfect way to combine his calling of reaching the youth through the provision of music and care.
“That’s when I realized that day that God necessarily was not calling me to youth ministry but to music,” Gederberg said. “I think I can still be of service to the youth of the city through this and still provide a good environment to take care of them in. Music is a great way to challenge kids’ energy or it’s a good thing to invest their time into, so I guess it is a ministry as well to me as it is a business.”
Early in their friendship, Gederberg and Cotrufo said they knew they wanted to have partnership with each other.
“When Blake and I became friends, when we were talking about it, I think it kind of started off as not necessarily as a joke, but as one of the comments we lay out there like ‘ha, wouldn’t this be fun?’ in hopes he would be like ‘oh thats a great idea, we should do that,’ and that’s kind of exactly what ended up happening,” Cotrufo said. “It started from there, we talked to the old owner, had a lot of going back and forth and here we are.”
Cotrufo, 24, said it has always been his dream to own a record shop.
“I started collecting records from Goodwill when I was 16, and when I first moved here, I bought my first real sealed record (at Speakertree),” Cotrufo said. “I got home, put it on the record player and I was like ‘this is amazing. I love this.’ Then, I started coming back here a lot. There were a lot of things here that I could see that I would be like ‘oh, I would do it like this, I think it would be better if I could do it like that.”
According to Lynchburg local and third owner of Speakertree, Nathan McGlothlin, 40, Speakertree was created in 2008 by Blair Amberly, one of the many who developed the local business scene in downtown Lynchburg.
“Blair had a vision of opening up a record shop,” McGlothlin said. “He decided to do that on 5th street (522), and wanted to call it Speakertree. Speakertree is actually a piece of art that he saw at an art instillation. It was a visual artist mixed with a musician, and it’s cool because it kind of came in full circle that not too long after the record shop opened, he actually had Roberto Lang record at the shop.”
According to McGlothlin, the past owners of Speakertree’s main goal focused more on record sales, until he and his co-owner, Joe Morgan, decided on its transformation into a live music venue.
“I’ve always had a vision of a place that not only sells records but provides a venue to play music,” McGlothlin said. “When we bought the shop, we wanted to make it a live performance friendly space. I always had the vision of being able to support and promote things that don’t get a lot of attention, so the record shop was our ability to do that.”
Gederberg and Cotrufo bought the shop from Tim Condon, the fourth owner of Speakertree, hoping to develop the music culture in Lynchburg as well as engaging with the community.
“We bought the shop because I believe this shop is the cornerstone for the music scene here,” Gederberg said. “Not only do we get to meet the music people that are passionate about the music coming and buying things from the shop, but it’s also this type of community. We kind of get to work from the ground up by bringing in up and coming acts helping develop the locals.”
Gederberg said from his past, he understands the obstacles promoters have to go through in renting venues for live music, and with that, Speakertree is willing to offer reasonable prices for upcoming performances.
“I think coming from being promoters we understand the promoter’s struggle and we don’t want to be that guy who is like, ‘well, we’re going to charge you $800 to fit our 150-cap venue,’ when we know what it is,” Gederberg said. “We know what we are providing and we want to seek our own growth too—not just on our own account, but on other people as well.”
Being immersed into the local Lynchburg scene, Cotrufo said he has seen growth and hopes to re-establish and promote why supporting the community downtown is important.
“I can go to a Walmart, I can go to a Target, I can get really anything I need there, but I don’t think that is building the community,” Cotrufo said. “I think I would definitely give (everyone) better places I would think that are fun to go to besides Speakertree. If you’re looking for coffee, you go to the White Hart—I think there’s just this personal intimate feel to buying local.”
Cotrufo and Gederberg’s overall vision for Speakertree has said to be seen as serving the community with its personal elements of making it not only a business, but Lynchburg’s record shop.
“I just want everyone to be proud that this is their record shop, and right now it is their only record shop,” Gederberg said. “Just to be able to know that they have this here. If they don’t collect vinyl they always can and we can probably get them into it—that would be the main focus.”
Speakertree provides customers with not only live music performances but also classic records and cassettes along with the latest vinyls. According to Cotrufo, vinyl is not dead.
“Records are definitely still a thing, contrary to what people have definitely said, there is a market for records,” Cotrufo said. “I’ve always told people that not only does it sound better, there’s such an intimate feel. If you go and buy a CD, it’s going to be thrown to the back of your car, be listened to a handful of times and never really cared about again. Having the physical record in your hand—there’s something so cool about that.”
Cotrufo says there is a particular atmosphere the shop creates—one of the reasons why it has been his dream to own Speakertree.
“I think there’s something really cool about the person that always owns a record shop—they’re just going to be there to listen,” Cotrufo said. “There have been a couple of people who come through and just unload their life story. I’m like, ‘that was a lot of information, but I’m really happy you just decided to trust a record shop owner with stuff like that.’”
With support, Gederberg hopes one day to make Speakertree a personal spot and hang out for those stop by.
“We want to make the stage into a lounge area, so that during the day, when there’s not a show going on, people/students can come here, listen to good music, grab a coffee somewhere and then come and study,” Gederberg said. “We’ll have couches and things, we’ll have an area where people can hang out.”
With the new addition of Crosley record player catalogs to the shop, Speakertree makes it easier for those who want to buy records but do not have a record player.
“We’re working to have Crosley’s that you can come in with your used records and listen to records,” Gederberg said. “We want to do cool things like bringing your own headphones (because Crosley’s have a headphone jack) so you can bring your own records in while you’re doing homework and hang out with your friends.”
As a response of not being able to afford a record player, Cotrufo said records simply do not even need a player to be enjoyed.
“If I could add anything, you definitely don’t need a record player to enjoy records,” Cotrufo said. “I bought 30 records then I got rid of the record player I had and then I just kept buying more records. I really loved just taking a weekend to come by to Speakertree/whatever shop that was near.”
In hopes for Speakertree’s success, Gederberg believes Lynchburg can thrive on making the city create something even bigger.
“If Speakertree takes off and we’re successful entrepreneurs, all the ideas we had to start other businesses all involve making the city more exciting,” Gederberg said. “We would love to see this city flourish.”
McGlothlin hopes for Speakertree’s success in what Cotrufo and Gederberg are doing to reinvent the shop.
“They are really carrying the torch on that place being a music venue and a record shop,” McGlothlin said. “If anything, I think they’re focusing more on the venue aspect more than the record shop aspect, which is great. It’s kind of become a stall work for live music. People have come to know Speakertree as, ‘I can go play a show there.’”
From opening the shop in July to sharing their hopes and dreams together, Cotrufo and Gederberg celebrate not only as partners in business but as friends who have come a long way.
“I think we just celebrated our one year ‘friendaversary’—we were not friends for a very long time,” Cotrufo said. “We knew each other, but we disliked each other. Then eventually I texted him, and I was like ‘hey let’s meet up we should talk,’ then we went to Taco Bell and squashed beef over beef, and we’ve been friends ever since.”
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