Jason Hughes, owner of Sonic Boom Records announced that he's closing the Capitol Hill store by the end of August and bringing its inventory to the Ballard location.

"It was a tough decision but to ensure the future of the store it became necessary," Hughes said.

Originally located on 15th Avenue, the Capitol Hill store moved to a bigger space with more traffic on Melrose.

"We took a gamble on a bigger space with higher traffic.  Obviously, the gamble did not pay off.  After 16 months of consistent losses I decided to pull the plug," Hughes said.

Hughes added that the Sonic Boom Records store in Ballard has always been a solid store and has been supporting the Capitol Hill locations for the last four years. 

"It will continue to be strong way into the future with a great staff,  awesome customers and an ideal location," he assured.

Hughes said one of the reason why Ballard continues to have good sales is due to a different and slightly older demographic that appreciates physical product and buys CD’s and LP’s more regularly. 
 
In general vinyl sales have gone up in recent years, Hughes said.

"But not enough to offset CD sale decreases or save the music industry overall.  We have adjusted our floor space to take as much advantage of all the new LP releases and the new interest in vinyl as we could," he said.

Hughes said he's now taking a 'wait and see' approach to Sonic Boom Records and bringing a lot more inventory to the Ballard store.

Meanwhile, the Melrose location will having an ongoing sale until it closes its doors on August 28th.

"I'd like to thank all the regular customers we have up here," Hughes stated. "You make doing this job totally worth it and it's been a pleasure. Thanks to all the bands that have graced us with in-stores."