A Year of Big Changes - And Why We Made Them
From the founder of Vinyl Castle on the 1st anniversary of our retail site launch.
I've spent more of my career than I care to admit helping retail businesses find their feet online. From BLOCKBUSTER® to HMV, while I've worked with some amazing people and built some amazing customer communities; I've seen what happens when brilliant brands fail to put their customers truly at the centre of everything they do. When I launched Vinyl Castle, I made a very deliberate promise to myself: we would never make that mistake.
This year, we've made some of the most significant changes in Vinyl Castle's history. Some of them you'll have noticed immediately. Some of them are quietly working away in the background, making your experience smoother, richer, and more enjoyable every single time you visit. All of them were built around one simple idea - you.
Here's a genuine look at what we've been doing, why we did it, and where we're going next.
We're Building Something That Really Matters
Before I get into the specifics, I want to share something about why we exist.
Vinyl Castle's vision has always been clear: to become the destination of choice for vinyl in the UK and beyond. Not just a shop. A destination. A place where music lovers feel genuinely at home, where they discover something brilliant they didn't know they were looking for, and where they trust that the people behind the scenes genuinely care about what they're doing.
We empower independent businesses, labels, and partners - and we're always looking to bring new partners on board to extend our range even further. That philosophy runs through absolutely everything we do.
Our catalogue now sits at over 850,000 titles. That is a staggering, genuinely exciting number. And we have extensive plans to grow it further still. Not all 850,000 are available at once, our stock levels vary each day, based on the availability in the independents we empower.
More than 12,000 people have already joined the Vinyl Castle community. That number means everything to me. It tells me we're doing something right.
Customers First - Always
Here's a stat I'm immensely proud of: 96.5% satisfaction rate from our customer orders. That doesn't happen by accident. It happens because of the people we have working behind the scenes, because of the care we put into every order, and because we've always believed that real human connection matters.
We still use real people to help our customers - and we intend to keep it that way. There's been a lot of noise in the industry about replacing customer support with AI. That is not something we're doing. It goes back to our founding principles. We started Vinyl Castle to empower independents and put human relationships at the heart of what we do. Swapping out our people for a chatbot would betray everything we stand for.
No company is perfect. And not all of the customer service platforms out there have been treated equally. While we have 100s of reviews on other platforms; due to the costs of TrustPilot and given how we are completely self funded; our TP ratings are not where I’d like them to be; and as I feel we can’t afford a paid for account which allows brands to improve their TrustPilot rating, like our competitors can do; I’d appreciate it, if you have had a positive experience with us, I'd genuinely love it if you'd take a moment to rate us.
It helps more music lovers find us, and it helps us keep doing what we do. You can rate us here - https://www.trustpilot.com/evaluate/vinylcastle.com
We have a very good customer services team who really care. And as the founder, I often find myself reading customer emails myself late on a Friday night (while listening to good record of course).
I was only made aware of TrustPilot today – and have requested an update on every one of the issues that the 6 customers who reviewed us negatively have experienced. We have had thousands of orders that went out without a hitch. If you had a good experience and could share as a counter balance; I’d really appreciate it -
https://www.trustpilot.com/evaluate/vinylcastle.com
A New Look and Feel
Let's be honest. Nobody likes it when someone moves the bread and the milk.
When we updated the look and feel of the site, we knew it would take some getting used to. Change is always a little uncomfortable, even when it's genuinely for the better. But one piece of feedback kept coming back to us again and again: it was difficult to find things. The site had grown enormously, and the experience hadn't kept pace with that growth.
So we made it a priority. We massively improved our search and browse tools, tightened up the navigation, and made it significantly easier to find exactly what you're looking for - whether that's a specific pressing, a favourite artist, or something brand new that catches your eye.
It's a better site. And honestly, I think you'll feel it the moment you start using it.
Discovering New Music, Week by Week
One of the most exciting things we've built this year is our new releases browser - and it's genuinely one of my favourite additions to the site. It was based on something I built back in the day as Head of Online at Blockbuster; it became one of the most popular parts of the website.
You can now browse every new vinyl release added to Vinyl Castle by week, going back across the last 12 weeks. So if you missed something that dropped a fortnight ago, it's right there waiting for you. No hunting around. No guesswork. Just a clean, organised view of what's arrived and when.
It's designed for discovery. Whether you're hunting down a specific new LP or simply want to see what's landed recently, this is the fastest, most satisfying way to stay ahead of the curve.
Check out New By Week here –
https://vinylcastle.com/pages/new-vinyl-releases-by-week
IntelliSearch: Smarter Every Time
We upgraded our search last year. Then we upgraded it again this year. We just forgot to tell people about it. Plus, we kinda should have built a better search to begin with! Shopify is not used to mega databases with lots of data points so we've had to think outside the box.
Our IntelliSearch technology has become genuinely powerful. One of the most impactful changes we made was automatically prioritising vinyl in your search results - because that's what the overwhelming majority of our customers are primarily looking for. When you search for an album, you want the vinyl. You don't want to wade through CDs to find it.
It sounds like a small thing. It absolutely isn't. It makes the experience faster, cleaner, and far more intuitive. And we're continuing to refine it further.
Browse by Artist - Thousands of Dedicated Pages
We've built dedicated artist pages for thousands of musicians, bands, and performers across the catalogue.
This means you can search for an artist you love and land somewhere genuinely useful - a page built around them, their releases, and their records in our catalogue. It's a more immersive, more connected way to explore the music you care about most.
Whether you're diving deep into a classic artist's back catalogue or exploring someone new for the first time, these pages make the experience feel personal in a way that a generic search results page simply can't.
https://vinylcastle.com/pages/browse-by-artist
Browse by Genre - Now Down to the Sub-Genre
This one's been a long time coming, and I'm thrilled it's finally here.
Our new and improved Browse by Genre feature lets you dig far deeper than the big, broad categories. Of course you can still browse all of Rock 'n' Roll in one go — but if you only fancy a particular corner of it, you can now filter right down by sub-genre and see only what you're after. Love a bit of Stoner rock? Filter by Stoner and that's exactly what you'll get, without wading through everything else.
It's a small change with a big impact. Finding your niche has never been easier, and every little helps when your shelves (and your wallet) are at stake.
Have a browse here: https://vinylcastle.com/pages/vinyl-browse-by-genre
The Top 100 Vinyl Castle Chart
Want to know what other music lovers are buying right now? Our Top 100 Vinyl Castle chart gives you exactly that.
It's a brilliant, ever-changing snapshot of what's popular in the community at any given moment. A genuinely useful tool for discovering your next record - and an endlessly satisfying browse even when you're not actively looking to buy.
https://vinylcastle.com/collections/top-100-vinyl-castle-chart
100 Years of Music - Browse by Decade
This one is truly special.
Our browse by decade feature lets you explore over a century of recorded music based on what we currently have in stock and when each album was originally released. We're talking over 100,000 titles available on site, organised in a way that takes you on a completely thrilling journey through musical history.
Whether you want to explore the jazz of the 1950s, the raw energy of 1970s rock, or the bold, experimental sounds of the 1990s, it's all there. This is one of the most unique and genuinely exciting ways to explore our catalogue - and I encourage you to spend some time with it.
https://vinylcastle.com/pages/browse-by-decade
Newsletters That Inspire, Not Just Sell
I'll be honest about something. Too many newsletters from music retailers are just lists of things to buy. We don't want to be that.
Our newsletter philosophy is built around inspiration. We mark musical events and important moments in music history - from the anniversary of Miles Davis' birth to key milestones in The Beatles' recording story - and we use these moments to share something genuinely interesting and meaningful about music.
Of course, we also share new additions to the site and things we're excited about. But the goal is to send you something worth reading, not just something worth clicking. If you haven't joined our mailing list yet, I'd love for you to come and be part of it.
You also get 10% Off when you join us!
What Comes Next
This has been a huge year for Vinyl Castle. But in many ways, it feels like the beginning.
We're going to keep growing the catalogue, deepening our partnerships with independents, improving the experience on site, and building a community that genuinely matters to the people in it. The vision - to be the destination of choice for vinyl in the UK and beyond - drives every single decision we make.
Thank you for being part of this. Every order, every review, every message to our team - it all means more than you know.
Keep spinning. Onwards and upwards.
- Mal Simons; Vinyl Castle Founder
