His Town, His Records, His Rules

Luis Correa, owner of Steady Beat Records, in his downtown San Pedro store

Luis Correa vividly recalls the exact price he paid for his first two records: 25 cents each at the Vermont Avenue swap meet in 1978, when he was nine–“I Want You Back” by the Jackson 5 and El Chicano’s “In a Silent Way.” Then he bought the Madness greatest hits album, and that’s how all this madness began.

Five decades later, the madness continues. Correa owns Steady Beat Records on Seventh Street in Downtown San Pedro, where roughly 80,000 vinyl records (along with CDs, cassettes, t-shirts, posters, and other miscellany) demonstrate what’s possible when music fans reclaim control from the algorithms.

Twenty-five years ago, around the turn of the millennium, none of this seemed possible. In 1998, Correa was running Steady Beat Recordings, his own label focused on the local ska and reggae scene. His releases were sold in Tower Records. Distributors were moving product. Then Napster arrived, and within a year, everything imploded.

“Distributors started shutting down,” he recalls. “They started calling me saying, ‘Hey, listen, we’re not accepting any more vinyl. We’re sending back your stuff… and you owe us money.’”

Everybody in the vinyl business was out of a job...

Read the full story at San Pedro Today