Plug in your headphones, open Spotify, hit play on your favourite song and get on with your day. Listening to music has never been easier. Within seconds we can access almost any song, album or artist from our phone, without even needing an internet connection. This ease of instant listening seems to have turned the physical format into a relic for collectors and the nostalgic. And yet, even as streaming has become the dominant way of consuming music, interest in holding it in our hands again has been growing too. It's a bet musicians share as well: for them, record sales and, above all, live shows allow for a more direct relationship with audiences and with the income their music generates, unlike a streaming model in which per-listen pay is much harder to see.
Choosing a record, lingering over the cover, flicking through the sleeve notes and finally placing it on the turntable: it's a ritual gaining more and more followers, and more spaces backing this format in Barcelona too, where in recent years — albeit still discreetly — spaces dedicated to vinyl or high-quality listening, the so-called Hi-FI spaces, have been popping up. Next week, the Catalan capital will celebrate the opening of a venue that takes this ritual to its fullest expression: El Club del Disco (Carrer Casp, 62).
Across 300 square metres in the Eixample, this venue brings together a record shop, a Hi-Fi bar and a concert hall: three different ways of engaging with music that all stem from the same idea — reclaiming the time and space we give to this ritual of listening.
Beyond its concept, unusual for Barcelona (no other venue brings these three formats together under one roof), opening a small-format music venue is, in itself, an uncommon and, in some ways, risky move. In a city accustomed to major festivals and increasingly established as a regular stop for international artists — look no further than Bad Bunny, Robbie Williams or, as recently announced, Oasis — small-format venues aren't in the same position.
Financial difficulties, changes of use, struggles to keep going and, in some cases, closures are a constant for these spaces. Even so, the opening of El Club del Disco coincides with a few signs pointing the other way, such as the reopening, this week, of JazzSí in the heart of the Raval, or the launch, a few months ago, of La Perla del Born. El Club del Disco arrives, moreover, with a proposal that widens what a concert hall can be: open Tuesday to Sunday, midday to 11pm, with a programme that isn't confined to nights or to live shows alone.
There will be listening sessions, midday concerts, open rehearsals and meet-the-artist events, all while collectible vinyl is sold and small tapas served at the bar. "We wanted to build a stool with three very clear legs, so it would be as stable as possible," explains Jan-Erik Grothe, the man behind the project. The aim is for the space to also work as a meeting point for the local music scene. Paula Comberti, the venue's director, sums it up: "The local scene needed a space like this. We want it to be a meeting point to get our name out there and, above all, to build a community around music."
The story behind El Club del Disco: from Buenos Aires to Barcelona
El Club del Disco is not starting from scratch, though. The project is the physical extension of an independent label founded in Buenos Aires in 2005, initially tied to jazz, which has since broadened its catalogue to include tango, folklore and other forms of contemporary music. For more than two decades, the label has worked with artists outside the major record industry circuits. In 2024, Grothe took over as general director and the operation moved to Barcelona, from where he now works with European and Latin American musicians.
That's when they identified the need for a space that could bring together some of the activities already central to their work: discovering music, releasing it, listening to it and connecting it with audiences. Jan-Erik Grothe, who is German, and his partner Paula Comberti, who is Argentine, decided to do it in the city where both have lived for more than two decades. "With the aim of giving back to the city what it's given us," Comberti explains.
"Discovering and supporting local talent is more than a wish — it's a necessity, and one of the project's reasons for being," says Grothe. The label has already worked with numerous local artists, but the opening of the venue aims to strengthen that bond further. Alongside the programming, this commitment to the local scene will also show up on the record shop's shelves. The shop won't just showcase the label's own catalogue, but will also offer a selection of independent music, including labels such as ACT Music, Edition Records, Late Night Tales, Disk Union, RGS, Fresh Sound (which recently closed its shop in Sarrià), Discos Elgozo and Guerssen.
Three legs, one experience
Bringing the project to life required an extensive renovation, begun in May, to technically adapt the venue and allow its three uses to coexist. Soundproofing between the different spaces means the Hi-Fi bar can keep running while a concert takes place just metres away. The interior design, led by Verónica Luco, follows the same logic: creating distinct atmospheres connected by a shared idea of how to experience music. Armchairs and listening areas sit alongside shelves packed with records, while the concert hall — marked by red tones and warm lighting — steers away from the usual look of a music venue. That same attention carries through to the Hi-Fi bar, which seats 36 and offers a menu designed by Michelin-starred chef Massimiliano Musso, including sandwiches, salads and small plates.
The jewel in the crown, though, is the concert hall, which seats 74 and holds 148 standing, although the usual format will be around a hundred. The programme will combine artists from the label's catalogue, local musicians and international guests, with The Endless Trio — made up of Alessandro Campobasso, Pablo Costas and Carlos Ródenas — as one of its resident acts. For member Carlos Ródenas, having a space designed from the ground up for music is like "having written your letter to Santa": a hall with no unnecessary cabling, natural sound, and acoustics that let musicians hear each other on stage without plugging in a single speaker.
Beyond the concerts, the programming aims to widen both the ways and the times at which people engage with music. There will be series and collaborations with institutions including the Conservatori del Liceu and the Taller de Músics, along with listening sessions, open rehearsals and meet-the-artist events. The schedule will also break from the norm — concerts will run only until 11pm — with, for instance, midday offerings.
In fact, the programme the venue launches with, running from 22 to 26 September to coincide with La Mercè, one of the city's busiest periods, will already give a small taste of that variety. Enjoy five days of free activities (though booking ahead is required) for all audiences, with a line-up combining concerts, listening sessions and various other music-related events.
In the end, all this variety answers to the same logic: that El Club del Disco should be a living space where something is always happening around music — where you can listen to a record, discover an artist, eat, talk or catch a concert, but where, one way or another, the ritual of music is always present.
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