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Herm Baker Talks Vertigo Music
& Inevitable Retirement
by: Zac Abid
If you’ve ever talked to the man most often behind the counter of Grand Rapids’ Vertigo
Music, you may have found someone who’s friendly, affable, and extremely knowledgeable
of music. This man, Herm Baker has been a quiet force within the Grand Rapids music
scene for decades. Interviewing Herm Baker reveals a personality not necessarily betrayed
by his easy-going demeanor, one that is both hard-headed, observant, and clever, a personality
that has allowed him to maintain his business even as the musical and economic
landscape has remained in flux around him. Despite these circumstances, Herm Baker has
managed to forge Vertigo Music into West Michigan’s premier record shop.
When asked what led him to try his hand at the music business he tells me, “same thing
as you… voracious consumption of newer music.” Baker explains, “the music we liked we
couldn’t find in Grand Rapids… We wanted a store that had more underground stuff in it.”
This was in 1986, when Baker’s first record store Vinyl Solution, opened at its first location
on South Division Avenue. “We started off as a vinyl store,” he says, one that always stocked
smaller indie punk records. When the CD format took off the store “kind of morphed into a
bigger thing,” he says. “CDs really dominated.” The store’s business grew so substantially that
they relocated to a larger location on the corner of 28th and Breton. Vinyl Solution had its
biggest year ever in 1995, doing $1.6 million in sales largely on the back of its CD stock. This
success was short-lived, however. By 1999, Vinyl Solution had been put out of business by
larger retailers like Best Buy.
The years leading up to Vinyl Solution’s demise were hard on Herm Baker. Just coming off
a divorce, the end of Vinyl Solution saw Baker go bankrupt and lose his home. “One of my
darkest years on Earth… all hope and self-confidence had been beaten out of me” he recalls.
Improbably though, Baker was back in business by the next year. Vertigo Music opened in
2000, only a block away from its present day direction. While Baker admits he did consider
moving on from the music business, his stubbornness kept him in the game. Baker was
unhappy with the way that Vinyl Solution ended: “It did not end on my terms,” he says. He
is determined to not let his new store suffer the same fate as his former one.
In the wake of Vinyl Solution’s end, Baker saw the opportunity to reinvent his business. He
kicked off Vertigo Music by buying the remainder of Vinyl Solution’s inventory back from
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