Stroud, UK | Klang Tone Records officially opens new shop in Lansdown: A town centre record shop has officially opened in its new location after moving just a few doors down the road. Klang Tone Records, in Lansdown, has moved a few doors down into the former home of Sew and So unit. The shop opened at the new unit on Saturday, September 5 with its first customer, at 7am, a cat. It had previously been based in London Road, when it opened in 2022. In a light-hearted social media post, a spokesperson for Klang Tone Records said: “Well—we made it and the first customer in bright and early at 7am was unbelievably a cat.
New Orleans, LA | This Louisiana Record Store Stacks So Much Vinyl You’ll Lose An Afternoon Flipping Crates: Two floors of records sit inside Euclid Records on Chartres Street in the Bywater, and most people who walk in underestimate how long they will stay. The ground level is packed wall to wall with new and used vinyl, CDs, and cassettes, while the second floor holds a deep jazz section and stacks of 45s. Shoppers often mention that they found the upstairs too late and had to rush. Plan for the whole afternoon, because a quick stop here rarely stays quick. Down at the far end of Chartres Street, past the French Quarter and well into the Bywater, sits an independent record store that takes its job seriously. Euclid Records New Orleans is at 3301 Chartres St, a short walk from the river and the railroad tracks that run through this part of town.
Overland Park, KS | Joe’s Records, selling vinyl and CDs, plans first KC-area store in Overland Park: The St. Louis-based shop will carry vinyl, CDs and rock apparel across genres once it opens at Oak Park Mall in spring 2027. Since he was a teenager, it’s come naturally to Joe Smith to be surrounded by records. It all started when he landed a part-time job at a record store in 1987. After 15 years of working for entertainment retail company Trans World Entertainment, which owned multiple chains of music stores, he launched his own: Joe’s Records. “That’s all I’ve ever done,” Smith said. “It was just something I really enjoyed doing.” Today, Joe’s Records has stores in three cities; and it’s about to say hello to another one. Next year, the store will open a new location inside the Oak Park Mall in Overland Park.
Inglewood, CA | Inglewood record store Asteroid Vinyl Cafe fights to stay open after county health department says it can no longer sell coffee: The cafe’s owners said losing coffee sales has put the store’s future in jeopardy as they navigate costly upgrades and a lengthy city permitting process. Two years ago, longtime friends Maritza Galvez and Joseph Fleming bonded over music and coffee, leading them to open Asteroid Vinyl Cafe in Inglewood. Galvez said the vinyl record store and coffee shop was initially the only Latino-owned specialty coffee shop in Inglewood, and that the coffee helped create a space that connected them to the community. Asteroid Vinyl is now on the brink of closing after the LA County Department of Public Health notified them in July that the mobile cart they used to sell coffee is not permissible, according to health department documents reviewed by The LA Local. “Coffee was our main revenue and now we’re struggling to pay rent,” Fleming said.
Grass Valley, CA | Don’t stop the music: Local vinyl record store celebrates 15 years. Clock Tower Records in downtown Grass Valley has been in the business of selling vintage and new vinyl records for 15 years, and music lovers are invited to join in a special event to celebrate the anniversary on Saturday, October 10 from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Located at 130 West Main Street just steps from the old-fashioned clock standing near the crosswalks leading over to the Mill Street Plaza, Clock Tower Records is unique to the downtown shopping experience. “Not many businesses stay in town for 15 years, and so we thought it was a good time to do something fun,” Clock Tower owner Jonny Moser said. The whole store will have 15 percent off for the event and that includes vinyl, CDs, audio components, and music related gift items, such as posters and t-shirts.
Freeport, IL | Freeport record store brings vinyl back to life: Some music seems to have a way of finding its way back. Songs can come and go from the radio, current tunes age into classics, playlists change. Records and reel-to-reels, eight-tracks and cassettes, discs and downloads — through the years, people’s music collections have changed llike the songs at the top of the charts. While tapes and LP’s and compact discs gather dust in forgotten boxes in the basement, the songs remain the same—but the way we listen to them hasn’t. …Records are back, turning the tables on people who thought they were past their prime, and the shops that sell them are a hit, too, including one in Freeport where customers get their music served to them on a vinyl platter.
Salina, KS | Vinyl Summit celebrates 40 years of Salina’s Acoustic Sounds, founder Chad Kassem: Chad Kassem is nothing if not a traditionalist. The founder of Salina’s Acoustic Sounds, Inc. has celebrated vinyl through its ups and downs. And though he may not have predicted its recent surge, Kassem was ready for it. Kassem started Acoustic Sounds in 1986 and, over the past 40 years, has built it into a pre-eminent source of vinyl pressings and album remasters and reissues. He’s celebrating four decades of his creation with the Vinyl Summit in Salina from Oct. 15-18. The event includes tours of Acoustic Sounds, record fairs, multiple concerts and two after-hours jams. The Oct. 18 show at Stiefel Theatre includes performances from blues legends Taj Mahal, Jimmie Vaughn and Bernard Allison. “You got to give credit for vinyl … there’s just so much more emotion,” Kassem said in an exclusive interview with 12 News.
Middletown, CT | WESU 88.1 FM’s Fall Record Fair: Spinning Together. On Saturday, Oct. 3, the first floor of Exley Science Center looked a little different than it does on an average weekend. Students, Middletown residents, and record collectors gathered for WESU 88.1 FM’s fall record fair. From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., its hall bustled with shoppers browsing tables packed with vinyls and CDs. Vendors from across New England also offered cameras, lamps, T-shirts, and books. Student organizations like United Student Labor Action Coalition (USLAC) joined the mix, handing out pamphlets and bringing another vibrant part of campus life to the fair. For vendor Sam Sigg, who returned for his second University record fair, the event was another stop in his long journey of collecting vinyl. He recalled that he began his collection around 1988 and that as listeners embraced CDs, he found an opportunity to buy up the vinyl they were discarding.
South Bend, IN | Music Enthusiasts talk tunes at the South Bend Record Show: The South Bend Record Show brought all types of physical music media to the Gillespie Conference Center. “So, we have vendors that come from multiple states all over the Midwest, who come here, bring vinyl, new vinyl, pre-loved vinyl, CDs, cassettes, posters, audio equipment, a little bit of everything for people who love music and want to collect physical media,’ said Jeremy Bonfiglio, the Owner/ Organizer of South Bend Record Show. The show has been going on for more than 30 years and featured more than 36 vendors. The fall showcase makes for a space where music fans can meet, ” You get to really get to know people who love music, and it’s really like a time capsule. You pick up a record, and you can kind of remember where you were when you first heard a song or that album, and so it’s fun to see people kind of relive that.”
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