Indiana, PA | Backstreet’s back: Record store returns to Indiana, sets grand opening. After leaving Indiana for a location in Punxsutawney, Backstreet Records is moving back to Indiana. And now, folks can have a hometown option for physical music starting with a grand opening at 11 a.m. Saturday at 1176 Grant St., Indiana, underneath Commonplace Coffee in the Campus Edge plaza. First opened in 1979 in Regency Mall, where TJ Maxx currently resides, Backstreet Records was a mainstay in the Indiana community during a time before streaming overtook physical media as the general populace’s main source of music. In 2006, the shop was sold to current owner Indiana-born Dave Anderson, who also works as an assistant manager at Preserving Records in New Kensington, who moved the store’s location on Seventh Street, where Zedd’s Gifts currently resides, in 2010.
Bristol, UK | Record shop to showcase local heavy metal female artists: The upcoming Mothering Sunday is expected to bring together some of the proverbial mothers of the city’s heavy metal art scene under one roof. The South West’s only specialised heavy metal record shop, Black City Records, will host the event. Heavy metal may conjure up sights and sounds of distorted guitars and abrasive noise, but that is only one aspect of a genre—it is as much a lifestyle and artistic experience as it is music. Heavy metal art is also the indecipherable logos, album covers, posters and interior decor—and many other forms of artistic expressions. Artist Howie Ridgeon, who works at Black City Records, is no stranger to the city’s heavy metal art scene through his contributions to comic book collective Thunderchair.
Burbank, CA | Vinyl Lives: Run Out Groove Records Is Burbank’s Vinyl Haven Built on Passion and Community. Southern California, home to the stars, sun-drenched memories, and some of the finest record shops on the West Coast of the United States. Through the rich musical history that has driven the area’s art scene for decades and continues to do so, many locals have been inspired to get involved. Whether you were starting a punk band in the eighties or learning about Hip-hop throughout the nineties, there is an inherent magic to So-Cal that keeps the creative juices flowing, and they all need a place to call home. That’s where Run Out Groove Records of Burbank comes in.
North Liberty, IA | After flipping vinyl to pay for film school, Isaac Smith now operates a store of his own: Zig Zog’s Records in North Liberty. The vinyl collector bug bit Isaac Smith hard after he asked his parents for a turntable on his 13th birthday. After acquiring a few thousand records since that pivotal moment in 2015, the Bettendorf native recently opened a record store of his own in North Liberty. …I first met Smith at a record fair in the summer of 2022. While making small talk at his booth, I learned that he was selling records to cover the cost of attending the University of Iowa—a self-made Vinyl Revival Scholarship, if you will. Coincidentally, it turned out that he had already enrolled in my Music & Social Change class that fall semester (for which he wrote a final paper titled “The Beach Boys Encounter Counter Culture”). I kept buying LPs from this tall young man over the years, and by this point, I have shelled out about as much as he paid in tuition to take my class, a fair trade in my opinion.
Austin, TX | Half Price Books closing longtime South Lamar store to relocate: A longtime Austin bookstore is turning the page. Half Price Books will close its store at 2929 S. Lamar Blvd. on March 15, choosing to relocate about a mile away to 2607 S. 1st St., in a neighborhood retail center just south of the South First and Oltorf intersection. The new location is expected to open in late spring. …Half Price Books’ appeal has long been its mix of books and curiosities. Framed celebrity photos, first-edition books, and other pop-culture memorabilia sit on shelves near racks of vinyl records, DVDs, and other media. Because Half Price Books buys books from customers and also purchases unsold titles from publishers at a discount, the selection constantly changes.
Reykjavík, IS | Best Of Reykjavík 2026: Best Record Store. In this year’s Best of Shopping, a lot of us had the recent uptick in quickly made and cheaper products on our minds—not to mention that it seems like barely anyone has the dough to afford their entire wishlist. Nevertheless, we have the chance here to celebrate those who operate their shops with intentionality; we cheer on institutions that don’t drop everything for momentary trends, that champion designers and makers in Iceland, that put care into the items they ask you to spend your money on. Whether you’re looking for a statement piece, a gift, or a souvenir, you can find what we’ve chosen as the best of the best.
Hitchin, UK | Inside JP’s Records as new vinyl store opens in Hitchin: After more than six years without a record store, Hitchin has new home for vinyl records that is taking the town by storm. JP’s Records has opened in the basement of Ronan’s Coffee at 50a Walsworth Road and is the brainchild of music superfan Jack Perry. The store opened back in February and has already proved popular, with Jack explaining that opening day proved a far bigger success than even he imagined. “It was busier than I expected. I wasn’t expecting people to be straight in the door when we opened at 10am,” he told the Comet. “It was a big rush in the morning, which was really good, and I met loads of nice new people and some familiar faces who had actually travelled just to come and see the new store.”
DeKalb, IL | Aurora Music Company still rockin’ after 4 years: While other small businesses were shutting down due to the COVID-19 pandemic, one music shop opened its doors to new beginnings four years ago. Aurora Music Company, located at 137 E. Lincoln Highway, is a music store co-founded by childhood friends Robert Mondi and Frank Agnello, who both shared a passion for music and played in bands as kids. …Tucked away from the buzz upstairs is the lower-level filled with vinyl records, CDs, music posters and movies. Between the silence and the smell of aged vinyls, customers can be found reminiscing on simpler and slower times. At first, the vinyl section was just a small section of the store, but due to increasing customer demands, the owners had to allocate more room for the vinyls. “We just didn’t know how big of a part of the store it was going to be,” Agnello said. “We realized quickly that we didn’t have enough space allocated.”
Los Angeles, CA | This enormous record fair is returning to L.A. this month. Mark your calendars, crate diggers: VinylCon is back! Vinyl never really left Los Angeles—it just moved from living rooms to milk crates. But for one weekend in March, the city’s collectors, DJs and analog obsessives will all be digging in the same place. VinylCon!, the fast-growing record fair that’s been popping up in cities across the country, returns to L.A. on March 21 and 22 with a two-day celebration of record collecting at the California Market Center in Downtown L.A. The event debuted in Los Angeles last summer and quickly turned into something bigger than organizers expected. More than 2,500 people showed up to browse crates from more than 80 dealers, including sellers who flew in from Japan and the Netherlands. For many collectors, it felt like something the city had been missing.
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