Author Archives: TVD HQ

Alexandria, VA | Crooked Beat Records reopening in new Del Ray home this weekend: Crooked Beat Records is reopening in a new location in Del Ray this weekend. Owner Bill Daly announced on social media that the store will be open at 2101B Mount Vernon Avenue on Friday, Sept. 25, from 4-7 p.m., Saturday from 2 to 7 p.m. and Sunday from 1-6 p.m. “It’s like the Twilight Zone, same colors, same atmosphere,” Daly said in a video on Wednesday. “We’re excited about everything, and it’s going to be a work in progress. And we should be open for full time in about a week or so.” The new space, a two-story townhouse with 950 square feet, has been vacant for more than a decade, according to neighbors. In May, Daly was forced to close his previous basement location up the street at 2417 Mount Vernon Avenue after significant flooding in January.

Liverpool, UK | Liverpool store ‘overwhelmed with love’ after winning ‘UK best’ award: The Liverpool-based record store and live music venue operator was founded in 2015 by Graham Stanley. Jacaranda Records has been awarded Best Independent Record Store at the Independent Music Awards. Organised by the Association for Independent Music (AIM), the 16th edition of the Independent Music Awards was held at London’s Roundhouse last night (September 22). Jacaranda Records was founded in 2015 by Graham Stanley. Today Jacaranda has two record shops, two venues, and a bar, made up of the iconic Jacaranda Club on Slater Street and the newer Jacaranda Baltic in Cains Brewery. The original Jacaranda on Slater Street is credited with a key role in launching The Beatles’ early careers and first opened in 1958.

New Paltz, NY | The Good Times Roll at Bad Time Records: On Sept. 19, Bad Time Records joined a wide collection of record stores that call the Hudson Valley home. The space on Church Street sits between Beans Cat Cafe and All Creatures Veterinary Hospital, a cozy spot whose small dimensions do not confine the array of records and books that can be found inside. It is owned and managed by Mike Sosinski, longtime member of the ska-punk band Kill Lincoln and champion of the ska music genre since he founded his record label, Bad Time Records, in 2018. Sosinski’s mission focuses on delivering for people who already love ska and introducing it to people who know nothing about the genre, treating it with a sense of dignity that contradicts how it has been portrayed in the past.

Aberdeen, UK | Shoppers slam ‘gutting news’ as popular Scottish vinyl store announces closure: The store shared the announcement on Facebook. A popular vinyl store in Aberdeen has just announced it will be closing down. It has left loyal customers distraught at what they have called “gutting news.” Maidinvinyl took to Facebook earlier today (September 23) to share in a statement that it would be permanently shuttering its shop on Rosemount Viaduct. There is also a second stall at the Errol Sunday Market that has not been affected and will remain open as normal. The move has been made due to “ongoing cost increases” that the business “can no longer sustain.”

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The dark side of the vinyl revival: As demand for LPs reaches its highest level in decades, counterfeiters are cashing in on the record boom. The unlikely resurgence of vinyl has delivered plenty of unexpected sights over the past two decades. Major labels have discovered the lucrative joys of deluxe packaging. Teenagers are buying turntables again. LPs are selling in quantities that would have seemed unimaginable 20 years ago. But there is another, less welcome, sign that records are genuinely valuable again: counterfeiters are making a fortune from fake LPs. The issue has been thrust into the spotlight following the jailing of Rehan Ahmed, the west London businessman behind what investigators have described as Britain’s largest counterfeit vinyl operation.

Pittsboro, NC | CDs, tapes, and treasures: All Day Records in downtown Pittsboro: A few steps from the traffic circle in downtown Pittsboro, Charlie Hearon has filled a small storefront with the possibility of discovery. The bins at All Day Records hold familiar names—The Beatles, Bruce Springsteen, Willie Nelson and Paul Simon among them—but Hearon is less interested in steering every visitor toward a prescribed canon than in making room for the search itself. The store’s mix of vinyl records, compact discs, cassette tapes and vintage stereo equipment reflects both the renewed demand for physical media and Hearon’s belief that music culture grows when people have places to browse, listen, talk and occasionally stumble across something they did not know they needed.

UK | DJ and label boss Paul Ridney awarded Guinness World Record after 24-hour vinyl shop marathon: DJ, producer and label boss Paul Ridney has officially been certified as a Guinness World Record holder after taking on a 24-hour vinyl shop challenge across England’s South Coast—a mission designed to shine a spotlight on the independent record shops keeping music culture alive. Head of independent electronic dance label Paharas Musica, Ridney set out on 15 October 2025 to break the record for the most vinyl retail stores visited in 24 hours. Travelling from Brighton to Worthing, Chichester, Shoreham-by-Sea and back to Southampton using only public transport and a serious amount of walking, he racked up around 57,000 steps in the process. After an 11-month wait, the result is finally official: Ridney visited 28 stores in total and is now a Guinness World Record holder.

Miami, FL | Miami’s beloved Sweat Records expands with Sweat Annex: The Little Haiti record store’s new space will offer more used vinyl, workshops, meetings and community gatherings. Little Haiti’s popular record store Sweat Records announced today that it’ll be expanding with Sweat Annex. The new space at 204 NE 55th Terrace will be around the corner and two doors down from the familiar flagship location at 5505 NE 2nd Ave. “We are expanding. After 21 years we have needed more space for a while,” Sweat Records owner Lolo Reskin said in the announcement video that went up on social media this morning. “We’re going to be having more used records, space for meetings, workshops, crafts, and community gatherings of all kinds. It’s a blank canvas.”

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Why Record Stores Are Making A Comeback In The Streaming Era: …It’s not streaming versus vinyl. It never really was. ERA said it best: record stores give music lovers a genuine space to listen, collect, and connect with their favourite artists, tapping into real superfandom that exists comfortably alongside digital streaming. A playlist gets you the song instantly. It can’t give you the crate dig, the surprise reissue on the shelf, the line outside the door on a Saturday morning full of people who showed up for exactly the same reason you did. That feeling is what independent record stores have spent the last decade quietly building back, one Saturday at a time.

London, UK | Deep cuts: how one Londoner’s fake vinyl empire sheds light on ‘industrial scale’ fraud: Thousands of knock-off records worth a fortune are being seized in the UK by anti-counterfeit police stings. From 2017 onwards, Rehan Ahmed styled himself as a savvy business owner. But behind the facade of a successful entrepreneur lurked one stark fact: his empire was built on fakery. On Friday, the man behind the biggest-ever UK case of producing fraudulent vinyl, who sold counterfeit copies of records by some of the world’s biggest artists including Taylor Swift, Coldplay and Kendrick Lamar, was jailed. Ahmed, a 40-year-old father of three from Southall, west London, pleaded guilty to two charges of breach of artists’ copyright, and acquiring and using criminal property.

Toronto, CA | Sam Sniderman, ‘Sam the Record Man’ founder, dead at 92: A major promoter of Canadian music, Sniderman was a Member of the Order of Canada, an inductee of the Canadian Music Industry Hall of Fame and the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame. Sam Sniderman, the founder of the legendary Sam the Record Man music store, has died. He was 92. A release issued today (9/20) says Sniderman passed away peacefully in his sleep Sunday, surrounded by loved ones, in Toronto. Sniderman opened his flagship store on Toronto’s Yonge Street in 1959. The iconic store with its huge flashing red neon record signs closed in 2007, seven years after he retired.

Queens, NY | Queens artist gives obsolete media new life in ‘The Accidental Archive.’ A Queens-based artist is giving obsolete media a new life and, in one case, making a CD-ROM playable on a turntable. Artist sTo Len used a record cutter to carve grooves into a blank CD-ROM, creating a disc that can be played like a vinyl record. “This is to me very fun. Taking an obsolete technology and making it new but then making it sound really old at the same time,” said sTo Len, who has been an artist-in-residence at Materials for the Arts, or MFTA. The nearly 50-year-old city Department of Cultural Affairs program collects donated materials from across the five boroughs and makes them available for free to arts nonprofits, public schools and city agencies.

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Grand Ledge, MI | MI-Rural Records celebrates the vinyl comeback with music, turntables, and community events: As music lovers of all ages embrace the return of physical media, MI-Rural Records in downtown Grand Ledge is giving listeners a place to discover new sounds and vintage favorites. Located at 217 North Bridge Street, the shop is preparing to celebrate its fourth anniversary this October with a massive inventory of new and used records, CDs, cassettes, and audio gear. …Edmondson, who grew up in a deeply musical family, spent the summer cleaning and cataloging thousands of newly acquired vintage records in preparation for a multi-phase sale launching in October.

Glasgow, UK | Glasgow shop marking 30 years with charity vinyl album: A hi-fi specialist shop is marking 30 years in business with a series of music-focused celebrations. Loud and Clear, based in Glasgow, is kicking off its anniversary this October with the launch of a vinyl LP produced in collaboration with the record label Last Night from Glasgow. The 9-track album, titled 1030, showcases both established and emerging talent including Emma Dunlop, Louise Connell, Brontes, Sister John, The Muldoons, The Bluebells, Wotjek the Bear and The Cowboy Mouth. Allan Boyd, founder of Loud and Clear, said: “Throughout our 30-year history, we have always worked closely with Scotland’s music scene, hosting album launches, playback nights and events bringing artists, record labels and music lovers together.

Columbia, MO | Business Roundup: King Theodore Records. King Theodore Records is an independent record shop & video store that is in the process of moving to a new location. The store buys, sells, services and rents records, movies and cassette tapes. It also directs and produces short films. The new location will be at 804 Locust St. The store has lots of “exciting changes” planned, according to a recent announcement on its Facebook page. The public can stay updated on in-store happenings and new products on Instagram and Facebook.

Tower Hamlets, UK | Vinyl destination: Our guide to the best record shops in Tower Hamlets. There’s something for all tastes in the record shops of Tower Hamlets. Whether it’s one-off vintage collectable or the latest Little Simz, you just need to know where to look. Record stores are having a moment in Tower Hamlets. Cigarette Records has set up shop in the Old Street Records bar; Yo Yo Records moved over to Cambridge Heath Road last year. Even long-standing outlets like Flashback Records and Rough Trade have somehow survived the ups and downs of high street culture. …The signs are all there: vinyl is back. What’s driving this trend? Let’s answer one question with another: did you know there are ten vinyl copies of The Flaming Lips’s “Heavy Fwends” containing the actual human blood of Erykah Badu? You don’t get that on Spotify.

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Raleigh, NC | Collecting the dying medium: Why physical media appeals to the internet generation. By most measures, physical media has been sundowning for decades, from music to TV and movies to video games. PlayStation announced they will stop producing discs for new games in 2028. Netflix terminated its decades-old DVD rental program in 2023. Of the biggest movies of the year, only a few are guaranteed to be distributed on DVD. From the modern perspective championing efficiency and cost-effectiveness, a Spotify subscription is an easy choice to make over individually purchasing albums at Target. Despite that logic, the average college student now has a certain kind of reverence for the dusty vinyl collection in their parent’s attic.

Matthews, NC | Inside Goodwill’s new record store in downtown Matthews: Opened Sept. 4 in downtown Matthews, the donation-based shop sells records for $4.99 and lets shoppers test media before buying. …Goodwill Industries of the Southern Piedmont opened the record and media store on Sept. 4 in downtown Matthews. According to the nonprofit, it’s a first-of-its-kind concept for the organization, its first new store since 2024 and its 37th in the greater Charlotte region. The space is small but not snug, with three distinct areas. …That’s the trade-off with a donation-based media store; people are less likely to part with rare, in-demand records that gain value over time, especially for free. And the inventory is only as good as what the surrounding area gives away. If folks in Matthews aren’t donating R&B and hip-hop, that section stays skimpy.

Houston, TX | Memo’s Record Shop—a Houston East End treasure keeping Latin music alive: Walk into Memo’s Record Shop in Houston’s East End and you’re not just walking into a store—you’re walking into decades of history. The walls are covered in photos of big-name artists. The shelves are stacked with the music people grew up on—Juan Gabriel, Vicente Fernandez, Selena, Jose Jose, and Luis Miguel. And behind every photo, every album and every memory is the same family that has kept this place running since 1968. The man in those photos—standing shoulder to shoulder with some of Latin music’s biggest stars—is 87-year-old Guillermo “Memo” Villarreal. He was home resting when KPRC 2 stopped by, but his impact is everywhere you look.

London, UK | USM and Symbol Audio Open The Doors to a “Record Shop” in London: Complete with a vinyl collection, coffee shop, and DJ sets. …Installed as part of this week’s London Design Festival (which runs until Sunday, September 20) the “USM Record Store” takes over the Marylebone space, paying homage to the connection between design and music through talks, performances, and other activations. Pieces from the existing Symbol collaboration, first launched in 2024, are dotted around—from record stands, to a DJ booth, and vinyl crates to display cabinets. “We’ve held USM in high-regard here at Symbol for a long time, not only for their incredible product, but the clarity of their vision for the world of furniture,” Walker Tovin, Symbol’s brand director said at the time of the first launch.

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Gainesville, GA | Moe’s Record Shop Creates a Home for Local Musicians: Every weekend, live music can be heard from the back of Moe’s Record Shop in downtown Gainesville, adding to the sounds of North Georgia’s local music scene. From album release parties to live shows, the local record shop offers more than vintage vinyl. Leonard “Moe” Lyons opened his shop in Gainesville in 2019. After moving to his current location in the downtown Gainesville square, live music became an important part of the store. “We moved to this spot in April of 2023, and we had a show that weekend and we’ve been having shows ever since then,” Lyons said.

Cleveland, OH | Get into the groove as Wax and Tracks Fest brings Midwest record stores to Cleveland: Vinyl Groove Records in Old Brooklyn hosts the only Cleveland music festival celebrating small, local record stores Saturday, Sept. 19. Independent record store owners and staff from all over the Midwest are coming to Cleveland and bringing their own crates of rare vinyls, new music and more to share with local music fans. Wax and Tracks Fest, now in its second year, is Saturday, Sept. 19, at Vinyl Groove Records, 5100 Pearl Road in Old Brooklyn. “…It is a love letter to Cleveland,” Cecilia Wolfe said. “[We’re] giving back to our community and also keeping the music alive, because Cleveland is the home of rock and roll, and people forget that we are a music city.”

Houston, TX | Midtown record shop Sig’s Lagoon’s new YouTube show is turning into a campy must-watch: On certain Sunday nights, Midtown record shop Sig’s Lagoon turns its heavily stocked music haven into a talk-show set for “Late Night at the Lagoon.” Debuting in April on YouTube, this mini-talk show is a silly 15-20 minutes that features interviews and performances filmed on the store’s first floor. Nick Walton, an employee and “keyholder” since last November, created “Lagoon” with producer/musician Evan Escalante, the son of owner/executive producer Tomas Escalante. “When I started, they were mentioning that they’d been wanting to do video content for a while,” says Walton, who handles directing and editing duties. “I have a background in radio, television, film, and music. So I was like, well, I can cook something like that up.”

Bristol, VA | Businesses and vibes thrive during Bristol Rhythm & Roots Reunion: Downtown Bristol, in both Virginia and Tennessee, has grown along with the 25-year-old festival. …A few doors down from Blakley-Mitchell, Cheap Thrill Records doesn’t have quite the lengthy State Street history, but owner Wyatt Lilly likes the decision he made to set up shop here. Lilly had two West Virginia stores, one in Princeton that he opened in 1995 and one in Beckley that he launched four years later. After some friends encouraged him to check out Bristol, he noticed that the music-centric downtown, with its iconic sign that says “Bristol Va Tenn A Good Place to Live,” was lacking a business like his. “If you’ve ever been down here when it’s not Rhythm & Roots, it’s just a totally charming downtown.”

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