Luray, VA | Switz Mix Records encourages music and art: Music and art bring people together, and Switz Mix Records has found a way of combining the two with a music-themed mural. Switz Mix is a music store that sells records, CDs and cassettes. It has been open for 10 years, beginning in early fall 2015. Tina Switzer is the owner, but she is also an assistant professor of nursing at James Madison University. “I’ve been a nurse for a very long time, but I had taken time off from nursing to raise my children, and then I was trying to figure out my next steps,” Switzer said. She decided to return to graduate school but wanted something else to keep her occupied. “So I chatted with my husband, and we had always fantasized and joked together as vinyl enthusiasts about one day when we open our record store, we’re going to do this when our record store becomes a reality,” Switzer said. “It was always a running joke…”
Canberra, AU | Where have all the records gone? Canberra’s secondhand vinyl market in freefall. The secondhand vinyl record market in Canberra has taken a bizarre twist, with almost all of the main stores closing down at the same time. While cost-of-living is an overarching issue, storeowners gave various reasons for shutting shop, some completely while others seek to embrace different business models. Interestingly, the new vinyl market remains relatively strong, as the long queues outside Landspeed on the recent Record Store Day can attest. Landspeed in Garema Place, Civic, continues as Canberra’s premier record shop, with Songland on the southside in Cooleman Court, Weston, also popular with record-buyers. Both stores dabble in secondhand records, but it’s the new release and reissues on vinyl that are attracting most buyers. So what’s going on with the secondhand market?
Atlanta, GA | Co-founder of Wax ‘N’ Facts record store in Little 5 Points dies: One of the co-founders of Wax ‘N’ Facts record store in Atlanta’s Little 5 Points neighborhood has died. The store announced the passing of Harry DeMille on Sunday through a post on its Instagram page. Wax ‘N’ Facts was established in 1976 by DeMille and his business partner, Danny Beard. “Harry DeMille died peacefully this morning at Piedmont Hospital in the company of his wife of 45 years, Alice Kelly DeMille,” the Instagram post said. “Harry loved the record store and talking to customers and friends. It is not overstating things to say he was a good dude and beloved by his many friends.” The store sells new and used vinyl records, compact discs, cassettes, posters, stickers, DVDs and VHS tapes, and more.
Stansbury, AU | Yorke Peninsula’s new hidden gem sells vinyl records and books: Tucked away in Stansbury on the Yorke Peninsula and only open on select days, Peninsula Records and Books offers an eclectic mix of Australian authors and global vinyl. “We just wanted to provide a place where people could come and buy a brand-new or second-hand book or a record, because there wasn’t really anything like that in the area,” owner Kate explains. The idea grew from the online store, which was already gaining traction for Aussie authors before the couple decided to open a physical location. “We had it online for a while, and it was doing quite well. Then we thought, why don’t we open it up down in Stansbury since we had the space?” says Kate. Less a shop and more a passion project where visitors can come in and rummage through the collection that runs from a small garage space—like a friend’s collection, but one that focuses exclusively on Australian authors.
Leigh-on-Sea, UK | Leigh Broadway Fives Records set to shut—readers react: A much-loved fixture of Leigh’s Broadway will soon play its final track, as Fives Records prepares to close its doors after nearly half a century in business. The independent record shop, which first opened in 1977, has long been a treasure trove for music lovers and vinyl collectors, known for its personal service, rare finds, and a deep love of music shared by owners Sandra Bennett and her father Peter Driscoll. But after 47 years serving generations of customers, the owners have made the difficult decision to close the store for good. They cite rising rent, increased production costs, and the long-term decline in vinyl sales as factors that have made it increasingly difficult to stay afloat. The announcement has prompted an outpouring of sadness and nostalgia from the community, with Echo readers sharing their memories of the iconic store and 
Brooklyn, NY | 5 Brooklyn record stores hiding in plain sight: Like your favorite bar, restaurant, or after-hours spot, some of the best record stores in Brooklyn might just miss you at first glance. If you’ve followed these pages over the years, you already know Record Store Day is every damn day, and Brooklyn’s selection of record shops is so extensive it is effectively unmatched. But some of those excavation sites require a bit more digging than others to unearth, which is a loving labor, honestly, not entirely unlike the art of crate-crashing itself. So for this year’s run at the stacks, we’re aiding your pursuit of those gorgeous, glossy acetates by pointing you toward some of the spots keeping low profiles and well-stocked inventory. Some present as barbershops, natural wine bars, salons, or high-end apartments. But all are easily amongst the best record shops currently in Brooklyn—the type you’d be perfectly justified to gatekeep protect from 
Please forgive me if I’ve fallen egregiously behind the times, but I continue to perceive the goal of education as more than a factory churning out highly efficient producers brandishing economically useful skills, a mass of graduates left to dodge underemployment in hopes of spending decades in the modern workplace’s existential ditch. But maybe I’m just frightfully naive in considering higher learning as the valiant endeavoring to intellectually engage with generations of individuals, hopefully leaving them at least somewhat prepared for the ups and downs of existence, and potentially armed in adulthood with the knowledge to utilize portions of history’s immense landscape to their advantage.
Atlanta, GA | New record store Crates ATL soft launches in Downtown Atlanta: A new record store from Moods Music owner Darryl Harris is set to open in Downtown Atlanta on Easter weekend. Crates ATL hosted a soft opening on April 11, introducing Harris’ new venture to Historic Hotel Row on Mitchell Street. Community members gathered for music, snacks and drinks, and a chance to get a first look at Crates’ inventory of new and vintage records, speakers, turntables, plants, and more. Moods Music has been an Atlanta staple for 25 years, bringing vinyl and CDs spanning genres like Neo Soul, Afro-Cuban, and Acid Jazz to Little Five Points. Crates displays Harris’ established music knowledge and effortless cool with a selection of records primarily highlighting Black artists and genres like jazz, hip-hop, funk, soul, and R&B — making it the “
New York, NY | Rough Trade Debuts a New 4,000-Square-Foot Underground Location at Rink Level: …Indie record shop Rough Trade debuted a secondary location on the Rink Level of 30 Rockefeller Plaza this week, adding a new 4,000-square-foot space dubbed Rough Trade Below to its existing 2,000-square-foot street-level shop of the same building, now rebranded as Rough Trade Above. “Rather than open another store somewhere else in the city, we felt that we shouldn’t follow convention and just go bigger where we are,” director and co-owner Stephen Godfroy tells The Center Magazine. “Even though the second store is very close in proximity, it’s a different world.” Now, the upstairs location focuses on new vinyl, arranged by genre and then alphabetically. The lower-level store also has some new releases, but they’re displayed by theme, like classic New York albums. But 
