PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — The Super Bowl of vinyl is fast-approaching, and Portland-area record stores will join the thousands of shops worldwide that are participating in Record Store Day.
Since 2007, RSD has been a celebration of independent record stores and the communities that support them. Many record stores host special music events and sell limited-edition vinyl in honor of the holiday.
This year, the celebration coincides with Earth Day on Saturday, April 22. Jackpot Records in Southeast Portland is one of several local shops that will have fun activities and exclusive vinyl in store for Saturday.
Jackpot Records employee Ryan has worked in record stores since the ‘90s, and says customers have been calling all week to ask about vinyl from Taylor Swift, Urban Dance Squad and everyone in between.
“[Record Store Day is] kind of cool because all these labels and artists put together these special one-time releases or reissues of things that have been out of print for decades,” Ryan said. “It gets everybody out in the community and folks get to talking and hanging out in line and getting to buy some records they haven’t seen in a while or never seen before.”
On Saturday, Jackpot Records will host two DJs and a psychic who will tell guests what their next record purchase is. The store will open on 3574 SE Hawthorne Blvd., from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
On another side of town, Vinyl Resting Place has been open for about 26 years, but will join RSD for the first time this year. According to new owner Steve Cook, St. Johns residents had expressed interest in the holiday despite the previous store owner never participating.
But soon, the record shop will open bright and early at 5 a.m. to sell 3000 unique records for customers who have been waiting in anticipation. You can find Vinyl Resting Place on 8332 N Lombard St.
The Pacific Northwest’s oldest record store, Music Millennium, will also take part in the holiday. Owner Terry Currier says RSD was launched by three independent record store coalitions, one of which he founded.
According to Currier, RSD’s founding year of 2007 was actually the worst year for record store sales at the time. He says that music downloading app Napster, released in 1999, prevented some younger audiences from visiting record stores altogether.
Since then, the public’s interest in vinyl has surged — with the Recording Industry Association of America reporting that 2022 was the first year since 1987 that vinyl records outsold CDs.
Music Millennium sells both records and CDs, but records will be the main character this Saturday.
The record store, on 3158 E Burnside St., will have free coffee and muffins at 7 a.m., gift bags for the first 300 customers in line by 8 a.m., a live performance from Timothy James at 5 p.m., and — of course — over 300 limited vinyl releases.