A Lost Art: 1970s-90s Record Store Standees Before streaming playlists and social media promotion, record labels had a much more physical way of grabbing fans’ attention: giant cardboard standees, hanging mobiles, oversized album displays, and elaborate in-store cutouts that transformed record shops into miniature music museums. During the 1970s and 1980s in particular, these promotional displays became a defining part of music retail culture. Walk into a mall record store in 1974 and you might see a towering Queen standee near shelves...

The Resurgence Of Cassettes In an era dominated by streaming platforms and digital convenience, one might assume that physical music formats have faded into obscurity. While an obvious exception is vinyl, which is certainly enjoying renewed popularity, another unexpected revival has taken root: the resurgence of cassette tapes. Once relegated to thrift shops and dusty basements, cassettes are now experiencing a renaissance, fueled by nostalgia, collectability, and a desire for tangible connections to music. This resurge...

Artist Of The Month Feature Launched Each month we'll be featuring our items from an iconic artist in a single collection you can view off our website home page. Just look for the Artist Of The Month collection. Each collection will contain all our regular and sale-priced items related to that artist or a group of artists--like "Artists From Live Aid", etc. In terms of items in each month's collection, you'll find something for every price range from records, cassettes, CDs and box sets to record awards, post...

April 12 Is Record Store Day For 2025 While every day is kind of a record store day, in our opinion, this year's "official" Record Store Day takes place on April 12, 2025. The day always presents a great opportunity to get some limited edition vinyl, box sets, and other special releases. You can also just relive the your past memories of flipping through some vinyl, cassettes, and maybe even CDs (which are just now almost getting vintage as well) in the shelves and racks of your local record store. You can check out t...

For Promotional Use Only: How Consumers Won The Right To Own Promo-Only Records Ever picked up a record, cassette or CD labeled “For Promotional Use Only -- Not For Resale” and wondered if it’s okay to buy or sell it? The answer, as was declared in the San Francisco-area Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in 2011, is “yes” to both. But the road to that answer was full of twists and turns, and at many times in the past the issue was mired in a tussle between consumers and record companies. Not that some in the music industry didn’t happily reside in that grey area by selling...

April 20, '24 is Record Store Day Don't miss this year's Record Store Day, upcoming on April 20. It's always a great chance to get some cool, limited edition vinyl, check out some new releases, or just relive the glory days of flipping through some vinyl racks in your local record emporium. You can check out the pretty exhaustive list of special released planned in participating U.S. record stores for this year's day here: https://recordstoreday.com/SpecialReleases (Note: We have no affiliation with this websi...

Vintage Vinyl Is Hot Is it about the occasional crackle and pop that lends a nostalgic note to your day? Maybe the liner notes and photos you can actually see? How you can hold it in your hand? Whether it's nostalgia for the records they used to listen to in their youth or the sound and feel, vinyl is big with music buyers and continues to get bigger. The burgeoning return of vinyl record sales has been well-documented in recent years. The RIAA reported in their 2021 year end recap that vinyl record sales g...