Collectors are expected to descend on area vinyl dealers, including The Record Parlour in Hollywood, for Record Store Day on April 20. (photo courtesy of The Record Parlour)

In the last decade, record collecting has gone from a dying art to a major trend. So much so that vinyl sales now outpace CDs. While digital downloads and streams still dominate the music industry as a whole, physical music sales have found a niche, particularly in large cities like Los Angeles – which is home to dozens of record stores. The vinyl comeback has taken such a hold that, since 2007, an increasing number of collectors have observed Record Store Day – which occurs on a Saturday every April.

“You don’t hear [the phrase] ‘records are coming back’ anymore. They’re back,” said The Record Parlour owner Chris Honetschlaeger.

This year, the date falls on April 20 – ironically but only coincidentally the same day the cannabis industry celebrates its annual holiday. In Los Angeles alone, there are more than a dozen stores that specialize in vinyl records – not including major retailers like Target and Barnes & Noble.

The largest is Amoeba Music Hollywood, now located at 6200 Hollywood Blvd., which opened in 2001 as an offshoot of an independent chain that also operates locations in Berkeley and San Francisco. To kick off a weekend of activities, Ringo Starr and producer Linda Perry will appear at the venue on April 18 at 11 a.m. for a listening party to promote Starr’s Record Store Day release “Crooked Boy,” a new EP. Additionally, Amoeba will be offering a score of releases that are specific to Record Store Day, provided to customers as a first-come, first-serve menu, with a limit of one copy per title for each patron. The list includes new works and special rereleases from artists that include the Cranberries, Def Leppard, Little Richard, Paramore, the Rolling Stones, Frankie Valli and the Weeknd. The first 250 customers will be given specialized gift bags. For information, visit amoeba.com/our-stores/store-news/450/record-store-day-saturday-april-20th-2024-450.

Amoeba Marketing and events coordinator Kara Lane said that the store has even seen people camp out for the vinyl holiday in previous years.

“It’s a part of their lifestyle,” Lane said. “They’re able to go record shopping and actually touch it as opposed to being fed new songs by an algorithm. It is a lot more personal.”

While Amoeba will be helping facilitate major new releases, other retailers like The Record Parlour, located at 6408 Selma Ave. in Hollywood, will be dropping curated used vinyl offerings.

“[We have about] 3,000 records that we’ve hand-picked that are dropping on Saturday, which is probably 10 times more than the new releases coming out for Record Store Day,” Honetschlaeger said.

Honetschlaeger has run the Record Parlour with Chad Hemus since 2013, and he said the store has found its niche in offering select, often rare, records. While the space is relatively small in size, the store has over 100,000 records on its floor. He described the vintage record business as the art of a “hunter.”

“What we find a lot of people doing is they’ll go to Amoeba, pick up the two or three releases they want, and then they’ll come over here and dig through the thousands that we’ve put aside,” Honetschlaeger said. “The vintage records are a better value and will ultimately become more valuable than the rereleases, so it’s almost a better investment.”

He added that each vintage record also “tells a story,” and that finding the records, knowing they’ve been owned and played by others over the years, is part of the joy of collecting vinyl.

“There’s always a pretty amazing story behind, especially the larger collections that come in, of how they got accumulated. And everyone seems to have a different story,” he said, giving the example of world music collections, which almost invariably have come over from people who have immigrated to the U.S. from their home countries.

Lane said that, ultimately, record stores provide a location for music lovers and collectors to come together and discover something new.

“I think [it’s great] having a gathering space where everyone is looking for something they know they love or looking to discover something they didn’t know they love,” she said. “There’s something very powerful about people talking about music and recommending new things and rediscovering things they listened to when they were young. I think that’s a big part of the community.”

For a full list of record stores, participants and special Record Store Day releases, visit recordstoreday.com.

Thousands of LPs are on hand to choose from at Recond Parlour. (photo by Rance Collins)