It’s a big day out for vinyl fans

One of the great joys of being a vinyl record collector is digging through crates full of LPs, whether in a big box music store or in a fellow collector’s dusty old garage, and finding that one rare gem hidden amidst the Thriller and Led Zeppelin IV reprints. This little treasure-hunt is our last throwback to the pre-internet days, before finding new music became as easy as logging on to Google. You would spend hours poring over reviews and browsing the CD racks in the local music store to decide which lucky album would be your music buy of the week.

Now, everything you could ever want is available on YouTube and the brick-and-mortar record store is on the verge of extinction. But today—the 11th edition of the global Record Store Day initiative which aims to revive interest in both vinyl and independent record stores—two special events are hoping to give vinyl collectors and music enthusiasts in Mumbai a taste of the crate-digging experience.

The first is the vinyl pop-up sale at The Quarter in Mumbai, organized by Sony Music. The day-long pop-up will have over 3,000 titles on sale, including a number of limited editions and exclusive Record Store Day releases. The collection covers everything from classical music to jazz, rock ‘n’ roll and Bollywood. “It’s going to be the largest collection under a single roof since the early 1980s heyday of vinyl," says Shridhar Subramaniam, president, Sony Music, India and Middle East. “We’re trying to recreate that sensation of a garage sale where you’re diving through bins to find that one thing you’re looking for."

The pop-up will also feature a Bring Your Own Vinyl session, where collectors and audiophiles can show off some of their own treasures. There will also be curated listening sessions, workshops, a curated wine-and-dine experience and vinyl-only sets by DJs Uri and Skip.

While Sony Music is treating the pop-up sale as a way of testing the market, Jude de Souza already took the plunge three years ago when he and a couple of friends set up The Revolver Club, a vinyl record store in Mumbai. For the second year running, The Revolver Club has teamed up with Record Store Day to become the only Indian store to be an official participant.

The festivities at the Mahim store will include a sale with 2,500 vinyls on offer and discounts on turntables and accessories, a series of workshops and talks, and live music. You can even pick up copies of a limited-edition Record Store Day poster by artist Sumit Roy. De Souza is particularly excited about the “Demystifying Vinyl" talk by well-known audiophile Sushil Anand. “Getting into vinyl can be really intimidating for a lot of people," he says. “So the talk will break everything down and hopefully make it easier for people to get into it."

Subramaniam and de Souza didn’t know—or wouldn’t say—which Record Store Day exclusives would make it to India. But they did promise that they were bringing down more than enough records to keep crate-diggers busy all day—especially the section with the limited edition box sets.