Record Store Day 2026
NEWS
It is almost time to put our records on again — Record Store Day is just around the corner. On April 18, independently owned brick-and-mortar record stores will celebrate music with their customers. The celebration will touch down in Ogden with local shops Lavender Vinyl and Graywhale.
“This is a day for the people who make up the world of the record store — the staff, the customers and the artists — to come together and celebrate the unique culture of a record store and the special role they play in their communities,” the official Record Store Day website states.
Every year since 2008, record labels and artists have dropped exclusive editions and limited releases specifically meant to drive sales in physical stores. Kye Hallows, co-owner of Lavender Vinyl, said Record Store Day is particular about which stores can participate in the sale. Big box stores that sell vinyl are not included, and neither are online retailers or stores that are publicly traded.
A list of these releases is compiled by the Record Store Day organization and then store owners begin considering which releases will sell best in their communities. However, with limited copies of each record, stores are not guaranteed everything on their order.
Shoppers sift through records in front of Lavender Vinyl on Record Store Day 2025. Deann Armes
“That’s why it’s so fun,” Hallows said. “Because it is a chance to get your hands on something that there’s only so many of.”
These limited releases cause a lot of excitement for music fans, with customers lining up hours before the sale starts. According to Hallows, one of their customers waited in line for nearly 24 hours in order to claim an extremely limited edition.
To help make this process more streamlined and calm, Hallows said Lavender Vinyl puts out a pop-up shop tent in front of their store where they sell all of the Record Store Day albums. Customers are welcome to line up whenever they’d like, and at 8 a.m., they receive a line placement ticket. From there, customers do not have to stand in line and can do whatever they please until the sale officially opens at 10 a.m., going by order of their tickets.
“This system works really good for us,” Hallows said. “We started doing it that way during the pandemic just to try to space people out because they couldn’t all be standing right next to each other in a line. And so doing it that way with the tickets has made it so much smoother that we've just stayed with that same process.”
You can find the complete list of 2026 albums offered at www.recordstoreday.com. Hallows is looking forward to releases from Ethel Cain and Masayoshi Takanaka.
“It’s truly a community celebration. Whether you’re coming in for the limited releases or you’re just coming in to be in community with other music nerds, it’s such a fun day. As somebody who’s hosted, I get to see connections being made,” Hallows said. “It’s just a good reminder of humanity. So I’m really excited to celebrate it and hope I get to see lots and lots of friendly faces.”
Graywhale also has celebrations for Record Store Day, but as of the time of this writing, details were still in the works.