Record Store Day: Indie Record Shops Keep Vinyl Alive In 2025

CHICAGO — If you’re looking for a way to support your local economy, go visit an independently owned record store near you. Saturday, April 12, is Record Store Day, a global event that celebrates the vanishing record shops, hallowed grounds that once flourished in malls, downtown shopping districts and storefronts during the pre-digital and streaming age.

While Record Store Day typically happens the third Saturday of April, it was moved a week ahead this year to accommodate next weekend’s late Easter holiday.

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Special vinyl and CD exclusives and various promotional products are also made for the day, released only to indie brick-and-mortar record shops, along with RSD first and small run/regional releases. New releases to watch out for on Record Store Day include Taylor Swift, Judas Priest, Prince, Gracie Abrams, The Cure, Cowboy Junkies, Post Malone Tribute To Nirvana, Laufey, Judas Priest, Grateful Dead, Stone Temple Pilots and the Rolling Stones. Over 300 titles make up the famed RSD 2025 list. View the RSD 2025 list, and a list of participating Illinois record stores.

Some local record shops keeping vinyl alive in 2025 include:

Beverly Records, 11612 S. Western Ave. (116th Street and Western). Chicago – The longest running record shop in Chicago, Beverly Records claims a collection in the tens of thousands. People start lining up outside Beverly Records on Record Store Day Eve, waiting for the store’s doors to open at 8 a.m.

“Our rush is over by 9 a.m.,” Jack Dreznes said, who co-owns the ##-year-old record shop with his brother, Randy. “Then it’s steady all day.”

Beverly Records, 11612 S. Western Ave., Chicago

Beverly Records has very limited supplies of approximately 115 special releases off the famed RSD List. The special releases can be reordered after Saturday.

“Next year we’ll have a band,” Dreznes said.

On Saturday and Sunday, all used vinyl is 20 percent off. Beverly Records will be open April 12 and April 13 from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Beverly Phono Mart, 1808 W. 103rd St., Chicago

The bins are full for Record Store Day at Beverly Phono Mart, the Beverly neighborhood’s second outlet where local audiophiles can get their vinyl fix. The store will be open from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Beverly Phono Mart will be offering over 100 RSD exclusive releases, vinyl DJs throughout the day from noon to 6 p.m., and loads of used heat in the bins. The husband-and-wife team will be restocking new and used inventory all day. BPM merchandise is 20 percent off.

There will also be taste testings of hemp infused drinks offered by Beverly Dry Goods.

The Record Shop on 95th Street, 3576 W. 95th St., Evergreen Park

Jeff and Jessika Law opened The Record Shop On 95th Street last November, “where you always know where you’re at and what we do.”

Business has been steady ever since, with zillennials and millennials making up much of their customer base, along with GenXers and boomer grandparents introducing their grandkids to Led Zeppelin.

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Although Jeff and Jessika won’t be participating in the RSD list this year, they’ve loaded up the bins with LPs that customers have been asking for and other surprises.

The Record Shop On 95th, 3576 W. 95th St., Evergreen Park

“Record Store Day celebrates every independent record store,” Jeff said. “We’re doing exactly what a record store should be doing.”

Long Live Vinyl Records, 12916 S. LaGrange Road, Palos Park

Mike Keysboe’s Long Live Vinyl Records, that opened last fall in Palos Park, is bringing back the experience of putting a record on the turntable and then getting up from the couch to turn it over.

Long Live Vinyl Records, 12916 S. LaGrange Road, Palos Park

We don’t know if Long Live Vinyl will be participating in RSD, but it’s definitely worth a ride over there. The shop has won rave reviews from area audiophiles.

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Long Live Vinyl is a buy-sell-trade store. The shop carries smooth grooves of all genres, which can be sold for cash or traded for store credit. Rare records of greater value are placed above the bins in what Keysboe refers to as the “grail wall.”

The store’s regular Saturday hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday.