Greeley’s Downtown Sound celebrating Record Store Day

Greeley’s Downtown Sound Records & Tapes will celebrate Record Store Day with a handful of limited releases, some of which have never before been pressed on vinyl.

The store will open at 9 a.m. — two hours early — for the occasion, and will give out free Record Store Day “swag,” including posters, totes, buttons and stickers, as well as free donuts to the brave souls who line up before the store opens on what is slated to be one of the first truly cold mornings in weeks. The Music Man, Chris Haug, will also be DJing the event at the store, 819 10th St., Unit C.

“It’s a celebration of music stores,” Downtown Sound owner John Jankow said. “It’s a day where you can get your hands on music that hasn’t ever been available, or maybe hasn’t been available in a long time on vinyl. A lot of times, there are outtakes and demos, that kind of stuff. A lot of live concerts. So it’s a fun collector’s day.”

Record Store Day was started in 2008 as a way to celebrate independently owned record stores across the country. It has since expanded worldwide, and several artists offer specialty pressings for stores to sell and drum up business.

Some of the records Jankow said people are excited about are a 7-inch Taylor Swift single, a live Laufey album recorded last year at Madison Square Garden and an often bootlegged but never before officially released live 1975 Pink Floyd performance from the Los Angeles Sports Arena.

The record store has been taking recommendations from customers for the past few months and has tailored a lot of their Record Store Day exclusives to the store’s customers.

“We try to cater to what it seems like most people around here are excited for,” Jankow said.

But the store also has a few surprises in store, so those interested will have to stop by the store Saturday to find out for sure.

“There’s stuff for every musical taste,” Jankow said. “There’s jazz, there’s hip-hop, there’s indie, there’s metal, there’s all kinds of stuff.”

Downtown Sound has participated since Jankow bought the store in 2021 — two years in Loveland, and 2026 will be the shop’s third year since moving to Greeley.

“For us, it’s a no-brainer,” Jankow said. “Because it’s just a fun day for people to find some kind of rare and exclusive stuff.”

For more information on Downtown Sound, go to DTSVinyl.com. For more information on Record Store Day, go to RecordStoreDay.com.