AUSTIN, Texas — This weekend was a busy one not just for sports fans, but also music fans!
The Palmer Events Center hosted the Austin Record Convention, the largest sale of recorded music in the United States, from Friday through Sunday.
The event, which started in 1981, features more than 40,000 square feet of LPs, CDs, 8-track tapes and other music memorabilia.
Organizers say it draws more than 300 dealers and buyers from all over the world.
“We have international shoppers from Japan, from Europe,” said Nathan Hanners, the convention’s owner, organizer and promoter, as well as the son of the event’s founder. “I was just talking to some guys from Tokyo that came. They come every show. We’ve got some international shoppers from Germany that I was just chatting with.”
Hanners says even in the modern digital world, physical records still draw crowds.
“Consensus is it’s a lot about just having something to hold,” Hanners explained. “If you have an artist you really like, it’s really nice to have something that they produced, a product that they made that has their artwork and their notes.”
Hanners also said a lot of regional music has never been digitized, and events like these give buyers a chance to stumble upon music they’d otherwise not find.
The next Austin Record Convention will be held May 3-4, 2025, at Palmer Events Center. Hanners says the plan is to expand the event to both halls with about 70,000 square feet.