Conversations buzzed through the Palmer Events Center as visitors rummaged through rows of records, stopping to talk with vendors or each other. Tables covered with CDs, T-shirts, posters and more gave music lovers plenty to explore at the Austin Record Convention.
Held Oct. 24-25, the convention brought collectors, vendors and shoppers together around a shared love of music. Between searches for favorite albums, attendees caught up with familiar faces and made connections across tables of physical media.
For Nathan Hanners, the convention’s owner and organizer, those connections began in his childhood. His father started the event, and Hanners attended before eventually helping stamp hands, work the box office and sell records. Now, he runs the convention alongside friends he grew up with.
“It feels like a really big family reunion of people I get to see twice a year,” Hanners said.
That familiarity extends to vendors such as Glenn BurnSilver, whose business, Planetary Sounds, is based in Tempe, Arizona. BurnSilver said he began selling at the convention in the early ‘90s, driving more than 16 hours from Colorado to attend.
BurnSilver said regular customers, fellow vendors and opportunities to find records for his own collection keep him returning. Conversations about music are part of the appeal, with visitors bringing different interests and recommendations.
“Coming to the Austin Record Show is always fun and creates memories because I see people that I only see here,” BurnSilver said. “Every time I come, it’s a reunion of sorts, and those are the memories I take back with me.”
One of those friendships inspired a special addition to his booth this year. BurnSilver said his friend Chuck, who usually travels from the Seattle area, could not attend because of health issues. Instead, BurnSilver arranged for a life-size cardboard version of him and a dry-erase board where visitors could leave messages to photograph and send.
For Tatum McDonald, an Austin resident and UT alum, returning meant another chance to discover something unexpected.
“We had (actually) come together a couple years ago, and I got a really cool Billy Joel live in the U.S.S.R. record, and so wanted to come back and see if I could find a similar treasure,” McDonald said.
McDonald collects records, books and DVDs, viewing physical ownership as an important part of collecting.
“I think physical media is really important as we’re entering an age when that might be taken away from us and when collections online are just licensed to us,” McDonald said.
Hanners said preserving music in physical form allows people to discover an artist’s work long after its release. That possibility connects the records being sold with the people searching through them.
“You never know who’s going to pick it up,” Hanners said. “You might be touching someone’s soul, three decades from when you make the record.”
