Recent months’ Black Lives Matter protests have called attention to matters of systemic racism across the globe, and many hope to effect change by voting with their dollar. Discogs wants to make it easier for music buyers to do so. The online audio recording database has called upon the music community to help build a directory of Black-owned record stores worldwide.
The idea came about in a Discogs forum thread in which bekessler (real name Ben Kessler) invited other forum users to contribute information on Black-owned shops. The result was a list now sitting at 32 entries throughout North America. 606 Records in Chicago, High-Fidelity in Los Angeles, and Urban Lights Music in Saint Paul are among the businesses listed.
“After the murder of George Floyd, it became common to share lists of Black-owned businesses serving particular cities or interests,” Kessler told Discogs for a blog post on the directory. “People were already doing their best to stay loyal to their favorite small business—record store or otherwise. And as mainstream America turned its attention to the indiscriminate murder of Black people by the police, I think many people began thinking about how they spent their money differently.”
You can add to the Discogs directory of Black-owned record stores by commenting on this spreadsheet.
Image credit: High-Fidelity
