Love Vinyl Records has been supplying record collectors along the Mohawk Valley corridor since 2001, a run that now stretches past two decades from its storefront at 140 Erie Boulevard in Schenectady, New York. The shop bills itself as a premium music source, and the description holds up against the inventory: bins organized by genre run from classic rock and jazz to hip hop, electronic, classical, soul, and dozens of niche categories in between, with new pressings shelved alongside a deep used selection so browsers can compare a fresh reissue against a well loved original pressing in the same visit.
Beyond standard black vinyl, Love Vinyl stocks colored variants and indie exclusive releases, the kind of limited pressings that collectors chase the moment a release date is announced. The store also carries CDs and cassettes for shoppers who never gave up on those formats, along with record care accessories such as cleaning supplies and protective sleeves for anyone maintaining a serious collection. A small apparel line rounds things out, with music themed t shirts, hats, and bags for customers who want to wear their fandom outside the shop.
Love Vinyl keeps regular daily hours, open 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday, and noon to 5 p.m. on Sunday, making it easy to stop in after work or on a weekend trip through downtown Schenectady. For customers outside driving distance, the store runs a full online shop with international shipping, letting collectors anywhere order new arrivals, restocks, and pre orders for upcoming releases rather than relying on the in person bins alone. New stock and restocks are highlighted on the website on a rolling basis, so regulars checking in weekly have a good chance of catching something before it sells out.
What separates Love Vinyl from a general used bookstore with a record rack is the singular focus: every square foot of inventory, from the genre dividers to the pre order shelf, is built around vinyl and the culture that surrounds it. That focus, sustained for more than twenty years in the same Schenectady location, has let the shop build the kind of reputation that comes from consistency rather than novelty, the sort of place where staff can talk through pressing variations, reissue quality, or which record label handled a particular remaster. For collectors hunting a specific pressing, casual listeners rebuilding a starter collection, or gift shoppers looking for something a music fan will actually use, Love Vinyl Records offers the breadth of a big city record store with the personal attention of a shop that has spent more than twenty years serving the same Schenectady neighborhood. It stands as one of the Capital Region’s longest running dedicated vinyl retailers, a Schenectady fixture since 2001 with new, used, and rare pressings across nearly every genre plus international online shipping for collectors anywhere.
