Women in Vinyl

Meet Sydney Christensen the VP of indie label (KRS). Kill Rock Stars since 1991 has been a queer-positive, feminist, anti-racist, and artist-friendly label that came out of DIY punk culture and still believes in a DIY ethos. They are a small team, and all share time wearing different hats. Sydney is primarily in-charge of marketing, radio, and asset organization, as well as organizing timelines, amongst other things.

This week, we're excited to share how the vinyl making landscape is continuing to grow in Japan! Meet Ruriko Tsuruta, a Board Director at , a Japanese music label established in 2004, which then launched a record pressing business in 2018 called . Ruriko is in charge of production coordination, accounting, legal affairs at the label and vinyl pressing operations. Known for having such a long standing and wonderful vinyl culture in Japan, it's great to see the pressing landscape also continuing to grow.

This week we share the budding story or record store owner Jen Nolan. A self proclaimed massive music head, Jen has worked in record stores since she was sixteen and in November of last year decided to turn her love of records into a reality, opening her online store .

Karen Kalriess, or “Kitty” the Disc Jockey, is a vinyl DJ, radio show host, playlist curator, and musician from New York City. She began spinning soul 45s at a small bar near her home which led her to hosting "", an award winning show on in NYC.

It's fitting we close out the month with a Philly local while we're in town, who is bringing records year round to her community. Meet Keri Girmindl the co-owner and manager of . Common Beat is located in West Philadelphia, specializing in a large selection of vinyl records and musician supplies such as strings, cables, drum sticks and more, coupled with a full instrument and electronics repair service.

Meet Eleanor Jones, Owner and Operator of is Terre Haute Indiana. The Local Vinyl is an indie record store selling new and used records, striving to serve their customers with the products they seek at a price that is fair.

Alysha Kester-Terry, the co-founder and co-owner of , Utah’s first co-op record store! With 15 local DJ and record collector vendors, the co-op sells vinyl records, cassettes, apparel, synthesizers, accessories and more. FOUNTAIN's main focus is on their community, holding weekly events including listening sessions, open jazz jams, art shows, live DJs and more.

Today we have the pleasure of chatting with the Sr. Manager of Catalog Marketing at a record label you may have heard of before, none other than BMG. Meet Cristina Esteban who has been in catalog work for 5 years, mainly working with rock and metal bands such as Mötley Crüe, HIM, Black Sabbath and Motörhead.

This week, we are peeking behind the curtain of Detroit's yellow vinyl beacon, with Brie-Anne Andrews, the Pressing and Operations Lead. We've hoped to interview and share the hard work Third Man has been doing for the community for awhile now, and love to hear of their effortlessly diverse staff, and community focus.