Vinyl Summit

What began as a hobby in Chad Kassem's apartment has grown into a multi-faceted music business. His love for music has become his life's work, and his goal is to share it with the world.

As a hobby, Kassem began collecting hard-to-find, out-of-print and rare LPs in 1983. He moved to Salina, Ks., from Lafayette, La., in 1985 and worked at a couple of restaurants as a cook before landing a job at Philips Lighting Co. through Manpower Temporary Services. Soon he began trading and selling music from his apartment on a part-time basis.

By 1986, his hobby-turned-small business was taking off. When he was laid off at the manufacturing plant, he took "the big leap" and never looked back.

As any entrepreneur will attest, it's not an easy thing, starting your own business. Hours are long and personal sacrifices high. But Kassem persevered, and in less than five years became the world's largest supplier of LPs.

FACILITY TOURS

Tours of our world-class facilities will be available to schedule for the duration of the event. See how our exceptional records are created through every step of the process. Starting in the office, albums are selected, designed, and QC'd. This is also where the Vinyl Vault stands, with employees continuously sorting and examining pre-owned records each day.

You will be shown through Quality Record Pressings where you can see how our records are pressed and examined for defects before being carefully packaged by hand and shipped out across the world.

For VIP guests, you will have the chance to peak behind the curtain into the renowned Mastering Lab where all our records are masted by Matthew Lutthans. Sit in on an exclusive mastering session where you will have the opportunity to ask the mastering engineer any questions you may have about the process.

MUSICAL PERFORMANCES

Attend three nights of live performances, the first two of which will be held in the iconic Blue Heaven Studios.

The church offers extraordinary acoustics and an intimate setting which became analogous with the Blues Masters at the Crossroads shows which it used to host. Night one will be dedicated to Jazz music while the second will be a return to the Blues.

BUY TICKETS

The Stiefel Theatre will hold the grand finale concert on Saturday, October 17 in honor of Acoustic Sounds’ 40th Anniversary. This independent venue reopened in 2003 following a comprehensive restoration which preserved much of its original architecture and character, offering a truly memorable concert experience. The Stiefel – a part of NIVA and the National Register of Historic Places – is a beloved and iconic part of Salina Downtown. A frequent partner of Acoustic Sounds, they will be presenting Taj Mahal & Jimmie Vaughan as the grand finale concert of the Vinyl Summit.

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RECORD SHOW

For the duration of this event, the back rooms of the Acoustic Sounds office will be transformed into a pop-up record store offering exclusive access to the best of our collection. Entry will be available to ticket-holders and by appointment.

in addition, as part of the festivities a 2-day record fair will be hosted where we're inviting dealers from across the globe to display the rarest, most collectible LPs in front of a tailored crowd of audiophiles and record enthusiasts. This fair will be free and open to the public. Come and peruse the very best that the industry has to offer.

Interested in being a vendor? Apply for a spot today and secure your place at this historic event.

APPLY NOW