CELEBRATING 40 YEARS
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.
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.
NOTABLE GUESTS
This list will be updated as commitments are made. Please check back for up-to-date information.
