By any standard, Greg Daniels is a Denver music veteran. He’s been playing in bands since the mid-1990s, and has lately been reissuing albums from his past groups Glass Hits and Vaux on limited cassette runs, then selling them at his Drop to Pop Records and Curio, at 2185 N. Broadway in downtown Denver.

Despite its 88-square-foot footprint — and the fact that it’s only open Thursdays through Saturdays — he sees a steady stream of tourists, vinyl collectors and scenesters digging through his curated collection of vintage punk, indie rock, jazz and pop LPs.

As the only record store in the commercial core of downtown, he also sees music legends such as Billy Corgan (of Smashing Pumpkins) pop in for a look, thanks to online searches that balance out his lack of pedestrian traffic.

“I’m one of several record shops that have opened in Denver in the last three years or so, which is kind of shocking when you’re hearing about stores closing all over the nation,” said Daniels, 45, who works as a drywall contractor three days a week to support his “dream job” store, which opened in April 2023.

The United States had 2,031 record stores as of last year, according to research firm IBISWorld, or a decline of 3.7% from 2019. Despite fierce competition from streaming services, upscale record clubs such as Denver’s Vinyl Me, Please, and direct sales from record labels, Denver has been bucking that trend.

Drop to Pop joins City Records and Invincible Vinyl, as well as brand new storefronts from Denver’s biggest music stores, in the revival. The titans — Wax Trax Records, Twist & Shout Records and Black & Read Music, Books and Games — have stayed open for decades despite relocations and potentially risky expansions, to see newer and more diverse customers, consistent sales, and a growing consensus that Denver’s record-store renaissance is still expanding.

Independent shops, which used to be the bulwark against the corporatization of music retailing (see Sam Goody, Virgin Megastore and Tower Records), now comprise the entirety of the brick-and-mortar industry. Some have contracted a bit, such as Angelo’s CDs and Vinyl, which used to have multiple locations and now run shops in Aurora and Denver.But they’ve hung on, and others are growing. Michael Baca, music manager at Black & Read, said store employees are still unpacking from a recent move that grew the store’s footprint from about 9,000 square feet to more than 16,000, and shifted its location to a building at 6655 Wadsworth Blvd. in Arvada.

That’s all to keep up with customer demand — including from 11-year-old girls looking for the latest Charli XCX or Taylor Swift release, Baca said. Black & Red also runs a discount annex that’s open only on Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and offers records for as low as $1.

The longevity is notable for a business that first opened in 1991, and that has ably taken advantage of the decade-long surge in vinyl sales and the turn toward physical media.

“Taylor Swift vinyl is always hot, but so is Metallica, Iron Maiden, Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd,” Baca said. “We can’t keep any of those on the shelves.”

Like most, Black & Read also sells new and used CDs, movies, books, comics, toys, games and other merchandise that keeps its revenue diverse and stable. Its online business and customer buys are another pillar of the retail model, which puts Black & Read ahead of the antique shops, boutiques and thrift stores that have lately touted their own vinyl collections.

“Things took a big jump in the pandemic, then tapered off a little bit, but (vinyl sales) are still growing,” said Wax Trax owner Pete Stidman. “I’m not surprised to see a lot of new folks coming into the store. It’s kind of like the 1980s heyday, with a whole crowd of teenagers pouring in and freaking out over the records.”

Wax Trax, which opened in 1975 and remains Denver’s oldest record store, used to run four locations on Capitol Hill, where its flagship still resides at 638 E. 13th Ave. Those other locations disappeared decades ago, but over the last year, the brand has re-expanded. That includes a kiosk (and soon, storefront) at Aurora’s Stanley Marketplace, and another location at 200 South Broadway that officially opened last year — along with a mobile pop-up, dubbed Wax Trax Attacks.

“There are so many more people in Denver, and of course we’re in competition because we’re all selling the same thing,” said Patrick Brown, owner of Denver’s Twist & Shout Records, which last year was vaunted in Billboard and The New York Times. “But at the same time, there’s enough pie to go around, so it’s a friendly competition. We’re not trying to drive anybody out of business because it really is an ecosystem.”

The stores’ challenges are familiar to all small businesses: Rising overhead and inventory, which prices many wholesale records at $20 to $25 before retailers can even stock them, along with scarcity-driven collectors who buy up the latest releases to sell them at a higher price, not unlike ticketing bots.

“I’ve started boycotting certain labels and distributors because $30 isn’t even that much for a record anymore,” said Dave Cleland, owner of Invincible Vinyl at 99 Kalamath St. “I have the lowest overhead you could have, with just one employee. … That allows prices to stay low, because those are continually growing over last couple of years.”

Steep rents also have driven record-selling shops such as Mutiny Information Cafe to relocate to cheaper digs along South Broadway, leaving the Baker neighborhood, for example, for Englewood. Others are hanging on tenaciously, having dug in during pandemic shutdowns. That includes Littleton’s family-owned Vinyl Valhalla (9729 W. Coal Mine Ave.), which is now celebrating eight years or so. They and others add sparkle to the shopping experience with listening parties, in-store performances, signings and giveaways.

Some stores have become new classics, such Littleton’s punk and metal-focused Chain Reaction Records, which opened in 2014.

Even as Boulder’s legendary Albums on the Hill closed in 2022, Paradise Found Records and Music (formerly Bart’s Record Shop) has stood firm with a pair of locations, in Boulder and Petaluma, since 2016.

The latest to debut a new location is Sold Out Vinyl Records in Englewood, which is holding a grand opening party at 3751 S. Broadway on March 1, with prizes, kid’s activities, and a live DJ. That lively atmosphere stands in contrast to the soulless experience of buying online, since it can never match the in-person knowledge and discovery of record stores, owners said.

“Collectors and record (sales) alone aren’t going to carry us,” said Twist & Shout owner Brown. “But when you factor in things like expertise, or equipment sales, you’ve got an advantage”

That extends to Record Store Day, the eight-year-old promo event meant to boost sales at independent stores across the United States; it returns on April 12 and again on Black Friday this year with nearly 200 new titles. Fans usually line up outside Twist & Shout, 2508 E. Colfax Ave., and other Denver stores in frigid weather hours before opening, owners said. They snatch up rare and unreleased tracks, albums and live LPs — not only from heritage acts like U2 and Bob Dylan, but also pop queens like Charli XCX and Swift (the latter responsible for millions of vinyl sales in recent years).

“The industry was going in the wrong direction, but it’s mushrooming out again as supply is meeting demand,” said Twist & Shout’s Brown. “Smaller stores have their niches, but they all add up to having more options in town for music lovers, and it’s still moving in that direction.”