We’re getting behind the #loverecordstores campaign to support independent music retailers during the current COVID-19 crisis.

With many of these stores now experiencing a catastrophic drop-off in footfall or having already closed their doors there are fears that some may not survive if something is not done urgently to stimulate sales.

These are very important places for us, holy ground. They feed our hunger for musical discovery, got us hooked in the first place even. Now, when all our hard work at Heavenly is distilled into a final object, a record, it’s these shops that get it into the hands and ears of music fans and make it all worthwhile.

We’re encouraging our artists and friends to get behind this campaign and tell the world about their favourite independent record shops and what they mean to them.

We’re also encouraging you, the music fan, to participate, be it by posting on social media using #loverecordstores or by simply passing on a record recommendation to a friend and telling them where you bought it. I’m sure lots of you have record collections that are keeping you company during this lockdown, and I’m sure lots of the records have stories of where you picked them up from, that time it was there staring at you from up on the display wall after years of searching, or which record shop employee told you simply, “you need this in your life”.

So share these stories, check out your local’s online store, sign up to their mailing lists, and support them in any way you can. Our lives would be much less colourful without record stores. Let’s not let them disappear.