Zia Records is celebrating its 45th anniversary with a host of vinyl exclusives

Zia Records may sell music in all its analog forms, but for the past 45 years, what they’ve truly provided customers is a sense of community for audiophiles, like musician Seth Kasselman. “Zia was my babysitter,” he recalls. “My parents would drop me off while they ran errands, and I would spend hours going through their inventory. It was before the internet, so I’d often buy things based solely on the artwork.”

That longstanding community bond with patrons hits a high note during in-store events. “We hold a lot of listening parties where we’ll take a new vinyl release and invite fans to the store the night before it’s available to hear the record together,” Mike Durham, media buyer for Zia Records, says. “They’re super fun with prizes and as a gathering place with that shared experience that you can’t replicate.”

Attending these music events in Zia Records’ welcoming environment can be life-changing, especially for someone with quirky tastes in tunes. “You’re in your own little musical bubble, and suddenly you’re hanging out with 30 or 50 other fans excitedly listening together,” says Durham, who started with Zia Records in 2009. “It’s cool seeing them show up at a future listening party with people they met at the initial event.”

Zia Records aims to recreate the old-school experience of buying a record at these listening parties, where friends can hear the music for the first time while scrutinizing the album’s artwork and lyrics. Streaming music serves as a quick introduction and discovery tool, but it doesn’t replace the experience of sharing a new release with others.

“There’s the physicality of slicing open the shrink wrap, taking the record out of the sleeve and putting it on a turntable and sitting and enjoying it with friends,” Durham says. “It allows engaging crossover between the physical portion and the audio portion, and provides this new generation the ability to appreciate how special that is.”

Vinyl shoppers have evolved over the last decade. The median age has fallen, with the older collectors giving way to younger fans. Durham explains that the new customers tend to be musical generalists and are increasingly women. “They’re buying the new pop stuff like the Chappell Roan record, but then they go sideways from that and pick up some ’90s classics,” he says.

“People are willing to pay the high cost for vinyl exclusives since the music in the groove sounds better now than it did then, but it’s subjective,” says Arizona music historian John Dixon. “A single disc can be 40 bucks, but they have a top-notch stereo and are willing to invest in the proposition.”

Dixon adds that a few individuals view vinyl releases as an investment. “They don’t own a record player,” he says. “Taylor Swift fans might have her clear wax vinyl album sealed on a shelf somewhere and have never cracked the shrink wrap to listen to it.”

Most vinyl buyers are fans, concurs Durham. “But there are definitely some folks who made excellent investments on a $25 or $30 record that has quadrupled in value at this point, with some releases even going near the four-figure price tag,” he adds.

In recent years, Zia Records has released approximately 50 exclusive vinyl records annually, working with a record label, a band, or both. Some collaborations might produce a unique colorway record, the artwork as creative as the music within the grooves. Durham highlights particularly memorable records from Johnny Cash, Nirvana, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Green Day, and Lord Jane Grace.

Zia Records’ eight stores, consisting of five in the Valley, two in Las Vegas, and one in Tucson, are focusing on vinyl exclusives to celebrate their 45th anniversary. They are spotlighting releases from Arizona and Nevada artists, including the Gin Blossoms’ New Miserable Experience double album.

“It was a quick sellout, which wasn’t surprising,” Durham says. “We produced 250 copies, so it wasn’t a huge run on it, and we priced it at $39.99.” The album was expanded to two discs by adding live versions, demos, and tracks that were previously available in other formats but had never been released on vinyl.

Zia Records has long celebrated Arizona’s musical heritage, including when they assisted Dixon in releasing You Gotta Have Soul on red sunset-colored vinyl in 2020. The record was a compilation of 12 different Arizona soul acts, spanning the years 1957-1971. “The thousand copies sold out fast, as many songs were collectible 45s,” Dixon says. “It’s cool when you call to get someone’s permission to include a song. Usually, they’re just overjoyed that someone would remember their father’s or uncle’s tune from way back in the day.”

Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers are another local favorite at Zia Records, tracing back to when Clyne launched his previous band, The Refreshments. “For Record Store Day this year, we released his first album, Americano, in an exclusive colorway,” says Durham. “The record looked like a desert sunset, which is cool, and there are still a few available out of the 300 records created. Roger was nice and signed copies of those on the release date in our Tucson store.”
Clyne says that the album cover photo was taken at the annual Circus Mexicus music festival the band hosts in Rocky Point, Mexico. “I feel like we came full circle, doing an album signing at a record store in 2025 like we used to all the time back in 2005,” he says. “Furthermore, it was great to work with Zia again, and I could still feel (Zia Records founder) Brad Singer’s rock and roll ghost!”

Other vinyl exclusives from local groups that Zia Records will soon drop include Tucson-based Bled, whose popular record, Pass the Flask, is currently up for pre-order. Another is a Phoenix band, Change of Pace, which had a couple of releases about 20 years ago. “We sold a ton of those CDs when they came out, so we’re doing two of their albums (Prepare The Masses and An Offer You Can’t Refuse) that are in pre-order,” Durham says. “Those and Bled will be sellouts by the time they’re released.”

Durham advises fans to follow Zia Records’ social media for event updates, since some vinyl exclusives are gone in just five minutes. There’s still hope, however, if an item sells out online during the pre-order period. “We always reserve some copies for our stores on the release date,” Durham says. “So, if you’re local, you have a second chance on everything we distribute.” If vinyl isn’t your thing, Zia Records offers other formats, including CDs, cassettes, and even the occasional 8-track tape. “The thing about the 8-track is that they just didn’t survive very well,” Durham says. “It was a kind of weird format to begin with, the way that sometimes a song would just fade out halfway through as it jumped to the next track.”

Times have changed since Zia Records opened 45 years ago. Their competition now includes the likes of Amazon and Spotify, but their brick-and-mortar stores continue to thrive by leveraging nostalgia and personal service. Record stores have long served as a musical hub for musicians and fans alike. The employee-owned company boasts an expert staff, with many recent hires being the children of longtime Zia employees. This equates to a wealth of institutional knowledge about music, particularly local artists.

Durham takes pride in the investment that the multigenerational staff has in the store. “The biggest thing is that we’re constantly evolving; we’re always looking forward while celebrating the past. We don’t rest. We’re always challenging ourselves and trying to push things.”