Like many local businesses, Songbyrd Music House & Record Cafe’s operations were upended by the coronavirus pandemic this spring, with new restrictions around dining and live music hindering its food and drink offerings and venue space.
One part of the Adams Morgan business stayed sturdy, though: record sales.
Soon after the health crisis hit, Songbyrd’s vinyl director and record buyer, Jonathan Druy, uploaded their entire catalogue to Discogs, an online music database and marketplace, and the team worked on growing their e-commerce arm, per co-owner Joe Lapan. They also participated in this summer’s Record Store Day programming, modified with coronavirus safety measures.
“Our vinyl program and revenues from that have remained steady and constant, while everything else has plummeted,” says Lapan.
Now, he and partner Alisha Edmonson are leaning further into that, opening Byrdland Records, a new record store at Union Market. The shop is set to open on October 24, coinciding with this year’s third and final Record Store Day drop.
The pair had already been discussing potential ideas with Union Market developer EDENS around the end of last year. They stayed in touch throughout the pandemic, and Edmonson suggested doing something focused on vinyl.
“It’s safe, it’s still music,” she says. “So I was like, ‘Can we do something?’ Like, I was thinking a kiosk inside Union Market first.” Their idea became a 1300-square-foot space at 1264 5th Street NE.
The shop will feature a wide range of new and used records, with room to stock three times the quantity of Songbyrd and a greater variety of music, in addition to record players, speakers, and other gear, where “people can really grow their knowledge of sound,” Edmonson says.
“At Songbyrd, because there’s all these other things going on, it was never a space where you could stop what you’re doing in the cafe and play with a record player and show someone how it works and play an album for them and show them how it sounds,” says Edmonson.
Lapan and Edmonson’s shop isn’t the only new record store to open in D.C. during the pandemic. Cool Kids Vinyl recently set up shop on the second floor of Maketto on H Street, though many independent record stores are struggling across the region and nationwide, and have similarly relied on online sales to stay afloat.
Byrdland will also stock custom merchandise, and feature shelving built by District: Reclaimed, though they’re still finishing work on the space.
While it won’t have a food and beverage program, Byrdland will act as Songbyrd’s sister space, and its name is similarly inspired by jazz legend Charlie Byrd. Songbyrd’s location was once home to the Showboat Lounge, where Byrd, saxophonist Stan Getz, and others gathered.
Edmonson says they will open with their existing team and don’t plan to hire additional staff initially, but hopes “things ramp up and that we can,” adding, “I would love to be hiring people back.”
Lapan was among a group of venue owners and members of the music community who recently lent his input to proposed legislation to aid struggling D.C. venues during the pandemic. He told DCist in September that the roughly 40 people who were previously being paid by Songbyrd, including gig and hourly workers, had dropped to about eight.
Byrdland may eventually host live music in the form of in-store performances, but Lapan says the shop will not have a venue space like Songbyrd. For now, he and Edmonson are focused on creating a different kind of experience with music at the center.
“We were already talking like something about this [before the pandemic],” says Lapan, “but it’s a pivoting and leaning into those elements of music that are still happening and in demand for people.”
Byrdland Records is located at 1264 5th Street NE, opening Oct. 24. Open Tuesdays-Thursdays from noon-8 p.m., Fridays from noon-9 p.m., Saturdays from 11 a.m.-9 p.m., and Sundays from 11 a.m.-8 p.m.
