This business turns vinyl records into mixtapes

PORTLAND, Ore. (InvestigateTV) — Vinyl record sales in the U.S. increased in 2025 for the 19th consecutive year, according to the RIAA. Sales remain below 1970s levels, when more than 300 million LPs and EPs were sold each year.

Since April 2008, music fans have marked Record Store Day, which highlights independent record stores and vinyl culture. A Portland business is combining the vinyl resurgence with another personal music keepsake: the mixtape.

Mixtape Vinyl, based in Portland, has created vinyl record mixtapes for 10 years. Jennifer Dawson and the late Portland-based singer-songwriter David Freel, of the band Swell, founded it in 2016.

“We get people who are quite often trying to woo somebody,” Dawson said. “It’s obviously a crush, and they’re putting their favorite songs onto a vinyl instead of a cassette.”

Dawson and her team use a lathe, a rotating cutting machine, to create albums for occasions including weddings, graduations and gender reveals.

“And I think the most meaningful records that we’ve done are the memorial records,” Dawson said. “So someone has passed and there’s either an interview or they recorded some songs at some point. And we, yeah, and we make that record for the family or for the friends.”

The albums are fully customizable, including the jacket and the color or picture that appears on the disc.

“We make them as if those songs belong together,” Dawson said.

Mixtape Vinyl was among the first businesses in the market when it started, and an industry has since developed around the concept. There are no laws preventing the practice since the albums are not for commercial use.

Dawson said Taylor Swift songs are frequently requested.

“Sitting on the dock of the bay is on a lot of records by Otis Redding,” Dawson said.

A pressing of 10 records costs at least $350, or $10 a record. For more information, customers can email Mixtape Vinyl at orders@vinylondemand.com.