Overview:
Darkside Records sells vinyls and records in Poughkeepsie.
When Justin Johnson visited Amoeba Music in San Francisco as a teenager, he left with more than a stack of records—he left with a plan. Having already worked in a mall record store, he decided at 19 that he wanted to open a shop of his own. Five years later, that ambition became Darkside Records, now one of the Hudson Valley’s premier destinations for music lovers.
Since opening, Darkside has grown from an independent record shop into a cornerstone of Poughkeepsie’s music community. In late 2025, the business moved into a larger, permanent home that Johnson owns, giving the store room to expand its inventory and strengthen its role as a gathering place for collectors, casual listeners, and crate diggers alike.
“We’re here to be a community space where people can come hang out and discover something new or find something they already love, and then take that and share it with the people in their lives,” Johnson says.
Darkside buys and sells both new and used records, with much of its secondhand inventory sourced through house calls and private collections. Whether customers are hunting for a rare pressing, flipping through bargain bins, or just spending an afternoon talking music, the store has built a loyal following by combining deep selection with genuine enthusiasm. It’s that blend of expertise, community, and musical curiosity that earned Darkside the Readers’ Choice first-place award for Record Store.
This article appears in July 2026.
