Brazilian man has amassed “several million” vinyl records

The New York Times Magazine has ran a profile of Zero Freitas, a 62-year-old businessman from Brazil who owns a São Paulo bus line and has amassed a colossal record collection. Freitas’ collection is estimated to be somewhere around three million LPs and 45s, with many of them being “bargain-bin rejects that had been thoroughly forgotten.” He’s grown his collection by making purchases from aging music execs, critics and record-store owners.

Freitas’ collection has grown to the point that it has to be stored in a 25,000-square-foot warehouse, with a dozen college interns cataloging it at a rate of 500 per day (a rate that is surpassed by the new records he adds daily).

Read more from the Times below, and read the full profile here.

“Between June and November of last year, more than a dozen 40-foot-long shipping containers arrived, each holding more than 100,000 newly purchased records. Though the warehouse was originally the home of his second business — a company that provides sound and lighting systems for rock concerts and other big events — these days the sound boards and light booms are far outnumbered by the vinyl.”