Hear It Before You Buy It: New Music From Coldplay & Jelly Roll

Sometimes, you want to hear it before you can buy it or, for the more digitally inclined, stream it. I'm talking about new music. Two of those releases are on the calendar for the first half of October: Jelly Roll's latest album, "Beautifully Broken," due out on Friday, October 11, and Coldplay's "Moon Music," set for release on Friday, October 4. Yet I have a way you can hear both records first, before they are released on streaming platforms and physical copies of the album show up in stores.

People of a certain age will remember knowing exactly when an artist's big new album would come out. They'd head to the record store that day and want to be the first to own that spinning disc, pop it on the record player, or put it in the CD tray and spin it. If it was a huge release, record stores might open at 11:00 PM the night before the album dropped and hold a midnight sale.

There was something special about seeing the artwork for the first time, hearing the record being played in the background, the excitement of pulling the album off the shelf, and chatting with other fans in line who were buying the same thing you were. It was the communal experience before taking the record home, slicing through the shrink wrap, smelling that new vinyl smell, and finally, hearing that new release.

And then it all went away. The record shops, the physical mediums, all of it. Replaced by a .mp3 digital album you could purchase from iTunes, or these days, collections that will magically appear on our phone's streaming service.  It's not communal at all.

Yet, there's still magic in that communal experience of getting jazzed for a new album, and record companies and artist management companies have realized that. They also recognize that some of us still love taking home that new vinyl and spinning it for the first time. So they've devised a great way to have that communal experience while helping independent record stores.

The listening party. The labels and artist management set up these exclusive listening parties on a specific date and time, and independent record stores can sign up to host them. Many indie stores don't bother to host any of them, while others host them regularly. In Sedalia, the store that hosts many of these parties is Jammin' Nuggets Music on South Ohio.

These parties usually include swag that everyone gets, raffle prizes that everyone in attendance can win, and, occasionally, a high-value prize offered for those in attendance. Attendees can also pre-order the vinyl or compact disc version of the artist's album they just heard and then pick it up on the release day. These parties are free to attend, and no purchase is necessary to sign up for giveaways.

If you have yet to attend one of these parties and are a fan of Coldplay or Jelly Roll, I recommend you do. They're fun, and it's a great way to be one of the first to hear the whole album, not just the one, two, or three tracks released to YouTube or put on streaming ahead of time.

The Coldplay "Moon Music" listening party is Tuesday, October 1, at 7:00 PM CDT, and the Jelly Roll listening party for "Beautifully Broken" is Sunday afternoon, October 6, at 4:00 PM CDT. Don't worry; there's no Chiefs game that afternoon; they play Monday night.

Jammin' Nuggets Music is at 115 S. Ohio Avenue in Sedalia. It's an old-school record store that buys, sells, and trades pre-loved records. Additionally, they can order it for you if they don't have the record you're looking for. They're an authorized dealer of Blue Note for you jazz lovers.