BEST PLACE TO SELL YOUR MUSIC: Amoeba Music Hollywood. This is the best place to sell or trade in your CDs, LPs, TAPEs, and DVDs.
BEST LISTENING ROOM: The record stores that have the best "listening stations" are HI-FI Haven in Whittier, Brooks Berdan in Monrovia and Audio Element in Pasadena. They have a small selection of classical CDs and vinyl, but they have large listening rooms with expensive HiFi systems. Take a stack of your favorite CDs to audition them on their very expensive equipment. See below for address and phone number.
BEST RECORD SWAP: On the first Sunday of each month there is a record swap meet at Pasadena City College. On the last Sunday of each month there is a swap meet in Orange. Record Surplus and Rockaway have parking lot sales quarterly. See below for links to these stores and call them. Check out my audio hifi webpage for recommendations on the best equipment to hear your music to it's fullest potential.
BEST CITIES: Three cities seem to have high concentrations of record stores: Hollywood, Whittier, and Santa Monica. Many of the record stores in these cities are clustered within a few blocks. Before you go to one record store in one city, see this website for record stores that are close by on the way.
Be weary of Best Buy though; they are building up a monopoly - once they are a monopoly and have successfully driven chains like Tower Records out of business, you can sure bet they will raise their prices to list price. That's what monopolies do - underprice and drive out competition, then jack up the prices. You must remember that shipping can make the prices of internet ordering higher than buying from a store. Once one store dominates a market by underpricing and driving their competitors out of business, that one store will jack up their prices. Amoeba Music in Hollywood is a used CD superstore, but I've noticed they're already raising their prices. For the first month, Amoeba Music was charging $6-$7 for used CDs, now the prices have gradually creeped to $10+ for used CDs. Pay $1-2 more and support small business, mom & pop, local indie, community based stores. I do not want any one single store to dominate the entire market for indie music, used music, or mainstream pop music.
A lot of record labels are "remastering" their old catalog albums, repackaging them, and re-releasing them as if they were new albums at new full list prices. Their "remastering" does not usually mean the labels are using higher fidelity remastering technologies such as JVC-XRCD or HDCD, it usually means they are remastering their recordings to become "hotter" or sound louder. The "remastered" reissues sound louder, but they are more compressed and are decreased in dynamic range, as compared to the previous releases. It would be nice if the record labels would remaster their catalog releases with JVC-XRCD or HDCD technology, but right now they're ruining their catalogs by making them sound as "hot" as rap music albums. The labels are tricking their customers into re-buying albums by vaguely promising that the remastered reissues will have better sound quality.
Read these articles: Is dynamic range compression destroying music? and Loudness war.
- Labels check this record labels page for companies that sell direct
- Audio HiFi Recommendations For the best playback of your music check out these
- lpcoverlover pictures of old album covers
- Association for Recorded Sound Collections (ARSC) organization dedicated to the preservation and study of sound recordings
- Record Store Day
- Cassette Store Day
- Vinyl Record Day
- Vinyl Grading Terminology
- FAQ: How To Avoid Being Ripped-off Buying Vinyl On The Net
- Radio: Record Store Day Radio Show
- Radio: Record Show Radio Show, "The Steve Propes 45s Show", 9am-11am Pacific Time, every 4th Saturday of every month, call (562)860-2451 x 2626. There other music collector radio shows, see website.
- Magazine: Record Collector News, Los Angeles, CA
- Magazine: Classic Record Collector
- Magazine: Goldmine Magazine
- Magazine: Record Collector
- Who Is Better At Ruining A Music Documentary, David Fricke Or Thurston Moore?
- HOW TO RATE YOUR COLLECTABLE VINYL L.P.
- Record Shows Of America
- Almighty Institute of Music Retail
- RecordStoreReview.com, directory
- California Record Stores at the Record Collectors Guild, directory
- Article: Why CDs May Actually Sound Better Than Vinyl, January 27, 2015
- Article: 5 Reasons Why Vinyl Is Not a Fad (VIDEO), January 28, 2015
- Article: Why Audiophiles Are Paying $1,000 for This Man's Vinyl, 3-4-15
- Music Comics
- Article: Washington Post: Requiem for the Record Store, Downloaders and Discounters Are Driving Out Music Retailers February 7, 2004
- Article: Silverstein's Top Ten Reasons to Patronize Your Local Used Record Store, 2002
- Article: What it means to love records, February 13, 2002
- Article: Portraits of Obsession, February 13, 2002
- Article: Accounting for Taste, Why Your Musical Tastes Are Better Than Everyone's
- Article: 37 Record-Store Clerks Feared Dead In Yo La Tengo Concert Disaster from The Onion, April 10, 2002
- Article: Music fans find dearth of quality, 06/04/2002
- Resource: Music from TV Commercials
- New York Magazine: Facing the Music, Rock stars and music-industry execs once ruled the earth, but now -- in terms of size and profit margins -- the music industry is becoming the book business (minus the literacy).
- Politics Kills Web Radio's Budding Stars, June 25, 2002
- Nature News Service: Loud voices music to our ears, May 18 2001
- Article: It Turns Out There Is Accounting for Taste, Sep 7, 2010
- The Montreal Gazette: There is Accounting for Musical Taste, August 8, 1998
- e News Service: Chords strike a grammatical note April 23 2001
- Commentary: Joan Jett's rant to Rolling Stone Magazine, ?11?/?23?/?2002?
- Humor: How To Judge A Man By His CD Collection, July 2, 1999
- CNN: Music's lost decade: Sales cut in half, February 3, 2010
- USA Today: Any way you spin it, music industry in trouble, 06/04/2002
- USA Today: Music fans suffer from CD sticker shock, 06/04/2002
- USA Today: High prices result in pirate recordings, 06/04/2002
- USA Today: Music fans find dearth of quality, 06/04/2002
- RIAA: RIAA, they have never paid any artist anything from the money they've been collecting from their levy on every blank media sold in the world, and nobody ask questions where the money goes
- Boycott-RIAA
- Downhill Battle is a non-profit organization working to support participatory culture and build a fairer music industry
- ABC News 20/20: Investigation: Independent Promoters in the Music Industry
- Pay to Play: Music Industry's Dirty Little Secret, Feb. 8, 2006
- SCRIPT: Music's Dirty Little Secret, Feb. 16, 2006
- 100s of Radio Stations in Payola Probe, Feb. 9, 2006
- Pay for Play Radio Probe Heats Up, April 20, 2006
- Paying to Make It to the Top of the Charts, February 17, 2006
- Is It Pay for Play in Music Industry?, May 24, 2006
- FCC Unveils Settlement With Radio Firms, 4/13/2007
- Networks fined US $12.5M for payola, Apr 13 2007
- Radio Deals Designed to Curb Payola, 2007
- Horrified Observers of Pedestrian Entertainment
- You Have Bad Taste in Music, December 13 2004
CLOSED RECORD STORES:
RIP: Laser Library
RIP: Origami Vinyl
RIP: Pepperland Music
RIP: Wombleton Records, 5123 York Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90042
RIP: Laser Blazer, 10587 W Pico Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90064 (310)475-4788
RIP: Records LA
RIP: La Canada Video
RIP: Beats Vinyl & Life
Beats Vinyl & Life
918 W Lincoln Ave #3, Anaheim, CA 92805 (BETWEEN HARBOR AND THE 5 FREEWAY- GRAY 2 STORY BUILDING), (714)774-7780
Orange County's only record store catering to Hip-Hop and Reggae. New and used Independent/ Major label Hip-Hop (12", EP's, LP's), Dancehall-Reggae 7", Comps, CD's, DVD's, Clothing, Accessories. Beats Vinyl & Life
RIP: Vinyl Fetish, Vinyl Fetish, 7305 Melrose, Hollywood, (213)935-1300
RIP: Music Man Murray, 5055 Exposition Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90016, (323)734-9146, Murray Gershenz
passed away on August 29, 2013, he sold his massive collection before then, Music Man Murray video
RIP: Exodus Records & Compact Discs, 8163 Arroyo Dr, Rosemead, CA 91770, (626)573-8818
RIP: Don's Music, 4873 Eagle Rock Blvd, Eagle Rock, CA 90041, (323)255-3551
RIP: 2 Catz Clothing, 337 W. 6th St., San Pedro, CA, 90731, (310)521-9965
RIP: 40 Sad Portraits Of Closed Record Stores
RIP: Music Baron, 1244 S Magnolia Ave, Anaheim, CA 92804, (714)527-7770
RIP: Auditory Odyssey., 6338 Laurel Canyon Blvd, North Hollywood, CA 91606, (818)762-0266
RIP: Ken Crane's
RIP: Sea Level Records, 1716 W Sunset Blvd, Echo Park/Los Angeles, CA
RIP: Virgin Megastores
RIP: Hear Music, 1429 3rd Street Promenade, Santa Monica, CA 90401, (310)319-9527
RIP: Circuit City
RIP: Amp Records, 6747 Greenleaf Ave # A, Whittier, CA 90601, (562) 464-0271
RIP: Aron's Records, 4/8/06
RIP: Rhino Records Westwood, last sale: 1/21-1/22/06
RIP: Wenzel's Music Town, 13117 Lakewood Blvd, Downey, CA 90242, (562)634-2928, went out of business and closed on September 16'th. This place had lots of rare vinyl.
RIP: Joey Jetson Music, went out of business in 2001
RIP: Starlight Roof John Cooper's obscure video store went out of business at end of August 2001
RIP: Opus Music, closed 7/01, founded by Japanese entrepreneur Tatsuya Hayashi. Tatsuya also had a massive JBL Paragon speaker he bought in Japan, ask for a demo.
RIP: Dave's Video, closed 12/02, 12144 Ventura Blvd, Studio City, CA 91604 (818)760-3472, this place had a huge selection to choose from.
RIP: DB Coopers
, closed 3/24/06
DB Coopers
DB Coopers
RIP: Destroy All Music, 3818 Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, CA, (213)663-9300
RIP: JDC's Record Shop - The Music Stop, 440 Pacific Coast Hwy, Hermosa Beach, (310)937-4455
RIP: GoBoy Records - 12/26/06, 1310 South Pacific Coast Highway, Redondo Beach , CA 90277, (310)316.1957
RIP: Benway Records - 9/1/07, 306 Pico Blvd, Santa Monica, CA 90405, (310)396-8898
Animania Laserdiscs
2570 Ocean Avenue, Suite 282, San Francisco, CA 94132
Asian laserdiscs, Video-CD, Chinese, Japanse, Hong Kong, anime, manga
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