Record Stores

Turtles Records & Tapes was a chain of music stores based in Atlanta. Founded in 1977, it had over 125 stores throughout the South at its peak, mostly in Georgia and Florida. In the early '90s the chain was acquired by Blockbuster Music, which...

Record Revolution was established in 1967 in the Coventry neighborhood of Cleveland Heights. It was a Greater Cleveland institution for generations of music buyers.

Wizard Records, CDs, and Tapes was located in Corryville on Short Vine in Cincinnati. In 1985, John James became the store manager and eventually the owner. In 2000, James moved the store to Oxford but closed up shop for good about a year later.

Buzzard???s Nest Records was a Columbus-based record store chain that operated from 1972 to 1992. At its peak, it had a dozen locations in and around Columbus as well as three in Florida. There was talk of reviving the chain in 1995 but the...

Harmony House was founded in 1947 in Hazel Park, a suburb of Detroit, by Carl Thom. At its peak, it had 38 stores in Metro Detroit. The bursting of the CD sales bubble of the late '90s and the rise of digital music spelled...

Penny for your thoughts! Buy 12 CDs or tapes (or LPs), for a penny and buy just four more at "regular club prices." Not many did that last bit.

Ear X-tacy, a name inspired by British band XTC, opened in 1985 and quickly became Louisville's premiere alternative record store. Major recording artists often came and played in-store including Queens of the Stone Age, My Morning Jacket, Foo Fighters, The Black Keys, Tenacious D,...

Musicland was founded in Minneapolis in 1955.?? In 1964, it merged with music distributor JL Marsh followed by merger in 1968 with record label and distributor Pickwick International. In 1977, American Can Company bought Pickwick and a year later, famed New York record store...

National Record Mart, or NRM for short, started in 1937 in downtown Pittsburgh as Jitterbug Records. In the 1940s, it changed its name and began to grow, eventually opening 130 stores in 30 states, including every mall and shopping center in Pittsburgh.

Canada's Sam the Record Man, not to be confused with U.S.-bases Sam Goody, was founded in 1937 by Sam Sniderman. Originally it was the phonograph records department of his parents store on Yonge St. in Toronto. It grew to become the country's largest music...

In the 1980s, it was the battle cry of the British Phonograph Industry (BPI), later championed by similar organizations around the world. Little did they know that a much scarier beast was lurking on the horizon.

Tape World was a mall-based chain of music stores owned by Trans World Entertainment, operators of Record Town, Coconuts, and FYE among others. While the name suggested emphasis on the one format, it did offer CDs, briefly, before being retired by Trans World.

J & R Music World was a music retailer and electronics store founded in 1970 in New York City. It had two locations, one on Park Row in Lower Manhattan and one on the campus of Columbia University. The company closed its main store...

The International Record Syndicate, or I.R.S. Records, was a label founded by Miles Copeland (brother of The Police's Stewart Copeland) and Jay Boberg. A division of A&M Records, its roster included some of the most important new wave acts of the '80s including R.E.M.,...

The Flip Side started selling records & tapes in Chicago in 1971. At its peak, it had over 25 locations throughout the Midwest. However, the rapidly changing landscape of the music industry caused The Flip Side to go out of business in 1992.

Media Play was an attempt by The Musicland Group to compete with so-called big box retailers such as electronics stores Best Buy and Circuit City, who sold CDs at near cost to lure customers in. In addition to music, Media Play also carried books,...

Looney T Birds opened in Oxford, Ohio, home of Miami Univeristy, in 1984 and was the premier record shop in Oxford for nearly 20 years. It's convenient downtown location and relationship with WOXY helped cement its place in Tristate music history.??

Cellophane Square was a famous record store in Seattle's University District that opened in the early 1970s. It closed in 2009.

Camelot was a chain of mall-based record stores founded in 1956 in Massillon, Ohio. At its peak, it operated over 450 stores in 37 states. In 1998 it was acquired by rival Trans World operators of Record Town among other chains. Most surviving locations...

Founded in 1959, A&B Sound??was a??home electronics retailer based in Vancouver.??Its flagship store was downtown. Over the years, it??expanded to other cities in B.C. and western Canada, but the company began struggling in the early 2000s and went out of business in 2008.