I read a number of “what album did you buy first?” threads on the Dope this morning, and it started me thinking where people buy music. When I was a kid in small town eastern Washington in the 80s, there weren’t that many places that did sell music. Outside of a local Safeway that sold cassettes they kept locked in a case, you had to drive 25 miles to buy music. Oddly enough, the place I bought most of my cassettes at a chain pharmacy which had a big selection but I have totally forgotten the name of.
These days, I only buy at local independent stores. There’s something just fun about searching through the racks that you can’t get online. For used stuff I can find a ton in Tacoma, although for new releases I’m better off going to Seattle. Where do you get your music now, and where did you get them in the past?
I bought most of my music from my father’s store. They sold records (mostly because my brothers and I insisted) and I’d not only be able to pick them up as I saw them, but I could order anything that looked interesting to me.
After I went off to college, I would buy them at Two Guys Department store. I also was a member of the Record Club of America.
Nowadays, I look in bargain bins in various stores.
When I was a kid buying cassettes, I bought them at stores like KMart and a Super-Wal-Mart-Like store called Twin/Valu. I specifically remember buying both the Vanilla Ice and Soul Asylum tapes there because I am that cool.
KMart was in my town but Twin/Valu was about 20 miles away. Of course we never went to specifically buy tapes, just bought them when accompanying mom on shopping trips.
Later when it was CDs we went to a music store/head shop called Quonset Hut which was in the same town as Twin/Valu. My brother could drive so he drove us there and we’d load up on CDs and band t-shirts and gaudy jewelry and other junk that come home smelling like incense.
There was another record store down the street from the Hut plus the mall (with its overpriced record store) was right there, and eventually Best Buy, so on a Saturday we’d go around to ALL of these places.
Then there became a humongous USED CD market and a place called Record Exchange opened up with 3 or 4 locations within driving distance (one near the Hut!) so that got added to our travels. We also used this place to dump the stuff we had just bought years before for pennies on the dollar. And to buy super old vinyl. Oh and Time Traveller Records opened up also in the same town, and they had used and new so we stopped there on the way home.
Every so often we’d go the other way - north instead of south - to a cool neighborhood in Cleveland Heights called Coventry. They had THE AWESOME record store that sold all the rare ska I wanted, plus ska gear, plus vinyl. Record Revolution. There was also a Record Exchange in Coventry. And the world’s most awesome retro toy store.
Then I got tired of buying CDs and put all my shit on MP3 and started buying massive amounts of $5 MP3 records from Amazon. Now the only time I buy new physical media is at a show. I did buy the recent Beatles CDs from Best Buy, which has now moved to my town.
I lived in the Atlanta suburbs, so there was no shortage of places I could buy music, none of them really standing out in my memory. I also did the Columbia House thing.
I’d say I bought the vast majority of my vinyl from record stores. There were mom and pop places here in Atlanta, like Jim Salle’s, Tappan Music, and Clark records. Certainly, my 45s. These stores had listening rooms where you could take a record in, listen to it, and decide if you wanted it.
Later on there were bigger places like Peaches, Franklin Music, and Turtle’s. Sometimes I’d buy them at a department store, or through Record Club of America or Columbia House, but mostly they came from record stores.
Nowadays, I get most of it from an independent cd store that’s within walking distance of my house. I could buy cheaper elsewhere, but I like the guy who runs the place and I want him to stay in business.
What a concept!
eta: So, John T, do you remember any of those places?
Whatever was at Perimeter Mall at the time, a used book store on Buford Hwy (The Book Nook(?))… eh, that’s about it.
When I was a kid, independent music stores were pretty much the only places with a decent offering. Department stores would stock the top 40 stuff, and that’s about it.
I never bought pre-recorded cassettes. I would buy the record, and do my own recording: much better quality. And I’d have a pristine master if anything happened to the cassette.
I used to record on 8 tracks too, but only for a couple of years before the newfangled cassettes came along.
Grew up in a town of about 15,000. Exurb of Chicago in the 1970s. There was a local music store (corner store IIRC) where we would buy albums and posters. Then they built a Montgomery Wards store that also had cool electronics to mess around with. After that an Old West themed strip mall went up on the other side of town, not far from the high school that had a store that sold music and “other” items, often of a tubular nature. All of these places were good for a quick look, but serious record buying required driving to Rolling Stone Records in Norridge. All kinds of fun stuff there. The store still exists, but they no longer sell those “items”.
When I first started buying records, there were no dedicated record stores in my immediate area. The closest was a musical instrument store (Thearle’s) that also sold LPs. I got most of my records either at department stores or the local Thrifty Drugs. Thrifty kept an inventory of about 30 current LPs, and sold them on the British system–only the covers were on display; you had to go to the camera department and ask for #21 or whatever to get the actual record. They also had loads of cutouts, and I picked up some very interesting and often obscure items there in those years. A local grocery store had a rack with a few albums–I bought Blind Faith and Donovan’s Hurdy Gurdy Man there. A couple of years later Safeway tried selling LPs; I picked up Yes’s Fragile and Elton John’s 11-7-70 there. My high school even opened a little co-op store with records around that time–I bought the first Cheech & Chong album there. On top of all that, I tried the Columbia, RCA, and Capitol record clubs.
I bought a lot of records.
As a teenager in the late 70s / early 80s, I’d buy 45s and albums at either one of the record stores in the mall (Musicland, usually), or at a discount store (KMart or Shopko). I was in Columbia House for a couple of years, as well.
In college, I’d buy at either a local record store, or at a second-hand music store near campus.
I patronized music-focused stores for a long while after college. Rose Records was a great (and now deceased) Chicago-based store. These days, if I’m buying a physical CD, I’ll occasionally pick one up at Borders (well, not there, so much, anymore 
) or at Best Buy (though they’re scaling back their CD selection), but it’s more usually on Amazon. That said, most of my new music now comes from iTunes.
In the little town I grew up in (pop. 1800) in the 60’s and early 70’s there was a small appliance repair store downtown. This was also the only place in town that sold records. Singles only. The first album I bought was 20 miles away at Penney’s.
As a teen in the mid-late 90’s I bought at either Sam Goody or The Wherehouse. I think I bought all my CD’s (about 50-60) from there before I switched to getting mp3’s online.
I don’t remember the names of all the stores where I bought new records. One I know was some kind of small local chain (not a record store chain, but they all had a small record section). Before I moved to California, I rarely went to an actual record store chain, since they were more expensive. There, I went to Tower Records (Mountain View) a lot.
For used, I bought most of my records at Flat Black and Circular (Motto, sort of: What’s Flat Black and Circular?). It looked mostly like that when I went, except for the CDs and windows. And light.
A Licorice Pizza, of course!
ITunes and www.guitar9.com
Stage 1: High School Years (early-to-mid 80s): I bought cassettes at the music stores at the mall, and at discount & department stores (K-Mart, Kohl’s, etc.).
Stage 2: College Years (mid 80’s-early 90’s): I bought cassettes at the campus bookstore and at local music stores near campus. Plus at some of the same places as during Stage 1, while I was home on breaks.
(ETA: I also bought the occasional vinyl or 8-track, which I copied to cassette so I could listen to it.)
Stage 3: Post-college, pre-internet: I bought CDs and also still cassettes (when they were cheap or the CDs were unobtainable). Best Buy and Circuit City had the best prices and selection locally, but I’d also make excursions to other cities to check out other new and used music stores (including their bargain bins), where I sometimes found some real treasures.
Once I got an internet connection, my CD buying shifted gradually toward online ordering.
Nowadays, most of the music I buy is through Amazon, which includes new CDs, used CDs, and MP3 downloads, but I also buy some things directly from the artists’ websites.
Once a long, long time ago, there was an open-air mall near my home called Richland Mall, wherein there was a record shop whose name I forget now and which I would have to go downstairs to look up. I bought most of my early records there or at a nearby TG&Y. Years later, when I had a car, it was the Record Bar or Musicland at Columbia Mall or Peaches near the University.
If I hear about a good album, I’d probably order it from Amazon.
But I also like to check out independent record stores. That’s where I buy music I hadn’t heard about.
There isn’t a music store in my town, which is unusual because I live in a college town. (Although there is a store that sells used CDs and DVDs.) The best stores in my area would be House of Guitars and the Bop Shop in Rochester.
Had to drive a couple of hours to get to Bow Wow Records in Albuquerque. Worth it.
Oh my golly gosh – here’s ah was, a-thinkin’ thet only in Wauwa-toosy, Wisco, wouldja have to go to ol’ man Schroeder’s TV repair shop to buy yerself an ell-pee record!
(Now, once they invented hippies, you could go to an actual record store and buy Zappa on vinyl; but in the mid-60s, you had to get your Paul Revere and The Raiders at a TV shop… I remember thinking it was weird, even at the time)