Shop Guide: which kind of place to go first

Record shops, instrument and lesson stores and listening nights all deal in music, but they are not interchangeable. This guide sorts them by what you want to leave with, so you can pick the right kind of place before you set out.

Start with what you want to leave with

If you are looking for a music store near you, you probably have one of three things in mind, and each kind of place is good at one of them. The trip goes better when you know which one before you set out, because a store built for one job is often the wrong place for another.

Three kinds of place serve that search, and each suits a different purpose, so it helps to name yours first.

A record shop, for something to play at home, new or used.
An instrument and lessons store, for an instrument, a case or accessory, or a first lesson.
A listening night, for hearing records in company before you decide what to buy.

Few places do all three well. Going in with one purpose keeps the visit short and the choice clear.

If the thing you want is a lesson, the store that teaches is the right first stop, even if it stocks few records. If it is a record, a shop that keeps its used stock in order will repay a longer visit than a quick look.

The right place is the one that matches what you intend to take home, not simply the nearest one.

A turntable with a white vinyl record and a silver tonearm on a black background

What a good visit looks like

A good visit ends with one clear next step. You know whether you are taking a record home to play, booking a first lesson or going to hear records in company, and you can say why in a sentence.

Watching someone work the bins

This crate-digging video shows a shopper going through records in the bins of a record shop. It is a quick way to see the pace of browsing before you try it yourself, and to notice how long a crate takes when every sleeve is read properly.

Video on YouTube from the channel Lunar Bass. We are pointing to it, not endorsing the shop it was filmed in.

The first place you think of is often the wrong one

Expecting a listening night to sell records

A listening night is for hearing music in company. Ask before you go whether anything is for sale, and plan the evening around listening rather than buying.

Treating a lessons store as a record shop

A store that sells instruments and runs lessons may carry few records, and a record shop may have no teacher on the premises. Check what a place is set up for before you plan the trip around it.

Thinking that owning a record covers playing it to a room

Under US copyright law, playing a recording at a place open to the public, or where a substantial number of people outside a family's circle are gathered, counts as a public performance. The right to perform it publicly belongs to the copyright owner, and owning the record or paying for streaming does not cover that. Anyone hosting a listening night for other people should check the licensing first, and the definitions are in 17 U.S. Code section 101.

Each of these slips comes from treating the trip as one errand when it is really three different ones. Naming the purpose first, as the list near the top of this guide suggests, heads off all three.

Where new vinyl stands, in four figures

These figures describe new records only. Used records are a separate market, and none of the four numbers measures them.

$1 billion: US vinyl sales in 2025, which passed $1 billion for the first time since 1983. Source: RIAA figures reported by Music Week.
9.3%: The rise in US new-vinyl sales in 2025 on the year before. Source: RIAA figures reported by Music Week.
46.8 million: Vinyl units sold in the US in 2025. Source: RIAA figures reported by Music Week.
29.5 million: CDs sold in the US in the same year, which vinyl units outnumbered. Source: RIAA figures reported by Music Week.

Growth describes the market, not the copy in your hand. Whether a particular record is worth its price depends on its condition and on whether you will play it, and the buying guides cover both.

Check a record before you buy