Top Best Music Stores in the World (Part 1)

"The World's Best Music Stores" is something like "1000 places to visit before you die". This selection will be a godsend for record collector music lovers! Each shop featured in this article offers something personal and unique to the global vinyl community... In short - everyone will find something to their liking here! Less words, more to the point! This is the "Top Best Music Stores in the World"....

"Hard Wax."

This music shop, located Paul-Lincke-Ufer 44A, 10999 Berlin, Germany, is the cherry on top of Berlin's music scene! "Hard Wax" was founded in 1989 by the duo Basic Channel, namely Mark Ernestus and Moritz von Oswald! Here, in this shop located in an old factory building behind the canal in Kreuzberg, DJs of all stripes can find the best electronic music! And DJ Hell, Modeselektor and Marcel Dettmann have been honing their craft as collaborators for the past two decades... One customer, Kate Fullerton Whitman, called this place "the warmest and most inclusive music shop on earth"....

"Rough Trade."

This shop is located at 130 Talbot Road, W11 1JA, London, UK. Inspired by the general atmosphere of the City Lights bookshop in San Francisco, Geoff Travis opened Rough Trade in 1978 after taking a £4,000 loan from his father. He installed a reggae sound system and gave his bohemian employees equal pay and equal voting rights. Over the next six months, punk erupted, manifesting itself in seven-mile streams that spread through the walls of the iconic shop like wildfire. Members of The Raincoats and Swell Maps worked behind the counter, and almost immediately Rough Trade was at the epicentre of DIY and punk culture in London. By the end of 1978, Rough Trade included not only a shop, but also a record label and a fledgling distribution company...

By the 1980s Travis was increasingly distracted by the music shop. When the business went through a tough financial period in 1982, he sold the shop to the staff... They paid £7,000 for stock and moved to 130 Talbot Road, where Rough Trade stands today. Building on its punk rock roots, the shop has expanded to represent all aspects of indie music! With a diverse customer base stretching from local weirdos to visiting celebrities, Rough Trade West remains the vibrant cultural centre that Travis envisioned almost 40 years ago.

"Dusty Groove."

The location of this musical treasure trove is Dusty Groove Chicago Record Store & Warehouse, 1120 N Ashland Ave, Chicago, IL, 60622 USA. It stocks rare and high quality used records from across the spectrum. Dusty Groove was originally a privately owned online record shop (it was founded in 1996). But success followed quickly: at the turn of the millennium, Dusty Groove became a true record shop catering to global connoisseurs of rare funk, soul, disco, jazz, Latin American and African music. Widely recognised both online and on the ground, Dusty Groove is now one of the best shops of its kind!

"New Gramophone House."

The shop is located opposite Moti Cinema, Main Road, Chandni Chowk Road, New Delhi, Delhi 110006, India. It stocks the best of Indian classics, film music, folk and religious recordings... It may be the last surviving music shop in Delhi! After the partition of India in 1947, the shop moved to its present location, on top of a shoe shop, in the busy and hyperactive Chandni Chowk neighbourhood. Run by Anuj Rajpal, son of the original founder Ramesh Rajpal, the shop has become something of an institution for locals and travelling collectors alike. Beautifully decorated records, dozens of gramophones and an ambivalent manager Anuj Rajpal, reminiscent of Jack Black in High Fidelity (comedy Fanatic)... It really is the place to visit while in India!

"Superfly Records."

And this unique music shop is located in the city of love Paris... Here you can find curated and rare used soul, jazz, Brazilian, African and Latin records. Generally, Paris is full of great small music shops with unique, authentic performances, and Superfly is no exception. Relatively new, it was launched in 2009 with the aim of selling vintage and collectible records from around the world, reflecting the bustling diversity of the city with a carefully selected selection of originals and reissues... The shop is now also the headquarters of a label actively reissuing albums, which brings to life a wide range of rare, private or out-of-print records, from Nigerian funk to Japanese jazz. Not the only shop worth visiting in a city a long distance away, but certainly one of the most interesting.

"Disk Union Shibuya"

This shop is located in Tokyo, and there is more used vinyl here than you can imagine! Founded in 1967, today Disk Union is an extensive network of vinyl shops! It stocks an astounding amount, somewhere in the hundreds of thousands of new and used records from a wide variety of genres, conveniently organised by floor. Head up the stairs and you're in dance and hip hop heaven! Then, above, is punk, hardcore, heavy metal and various derivatives... And down in the basement, you'll find rare groove, soul and jazz... With tonnes of rare Japanese imprints around - don't be surprised if you leave with an overdrawn bank balance and over your flight limit!

"Rockers International."

The location of this music shop is 135 Orange St, Kingston, Jamaica! It is home to the best reggae, ska, rocksteady music... The shop will also be a godsend for fans of rock, dub, dancehall and more. Orange Street has always been the birthplace of reggae. From Sir Coxon Dodd to Bob Marley, - virtually every Jamaican artist has had experience living in these parts... Dennis Brown and Prince Buster were even born there. Locals used to call it 'Beat Street', but now, after decades of silence, Orange Street has become a 'ghost street'... Studios, shops and vinyl vans have all but disappeared. Rockers International and Randy's are the last remaining vinyl shops in downtown Kingston and perhaps in all of Jamaica. The story of Rockers begins with one Augustus Pablo. While he was famous for introducing melody to roots reggae, he was equally prolific in the studio, launching his own label and record shop in the '70s to showcase the work of other artists...

"Music is our biggest export!" says Mitchy Williams, who runs the shop today. "More than yams, sugar, even more than sports. Reggae music is the greatest thing Jamaica has ever produced..."

Williams, who is trying to strike a balance between keeping the shop current and preserving its history, is currently renovating the building. He hopes Rockers doesn't disappear like other shops and studios that once lined Orange Street...

"Wally's Groove World"

The sales floor of Belgium's Wally's Groove World houses new and used records from across the spectrum of electronic dance music, covering the European scene as well as house, techno and acoustic from Detroit and Chicago, bringing together classic and new school under one colourful wall... Being located next to one of the world's biggest ports certainly has its advantages.

"Wax Museum Records."

If you're looking for lots of hip hop, dusty jazz, funk, soul, and Melbourne-made exclusives, then you should definitely check out the Wax Museum Records located in Australia! This wax museum is literally an underground gem, located in an underground tunnel leading to Melbourne Central Station! The shop opened its doors in February 2006 with the aim of serving Australia's busiest city with an equally vibrant record stock. Founded by experienced local DJs Aux One and Mixa, the shop has since become a quirky but important element of the city's music scene, not to mention a worldwide institution... Much of the collection is dedicated to hip hop, both foreign and local, as well as soul, funk, jazz, beat and electronica....

"Discolombia."

This interesting music shop is located in Barranquilla, Atlántico, Colombia. You could say that Discolombia is a real cave! Through the main room is a storage room, divided into two floors and only accessible by special request. Be warned: it's dark and dirty (there are mice and rats), but the "treasure chest" is worth it... The shop is located in Barranquilla, which used to be called the Golden Gate of Colombia. Once upon a time, this city could count more than forty music shops on its bustling streets! Today, however, Discolombia is the only shop that deals exclusively in records... The shop is also home to the classic Colombian label Felito Records.