About

We reckon Manchester has the best and most diverse range of Record Shops in the UK, maybe Europe, possibly the World.

Rumours of the death of Music retail are somewhat premature and there are still over 25 shops selling music in the Manchester area, not counting the three branches of HMV and Fopp (which is owned by HMV), and the charity shops. As well as details of all the shops we’ll be bringing you news of special offers, sales, in-store events and more. If you have news for us, make contact!

If you are visiting Manchester or looking for a perfect location for some serious crate-digging then look no further.Want a guided tour?! click the “tours” page.

If you live near Manchester you really don’t need to buy your music on Amazon, certainly not Tesco or Asda!. If you’re in the market for rarities, why buy on Ebay and risk your precious finds being damaged in the post or not being “quite as expected”,  when you can go and dig around the many second hand stores and take a record home today?

Why surf around blog sites or Last.Fm to find out about new music from college kids you’ve never met,  when you can stroll into one of the stores here and find out from a real person, possibly buy a nice bag to put them in, find out about a gig, hear something really good over the shop stereo and buy that too, maybe meet a cute boy or girl who is browsing for Welsh Techno or Italian  Prog-Rock just like you….

Due to what might be described as “Difficult trading conditions” Record Shops are closing all over the country but there are still lots of places in this City and its suburbs where you can shop for records, CDs, T-shirts, DVDs, even good old cassette tapes. Despite downloads, legal or otherwise, physical releases still account for a considerable proportion of music sales. Vinyl is back with a vengeance, with pretty much all releases by contemporary acts having at least a limited run on wax, not forgetting stacks of re-issues. Of course rare vinyl and memorabilia is more collectable and more valuable than ever.

Manchester still loves its Record Shops….

and this is our guide to as many of them as we can find. Whatever kind of music you are into, Manchester has a shop for you. We’ve included a handy guide to each one, with all the details you need, opening hours, and our unbiased reviews. If we’ve missed any shops let us know as we do keep finding ones we never knew were there. We’re not connected or affiliated with these shops in any way, we’re just regular punters. None of the shops has paid for advertising space or offered us discounts or anything else for that matter. We’re doing this for nowt, cos we love ‘em!

So, read this guide, log out of Spotify, stop downloading torrents off dodgy websites, go outside and check these magical places for yourself.  The shops we feature of course rely on the support of dedicated punters like you so Use ‘em or Lose ‘em!