The Music Store

Heck Ya!
The carry vinyls and that is enough to get 4 stars! Freakin young bucks don’t know anything about these classics!!! SHOOOO
I came up with cassette tapes but vinyls are SICK!!! I use to scratch on vinyls back in the day. And when I say back in the day I mean in the 90s!
Walking in here is like walking into the past, they way music stores use to be! With the Warehouse Music gone in Colma and Tower Records in Stonestown now gone this place is the only place that I can go to get records. I love me some classics! They do not have all the music that I am always looking for i appreciate that they have a HEART for music.
Come get some music lessons, old VHS movies, or even guitar picks. I love supporting businesses like this because soon enough they will be extinct. That sucks. But, while they are around I am all about them!
#Keepspinningthoserecords

It was my first time in this record store and I loved it. I found a bunch of collectible LPs limited to 500 copies. Definitely a place to visit if you’re ever in West Portal. You’ll definitely find what you like and if you can’t find something you like, the nice people who work there are very accommodating.

I’m annoyed that they’re not open yet and it’s 12:10. I was in the area and waited an hour and a half for them to open, since their posted hours are later than normal businesses.
Dude! It’s the holidays. I need to buy something!

Best music store ever! West Portal is the best place to hang in San Francisco… Get ur used and DVDs!!!

The Music Store is a cool and quaint little shop on Main Street West Portal. I wandered in over Lunch last week and was impressed with the selection of CDs, DVDs, and Vinyl spread over 2 levels. I love places like this where you’re not looking for anything in particular, but are easily surprised and impressed on the offerings that suit my taste. I also like touching my music the analog way, rather than just another download.

A real gem. Lots to explore. CDs, records, DVDs, etc.
Friendly folkies working there. As chill as you’d expect.
Don’t look for something specifically. Let it find you.

High prices, small selection, and the owner is straight up rude. I was really disappointed with the variety of vinyls, CDs, and even DVDs sold here (not to mention they were really overpriced). The owner was also really rude and didn’t seem helpful at all. I was looking at a CD and had misplaced it on the wrong shelf aisle. He asked me at the register «What did you do to that CD you were looking at? I can’t seem to find it» — as if I stole it? That was a big «not ever coming back» sign to me. One pro about this store? He sold comic books. Vintage Batman Odyssey series — and that I liked, but not enough to ever come back. If you’re looking for a great selection with great prices, I suggest going to Amoeba or Rasputin.

So. I’m in the store. I wanted something and was told by the owner that he can order it. Great. But he needs me to prepay. .. . as I’m deciding he gets a phone call. From someone he does not know. This person also wants something that’s not in the store and wishes to have it ordered. The owner does not ask this person who he cannot even see for a prepayment, yet he asks very well dressed and extremely polite me to prepay.
I didn’t even bother saying anything about how absurd this was, I simply left, never to return.
Very sad to me as I’m a huge supporter of independent business.

High prices for small selection of goods and no real good albums. I ran out of the store with
The Who tommy set that was in the Who section but was actually a symphony version of Tommy at the price of 20.00 dollars I should have been more careful as I knew this place has a history of being shabby and high priced for old beat up albums. Along with rude people who only want to talk about BlueGrass.
I challenge him to refund me this worthless album, but I know he wont so why try. Third experience=all bad ones!!! Don’t bother folks… don’t bother unless you are crippled and cant walk to a salvation army or other thrift shop for same quality at 2.49 a record

When I first past this store I was really excited. I’m a record junky with interests in all types of music. Two floors of vinyl, plus hidden 45’s on a lower tier below the 12“s. They do have a lot of vinyl but prices should be a tad lower, go to Rasputins or Amoeba for example. I check back in occasionally but they never have a ton of new stock to make it exciting.

I am surprised at myself for having walked by this place, probably dozens of times and hadn’t gone in until just a few days ago. It is very eclectic inside and I found things I wanted that I never knew existed until I saw it. My favorite discovery was the massive cassette collection in the back! Seriously the largest amount of cassettes I have seen all at once since 1995. It was incredible; however, some of the prices were a tad high considering they are cassettes… maybe they are considered ancient relics now? Rare vintage material? I don’t know, but it still tempted me to come back and dig through it more thoroughly.

What an awful little store. Really, this place has the audacity to charge high prices for not only common but generally beat up records. Came here the first time to check it out and walked away empty-​handed, disappointed at the bad selection. A laughable rock section and a pretty meager jazz section. Not only that, but both times I’ve come I’ve seen two different staff members (I think?) and they’re snide and uptight. Pretty much the only thing I come here for is to pick up plastic outer sleeves when I’m in the area since they’re cheap.
Hey, I did manage to find a very rare John Zorn LP here for only $ 10 here, though, when I decided to give it a second chance and browse through the records again. Guess the owner is too busy pricing beat up Pink Floyd and Beatles records at $ 70+ a piece to actually care about the value of anything else.

My dad once opened a record store in the seventies. It flopped. So we had a garage sale… this reminds me of that (garage sale).

You’re really not going to find exactly the you’re looking for, but you’ll make great meaningful discoveries along the way.
Short story: I moved here in 2003 and heard this incredible world-​music song on local station, but could never find … 10 years later, I’m hanging out in the Music Store, chatting about music with the guitar teacher, and through that conversation, he leads me to the world music section, and puts in my hand his album — and it’s the band and song I heard almost 10 years ago. This kind of serendipitous stuff drives me nuts in a good way.
If you’re Semi-​Retired, Mentally Disabled, a Widow dropping off a heavy collection of your deceased spouse’s/child, a college kid discovering vinyl & record players, looking to get cassette tapes or records transferred to CD, or escaping your family dinner outing in West Portal, or have an afternoon free (and the will to get away from your computer) this place is for you.
I love it!

okay, I had to check this place out because of it’s original name, «The Music Store,» I mean c’mon! Privately owned, great porn selection, tacky rolling stones flags hanging from the ceiling. Yeah, I really don’t judge a book by it’s cover.
If you’re looking for some rare cd’s that amoeba has possibly run out of, you might get lucky here at «da music store,» but their selection is minimal. They have a lot of nice looking vinyls, but who cares. The blonde dude at the register was a total douche bag and I usually don’t mind douche bags because we’ve all been assholes from time to time, but this guy really needed a day off.
He was just giving this one chick a hard time. lol.
wut is dis place?
not for punx that’s fer sure

I’ve been here twice. This place has a descent selection of vinyls. There is also a whole selection of porn, like «Latin Lovers», where creepy, sometimes smelly, old men may be lingering around. I also like the layout of the store, kind of fun to go in with some friends. All the mannequins kind of freak me out because in the corner of my eye they look real, though remarkably still.
But here it goes, the reason I have rated this place down two stars: the guy at the front is a rude hipster with a blonde mustache. Every interaction I heard him having with customers was him being a douche. A guy mentioned something about blue rays and the douchy guy at the front desk was like, «What, you have a problem with blue rays? It’s new technology, man. There’s nothing wrong with it.» And then a girl came in to ask if there were any job opening, and the douchy guy at the front laughed at her and said, «Definitely not.» The first time we came, he asked if we needed any help finding a record, my fiancé replied, «Wire» and the douchy guy at the front replied in a condescending tone, «Did you look under W?» after he clearly saw we had been looking, since the records are at the front.
Usually, if the place is cool enough, I will just go anyway, even if the customer service is bad, but this guy was just over-​the-​top. So, go, but beware of hipster blonde mustache guy. And if your reading this blonde mustache man, be nicer to people!

Since there are few record/​music stores that have survived — I am shopping this one because I want to support it. It’s a great neighborhood store with a lot of diverse music. I like the Americana section — few other record shops even know what it is. The owner is helpful and the shop is small and has a nice personal feeling.
It has survived for a good reason !

This is really a great place, just tucked away in West Portal, waiting to be discovered. I’ve recently reverted back to vinyl, especially for the old timey music, so I’m happy to have a «go to» record shop to get music and needles. I think there is an added character in vinyl records that is missing in digital recordings.
I get my hair cut across the street and then jump into The Music Store to browse and I usually find something. I love it when they have one of the Bluegrass bands playing in the store. I am not at all a fan of the genre, but I can appreciate the real commitment it takes to have a four or five piece live band, including a stand-​up bass, squeezed in to something like a 7′ square corner of a relatively small shop. The sound is great and it is so cool when you catch the the first notes of it from the street.
The folks that work there are very nice too. They are always willing to answer questions and help you find a specific artist /​lables you are looking for.

I really liked this store when they first opened. A locally-​owned record store in a stiff, geriatric-​oriented neighborhood like West Portal is a breath of fresh air. Plus, I bought a lot of CD albums before the days of iPods and iTunes. However, I think Shelby Ash (the owner) has turned into a douche.
During my recent excursion when I sold some used CD’s to him, he was very condescending and acted like a biatch with a stick up his you-​know-​what. I don’t remember him being like this when he first opened the store, but I think the economy is getting to him. Since iPods have hit the market, most people buy music online from Amazon, iTunes or Rhapsody. Which means that record stores are quickly becoming a vintage thing of the past. Shelby even dropped a hint to me as he was scanning through my CD’s: he said, «We’re not really giving 100% cash anymore because people aren’t buying like they used to». No shit, Sherlock!
So out of 30 CD’s, he only bought 8. I know that I could have gotten a better deal @ Rasputin’s on Powell Street, but I didn’t feel like dragging my collection on MUNI that day. I also observed a woman who came in and asked for an Aretha Franklin CD, and he got in a slight huff because she was asking for an album that he didn’t have. I can tell that business is dragging for Shelby because I was one of 3 people in the store. I don’t see a bright future for this place: I think it will fold when the owner realizes that buying CD’s just isn’t for the masses anymore. I won’t be back.

wide selection of LPs and some old cds, even saw some old chinese/​japanese cds there. not a lot of those but it was just nice to see.
The guy workin at the counter was very polite and joked about my small bag saying I wouldnt need to check it in cause it was very unlikely i could hide anything in it…
they do have a second floor overlooking the first with more music. so check it out, you might just find something you like.