The Music Store

The Music Store is located at 66 W Portal Ave in San Francisco, CA. The store operates in the city's West Portal neighborhood and serves the local community with music retail services. Customers can visit the physical location to browse and shop for their music needs.

For more information about The Music Store, interested visitors should contact the store directly at the West Portal Avenue address or inquire locally about current hours and inventory. The store remains an accessible destination for music enthusiasts in San Francisco.

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Interview with The Music Store

The Music Store — where does the shop's story start, and what's it about?

We opened our doors in August of 1998 at a time when CDs were all the rage. We had some vinyl, but specialized in used CDs, then eventually new and used CDs.

Jump ahead 10 years and we became a vinyl record shop that also carried CDs, rare videos, and cassette tapes. And now that's what we are known for -- two floors of vinyl in all genres, a great CD selection, the Bay Area's largest cassette tape collection, and rare, hard-to-find video tapes.

You're in West Portal, a real neighborhood pocket of San Francisco. What role does the shop play there, and who's coming through?

We are a true independent neighborhood record/CD/movie shop. We attract a variety of customers; music lovers, movie collectors, high school kids, college students, locals, travelers, but mostly neighborhood folks.

Where are the bins deepest — what's your real strength?

As for vinyl - 60s and 70s classic rock are our bread and butter, followed closely by 80s pop and new wave.

For CDs - 90s and early 2000s sell most, followed by 80s pop and new wave.

For cassette tapes - it's all over the map, from pop-rock to country to world music.

What separates a promising collection from a pass in the first minute?

A collection from someone 65 and under versus a collection from someone older. Basically popular and/or titles in excellent condition vs grandma music, classical, opera, big band and pop/jazz vocals.

Do you buy whole collections or a few at a time, and does that change how you handle it?

We purchase both; entire collections and cherry-pick from others - depending on the collection.

We'll purchase an entire collection of classic rock vinyl or jazz/blues/soul if in excellent condition and pick and choose from collections that are not that exciting.

What do people assume is rare that you actually see all the time?

LP box set collections, 78s, Beatles, and Elvis.

What do most sellers not realize about the cash-versus-credit choice until you spell it out?

Our trade/credit value is 25% more than cash.

San Francisco's mild, but a lot of collections still come out of a foggy garage or basement. What condition problems do you see most?

Cat scratches along the top of records, water-damaged and/or records stuck together, jackets with missing vinyl, or simply scratched and warped records. And let's not forget the moldy records.

What's the most surprising record you've pulled out of an ordinary-looking box?

This happens quite a bit. Just yesterday someone brought in a box of junk records, but randomly there was a mint copy of Prince "Prince".

Is there a record you sold that you wish you'd kept?

No. Although I'm a record collector, I'm also a business owner. If I kept every nice record that comes in I'd have nothing great to sell to my customers except the common everyday stuff.

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Last updated: 2026-10-16

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