Rock-it Records

Rock-it Records in Spring Hill is built around metal first, with jazz, classic rock, psychedelic rock, K-pop, bargain bins, Record Store Day organization, and local music support also part of the shop.

Interview with Rock-it Records

Rock-it stocks everything from metal to K-pop and gets specifically praised for how you handle Record Store Day - that's a very intentional set of choices for a Spring Hill shop. What's the shop's identity, and what made you commit to going that wide?

OK, no problem for the first question. Well honestly, we kind of just listen to what customers like. We started the shop as a passion project. When I was a kid I used to go to this record shop and they had a lot of heavy metal and hard rock. That was my favorite thing to collect. It was called Rockit Records in Saugus, Massachusetts. My cousin and I used to go there, and they had a killer selection of heavy metal and hard rock. It was our favorite record shop, so I wanted to create something a lot like that.

I want to have the reputation of having a lot of metal, and with the other stuff, I just listen to what people like. It seems that the K-pop was very popular, so I started getting some and it started selling, so we kept getting more and more.

The main themes of the store were metal and jazz, in my opinion, that was selling the best, but I always want to have a reputation of having good metal. The metal is number one with me. I want the metal heads all around the state of Florida to think of Rockit Records because we are geared up for that.

Spring Hill sits in Hernando County - Gulf Coast Florida but not the beach and not Tampa, its own suburban world. For someone visiting the shop, what else in the immediate area is worth their afternoon?

OK, question two. Well, Spring Hill has Weeki Wachee Springs, and if you haven't seen it, you must. It is a beautiful river, small little attraction over there, but the river is just phenomenal. If you're into kayaking, it's the most beautiful kayaking river. You'll ever find manatees, wildlife. It's just beautiful over there. Also we have a beach down at Bayport. That's a really nice beach. Not too much other than that, but Spring Hill is a cozy little place. We love it.

Between K-pop buyers, metal heads, RSD line-standers, and the older classic-rock crowd, you've got four very different audiences. Who ends up being the regular, and what surprises you about who buys what?

OK, question three. Kinda already answered that in question one, but I can elaborate a little more. Everything comes second to metal at Rockit Records. We are expanding constantly on our metal collection. We want to have the best metal collection in the state.

Record Store Day, we concentrate on metal first, popular second, and we will smattering some jazz and the K-pop. You know, we get whatever's popular and whatever people ask us for. If we've got customers for K-pop, we'll buy it. If we've got customers for soundtracks, we'll buy them too.

We do a lot of mail to order. Someone orders something, we order it for them, charge a small fee, but much rather order something for a customer than to order it just to sit on the shelf for 10 years. But our main thing is metal.

Record Store Day is a whole operation - you're specifically known for how organized you are. What have you actually built into how you handle RSD that other shops miss, and what has it taught you about your customers?

OK, question four. When it comes to Record Store Day, we've seen a lot of shops and they've been very unorganized. We pride ourselves on organization. Everything in the store is easily found.

Record Store Day is an interesting anomaly. We try to keep it organized, but that particular day is pure chaos. We just went through our first one and had a couple of hiccups, but I'm always striving to make it perfect for the customer. You're never gonna make everybody happy in that type of situation, though.

The best thing for people to do is to call us and let us know what they're interested in, and then we take a little survey and we order what we think most people want. We also do a number entry at the front door so people can leave and go to the bathroom and do all that stuff, then come back and get entry. According to the number, we let five people in at a time, unless it's not so busy, and then we'll let more.

We want everything to be orderly and we wanna make sure everybody gets at least something, so we limit the buyers to certain limits. 10 album limit with a one limit per title seemed to have worked last year, but we'll see what happens. We're always striving to make things better for the customer.

On the buying side: what genres are you actively hunting for right now, and what have you had to say no to more often?

OK, question five. We are actively hunting metal, jazz, classic rock, psychedelic rock mainly. That's our wheelhouse.

What quietly turns out to be worth more at Rock-it than sellers expect - a record they'd almost throw in the free bin that you're always glad to see?

OK, question six. Although we have plenty of bargain bins, we have a one dollar bargain bin. We have a two dollar bargain bin and we have five dollar bargain bin with quantity specials. Those are a staple. We have them all the time and we're constantly every day upgrading them and putting more stuff in there.

But we also like to deal with a lot of autograph stuff and personal stuff from bands. I used to be in a metal band myself. The name of the band was First Born. It was a power metal band, played all over the place, had four albums out. We won the metal awards in Tampa in 93 and 94, did a lot in the community with metal, so I know a lot of metal musicians in the area.

They're always frequently at the place. They give me a lot of their merchandise and stuff to sell for them, and we're really big on the local metal scene. We have a bulletin board just geared up for local musicians to post their gigs in there ongoing. We're here to help the local metal scene and the local music scene.

And the reverse - what do sellers most often walk in overvaluing?

Question seven I'll skip.

K-pop specifically has become a real category in your shop, which is unusual for Spring Hill. How did that section grow, and what's the story of the K-pop crowd that comes in?

Question eight I basically answered in question one, and that'll conclude the interview. Thank you very much for your time and thanks for caring about local record stores. It's been my pleasure.

Joseph Rooney, owner, Rockit Records.

FAQ

What is Rock-it Records most known for?

Metal is the main focus, with jazz, classic rock, psychedelic rock, K-pop, soundtracks, and other customer-requested sections also represented.

What genres is the shop actively hunting?

Metal, jazz, classic rock, and psychedelic rock.

How does Rock-it handle Record Store Day?

The shop uses customer interest, number entry, limited entry, and purchase limits to keep the day organized.

Does the shop support local musicians?

Yes. The shop sells local band merchandise and keeps a bulletin board for local musicians to post gigs.

Last updated: 2026-08-24

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