The Record Shops of the World

Record Shops are an endangered species. It didn't always used to be this way. Once upon a time record shops were everywhere and the streets of the world were filled with the glorious sounds of phonographic music and the pitter-patter of dancing feet.

Take Paris as an example. In days of yore on nearly every rue and avenue, in every arrondissement of the capital you could find a disquaire or magasin de disques. Or you could at least find one nearby. You can see this for yourself on Disquaires de Paris, an interactive map of Paris' record shops of the 20th Century.

The Disquaires de Paris interactive map shows the locations of the many dealers and vendors of phonographic records in Paris from the end of the 19th century up to the modern day. You can filter the record shops shown on the map by date using the provided timeline control. At the moment the map only shows record shops up to the 1960's. If you select a disquaire on the map you can view the shop's address and, where available, view the artwork used by the store on record sleeves.


Of course record shops haven't completely disappeared from the face of the Earth. There are even a few left in Paris. You can find your nearest surviving record shop on recordstores.love, an interactive map of record shops around the world. Using the map you can search for record shops by location or use the record shops near me option to find the closest stores to your current location.

Vinylhub is a similar project map which is attempting to map all the remaining record shops around the world. Alongside the interactive map of record shops Vinylhub also maintains an Events section which lists record related events and special events being held in record shops across the globe.