"What I enjoy about record shopping is making a connection with someone behind the counter. It's a way of connecting with the community. I went here on a recent trip and I told the guy behind the counter that I love to collect vinyl. He stacked my arms up with probably 20 pieces of vinyl he recommended. I had to buy another suitcase to bring back all the records that I bought in New Zealand. It’s one of the most exceptionally curated experiences I've ever had in a record store in my life."

"I cannot do a record store guide and not talk about Rough Trade. They are the whole entire universe of recorded joy. There’s this kind of reputation that record stores and the people there can be snobby. It can be intimidating. But credit to the people that work at Rough Trade. Every time, they’ve always been cool and encouraging, making sure you have a great experience. If you ever go to London and you have a passion for music, Rough Trade needs to be on your sightseeing list."

"I’ll always have memories of when I first got to London with a bit of money in my pocket. We’d get a pint for lunch, but we'd also go to Honest John’s or Rough Trade. Jazz, funk, and hip-hop are a primary, influential part of my life musically, and Honest John’s is just one of the most incredible experiences for that kind of music. You can go in there, cover your eyes, and just pick five things, and walk out and put them on and know you made the right choice."

'If you're a DJ making electronic and dance music, Phonica is your spot. I can't really say much more than that. You just gotta go in there. You know the people who are putting those records on the shelf or in the crates know exactly what they're doing. It feels like their job is to push the culture forward and push the music forward. At some record stores, it’s all about inventory, but at Phonica, it’s all about great curation. Plus, it's great people-watching as well."

"What I love about record shopping is that you meet others who have a passion for music—people who also have taken time out of the day to have that record-shopping experience. Take Amoeba for example. The queues around the block here speak volumes. It’s the most diverse crowd, in terms of community to culture to age. There are literally parents who are guiding their six-year-old kids around who can't even see above the counter yet. It's overwhelmingly excellent here."

"Supervinyl has been really instrumental in kicking off my 2.0 vinyl collection that started during the pandemic. The guy who runs it is a really amazing guy, and the people who work there are in bands. It felt like record shopping as a kid again. They let me go and take a look behind the counter and the store room to see what's new. I feel very comfortable at Supervinyl. I feel really at home there. Every weekend I will go down to Sycamore and get a coffee and go to Supervinyl."

"Walk in and you’ll find an interesting combination of new and secondhand records. In fact, it's mainly a secondhand record emporium. It’s your surprise, delight, and discovery zone. This is the place where I got a Barbra Streisand record [that she later signed for me]. This is the place where I walk out with strange jazz albums that I've never heard before, but I just like to look at them. It’s a place for real vinyl collectors to go and find things that really still only exist on that format."

"When I went to Detroit to interview Jack White, I had an amazing experience at Third Man Records. I came back with a ton of vinyl that they press there. Jack took me through the record plant, where they press upwards of 5,000 vinyl a day. They were pressing his new album, Fear Of The Dawn, and he took me up to the presses and I got to press that vinyl myself. I got to shave the edges, clean it up, and they got me a sleeve that's my own. That's the most precious record in my entire collection."

"This is a record store and bar in one. You’ll find an incredible selection of Madlib records or every Czarface record that's been put out in every variation, Deep MacMiller, Solange—just everything that’s incredibly tasteful. The store really reps for Detroit. It’s really an amazing place because you feel like you're record shopping, but you also feel like you're in an environment that is socially driven by music. And that is to me the best way to spend time. "