This is a town that buys physical music. The shops below are all independent, all open, and each one digs a different corner of the crate: a 1968 institution where Prince shopped his last week, a volunteer-run punk co-op, a records-and-espresso room on the East Side. Call ahead on holidays; otherwise, go flip.
Updated September 6, 2026 · Independent and locally run. Our picks aren't for sale; any paid placement is labeled.
The anchor of Twin Cities record retail since 1968, started on the West Bank with a student loan and still family-run at Franklin and 4th. Rolling Stone has ranked it among the best record stores in America, and Prince famously shopped here on Record Store Day 2016, days before his death. Deep new-release wall, strong used bins, and a gift shop that funds half the metro’s incense.
Read full entry →The budget crate-digging institution since the early 1970s, with stores on Nicollet in Minneapolis and Snelling in St. Paul. New and used vinyl and CDs at prices that let you gamble on things, open late daily. The place you walk out of with six records you did not plan on.
Read full entry →A south Minneapolis fixture since 1986, focused on rare, vintage, and used LPs, with a buyer’s counter that takes collections seriously. The Nicollet Avenue shop for the collector who knows exactly which pressing they are after.
Read full entry →Open since April 1977 at the same Portland Avenue address, which makes it one of the longest-running record stores in the state. Used records up front, a wall of incense and smoking supplies in back, and the kind of deep-south-Minneapolis regulars a shop only earns over five decades.
Read full entry →An all-volunteer punk and hardcore cooperative running since 1994, now in its fourth home on East Lake Street after 26 years at Lyn-Lake. Nobody profits, everybody works the counter, and the bins go deeper into punk, metal, and hardcore than anywhere in the region.
Read full entry →Opened in 2024 by first-time owner Michele Swanson in the most storied record-store address in the city: the corner of Lyndale and 26th that housed Oar Folkjokeopus and then Treehouse Records, the shops at the center of the Replacements-era scene. New blood in a room with forty years of ghosts, named for the maneki-neko cats by the register.
Read full entry →A record shop crossed with a cafe and a working film-photo lab, opened in 2022 by a veteran of the old Dead Media shop. Curated vinyl and cassettes, Misfit coffee at the counter, and film drop-off in the same visit. The errand-stacking champion of Twin Cities record stores.
Read full entry →Vinyl-only since 2014, opened by a record-store lifer who put in years at the Electric Fetus before hanging his own sign on Raymond Avenue. New and used LPs and 7-inches, a genuinely good listening-bar feel, and a steady calendar of in-store performances.
Read full entry →An all-vinyl shop on University Avenue in the Midway, steps off the Green Line. The bins run rock, punk, metal, electronic, funk and soul, jazz, and a real local section. The record stop when you are moving between the downtowns.
Read full entry →A record shop and espresso bar on the corner of Payne and York since 2016, with a back room that hosts live music. Used and new vinyl, CDs, and cassettes on the East Side, in a room that works as hard as a third place as it does as a store.
Read full entry →St. Paul’s all-vinyl mainstay since 1999, now on Wabasha in the old Shinders space after years on Grand Avenue, where it doubled as an all-ages venue. New and used records and the only proper crate-digging in downtown St. Paul.
Read full entry →If we missed your spot, tell us. Your pick joins a running tally of reader recommendations. We read every submission and work the strongest ones into the list. We do not publish your name or email.