Amoeba Music
Encyclopedia
Berkeley, California
Berkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...
, San Francisco
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
, and Hollywood, Los Angeles, California
Hollywood, Los Angeles, California
Hollywood is a famous district in Los Angeles, California, United States situated west-northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Due to its fame and cultural identity as the historical center of movie studios and movie stars, the word Hollywood is often used as a metonym of American cinema...
. Founded by former employees of nearby Rasputin Records
Rasputin Music
Rasputin Music is the largest independent chain of record stores in the extended San Francisco Bay Area, California. They have a cult-like fan base in Northern California and sell many rare albums and videos, as well as new and used CDs, LPs, DVDs, videogames, VHS Videos, Laserdiscs, CED...
, it opened on Telegraph Avenue
Telegraph Avenue
Telegraph Avenue is a street that begins, at its southernmost point, in the midst of the historic downtown district of Oakland, California, USA, and ends, at its northernmost point, at the southern edge of the University of California campus in Berkeley, California...
in Berkeley in 1990. The stores are unusually large given their independent status. The San Francisco store, which opened in 1997 in the Haight-Ashbury district, is especially notable for its size. Occupying a 24,000 square foot (2,200 m²) former bowling alley, the store regularly stocks upwards of 100,000 CDs
Compact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
, vinyl records, and audio cassettes, both new and used.
The Southern California
Southern California
Southern California is a megaregion, or megapolitan area, in the southern area of the U.S. state of California. Large urban areas include Greater Los Angeles and Greater San Diego. The urban area stretches along the coast from Ventura through the Southland and Inland Empire to San Diego...
location was added on November 17, 2001 when the store opened a new branch on Sunset Boulevard
Sunset Boulevard
Sunset Boulevard is a street in the western part of Los Angeles County, California, that stretches from Figueroa Street in downtown Los Angeles to the Pacific Coast Highway at the Pacific Ocean in the Pacific Palisades...
(at Cahuenga Boulevard) in Hollywood. (See article.) At the time of its opening, the store planned to stock as many as 250,000 titles, which would place the store among the largest independent music stores in the world. According to Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
writer Michael Hiltzik
Michael Hiltzik
Michael A. Hiltzik is an American reporter and writer who has written extensively for the Los Angeles Times. In 1999, he shared the beat reporting Pulitzer Prize for co-writing an exposé of corruption in the music industry...
, the location "instantly became a Hollywood landmark." http://goldenstateblog.latimes.com/goldenstate/2005/11/starting_below_.html
The stores also trade in movies, though secondarily to their music business. Each location has a smaller collection of movies on DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
, VHS
VHS
The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....
, Laserdisc
Laserdisc
LaserDisc was a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium. Initially licensed, sold, and marketed as MCA DiscoVision in North America in 1978, the technology was previously referred to interally as Optical Videodisc System, Reflective Optical Videodisc, Laser Optical...
and Blu-ray. In addition, each store maintains a selection of music-related posters and artwork for purchase, as well as Amoeba-branded merchandise. The Hollywood location has the entire 2nd floor dedicated to DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
and Blu-ray. In addition, Amoeba Music frequently holds free shows during store hours with locally and nationally known artists from a wide variety of genres.
The stores in San Francisco and Hollywood also have a modest selection of new and used video-games for current generation systems (such as the Xbox 360
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
, Nintendo Wii and the Sony PS3).
This store is a playable venue in the music game, Guitar Hero: World Tour.
External links
- Official homepage of Amoeba Music
- Rock History Tours Leaving from Amoeba Music in Hollywood
- "The World's Greatest Record Store?". (February 19, 1998). Rolling StoneRolling StoneRolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
, page 19. - "Indie Chains Are Slump Proof: California's Amoeba and other retailers succeed amid industry nightmare". (August 12, 2003) Matt Diehl and Jenny EliscuJenny EliscuJenny Eliscu is a contributing editor and music critic for Rolling Stone magazine. She also had a recurring presence on the TV program I'm From Rolling Stone, and has been on other music programs, including Behind the Music...
. Rolling StoneRolling StoneRolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
. Retrieved 2005-11-28. - "S.F. Music Landmark Headed to Sunset - Brief Article". (November 13, 2000.) Christopher Keough. Los Angeles Business JournalLos Angeles Business JournalThe Los Angeles Business Journal, established c. 1979, is a weekly newspaper in Los Angeles, California, which covers general business news. According to the journal's website, it has over 12,000 online subscribers, and a weekly print circulation of 30,000...
. Retrieved 2005-11-28. - "Golden State: Record Chain Bets on the Past, Future". (November 17, 2005.) Michael Hiltzik. Los Angeles TimesLos Angeles TimesThe Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
(and accompanying Golden State Blog.). - "Amoeba Music's Simple Formula". (February 17, 2005). BusinessWeekBusinessWeekBloomberg Businessweek, commonly and formerly known as BusinessWeek, is a weekly business magazine published by Bloomberg L.P. It is currently headquartered in New York City.- History :...
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