Amoeba Music is an American

independent music Independent music (also commonly known as indie music, or simply indie) is a broad style of music characterized by creative freedoms, low-budgets, and a DIY ethic, do-it-yourself approach to music creation, which originated from the liberties aff ...

store chain with locations in Berkeley,

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

, and Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. It stocks media, primarily music, but also

film A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, sinc ...

s and

television Television (TV) is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. Additionally, the term can refer to a physical television set rather than the medium of transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...

programs via

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

and

VHS VHS (Video Home System) is a discontinued standard for consumer-level analog video recording on tape cassettes, introduced in 1976 by JVC. It was the dominant home video format throughout the tape media period of the 1980s and 1990s. Ma ...

. Its music selection includes

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wale ...

, pop,

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated among African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues has incorporated spiritual (music), spirituals, work songs, field hollers, Ring shout, shouts, cha ...

soul The soul is the purported Mind–body dualism, immaterial aspect or essence of a Outline of life forms, living being. It is typically believed to be Immortality, immortal and to exist apart from the material world. The three main theories that ...

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African-American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African-Americans in the ...

, rap, and

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

. It is popular as a tourist destination for fans of physical media or music in general. It was founded in 1990 in Berkeley,

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

, and remains in operation, having survived the decline of CD sales in the 2000s. Amoeba stores generally focus on

vinyl Vinyl may refer to: Chemistry * Polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a particular vinyl polymer * Vinyl cation, a type of carbocation * Vinyl group, a broad class of organic molecules in chemistry * Vinyl polymer, a group of polymers derived from vinyl ...

and

compact disc The compact disc (CD) is a Digital media, digital optical disc data storage format co-developed by Philips and Sony to store and play digital audio recordings. It employs the Compact Disc Digital Audio (CD-DA) standard and was capable of hol ...

History

Original Berkeley store (1990)

Amoeba Music was founded by former employees of nearby Rasputin Records and opened on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley in 1990. The original founding members were Marc Weinstein, Dave Prinz, and Mike Boyder. The iconic Amoeba logo was designed by comic book artist Shepherd Hendrix. Primarily operating on reselling

used good Used goods, also known as secondhand goods, are any item of personal property that have been previously owned by someone else and are offered for sale not as new, including metals in any form except coins that are legal tender. Used goods may ...

s, Amoeba has survived the decline of CD sales since the early 2000s with its trade-in program and the advent of the

vinyl revival The vinyl revival, also known as the vinyl resurgence, is the renewed interest and increased sales of vinyl records, or gramophone records, that has been taking place in the music industry. Beginning in 2007, vinyl records experienced renewed po ...

Second store (San Francisco, 1997)

A second location, in San Francisco, opened on November 15, 1997, in the

Haight-Ashbury Haight-Ashbury () is a district of San Francisco, California, named for the intersection of Haight and Ashbury streets. It is also called the Haight and the Upper Haight. The neighborhood is known as one of the main centers of the countercultu ...

neighborhood near

Golden Gate Park Golden Gate Park is an urban park between the Richmond District, San Francisco, Richmond and Sunset District, San Francisco, Sunset districts on the West Side (San Francisco), West Side of San Francisco, California, United States. It is the Lis ...

. It is located in the former Park Bowl

bowling alley A bowling alley (also known as a bowling center, bowling lounge, bowling arena, or historically bowling club) is a facility where the sport of bowling is played. It can be a dedicated facility or part of another, such as a clubhouse or dwelling ...

. It regularly stocks upwards of 100,000 CDs, vinyl records, and audio cassettes, both new and used.

Third store (Los Angeles, 2001)

A third location, in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

, opened on November 17, 2001, on

Sunset Boulevard Sunset Boulevard is a boulevard in the central and western part of Los Angeles, California, United States, that stretches from the Pacific Coast Highway (California), Pacific Coast Highway in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles, Pacific Palisad ...

at Cahuenga Boulevard in Hollywood. At the time of its opening, the store planned to stock as many as 250,000 titles, which would have placed it among the largest

stores in the world. According to ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'' writer

Michael Hiltzik Michael A. Hiltzik (born November 9, 1952) is an American columnist, reporter and author who has written extensively for the ''Los Angeles Times''. In 1999, he won a beat reporting Pulitzer Prize for co-writing a series of articles about corrupti ...

, the location "instantly became a Hollywood landmark." Amoeba's

world music "World music" is an English phrase for styles of music from non-English speaking countries, including quasi-traditional, Cross-cultural communication, intercultural, and traditional music. World music's broad nature and elasticity as a musical ...

department was headed by Robert Leaver,Good CD, Shame About the Cover
''

''. Retrieved November 27, 2018. co-founder of the Round World Music record shop and label in San Francisco. He also worked as a buyer of international records for Amoeba's Berkeley location. The stores also trade-in movies, though secondarily to their music business. Each location has a smaller collection of movies on

Laserdisc LaserDisc (LD) is a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium. It was developed by Philips, Pioneer Corporation, Pioneer, and the movie studio MCA Inc., MCA. The format was initially marketed in the United State ...

, and

Blu-ray Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...

. In addition, each store maintains a selection of music-related posters and artwork for purchase, as well as Amoeba-branded merchandise. The Sunset Boulevard store had an entire second floor dedicated to DVD and Blu-ray at its original location. In addition, Amoeba Music frequently held free shows during store hours with locally- and nationally-known artists from a wide variety of genres. In 2015, Amoeba sold the Sunset Boulevard property to a holding company but continued to lease the space. In 2018, it was announced that the owners would demolish the site and replace it with a contemporary glass-and-steel tower with residential units and commercial space, and Amoeba would be moving. On April 27, 2020, Amoeba announced that due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, the Sunset Boulevard location was closed permanently ahead of schedule. Along with the statewide

stay-at-home order A stay-at-home order, safer-at-home order, movement control order – also referred to by loose use of the terms quarantine, isolation, or lockdown – is an order from a government authority that restricts movements of a population as a mass qu ...

issued by California governor

Gavin Newsom Gavin Christopher Newsom ( ; born October 10, 1967) is an American politician and businessman serving since 2019 as the 40th governor of California. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he served from 2011 to 201 ...

in the

, many non-essential stores were told to close to prevent spread of

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

. Amoeba subsequently started a fundraising campaign on

GoFundMe GoFundMe is an American for-profit crowdfunding platform that allows people to raise money for events ranging from life events such as celebrations and graduations to challenging circumstances like accidents and illnesses. From 2010 to the ...

to pay the bills, as most of their income is derived from in-store purchases.

Relocated Los Angeles store (2021)

Amoeba Music store on Hollywood Blvd in Los Angeles 20220607 193531 HDR copy 2

Amoeba found a new location for its Los Angeles store on

Hollywood Boulevard Hollywood Boulevard is a major east–west street in Los Angeles, California. It runs through the Hollywood, East Hollywood, Little Armenia, Thai Town, and Los Feliz districts. Its western terminus is at Sunset Plaza Drive in the Hollyw ...

at Argyle Avenue. It is located inside of a newly constructed apartment complex, the El Centro. The store's vast collections of music CDs, LPs, DVDs, and

book A book is a structured presentation of recorded information, primarily verbal and graphical, through a medium. Originally physical, electronic books and audiobooks are now existent. Physical books are objects that contain printed material, ...

s were temporarily in storage during construction at the new site during 2020 and 2021. The new location opened on April 1, 2021. The new Amoeba Music store is located near the popular Pantages Theatre in the Hollywood and Vine area. Continuing the tradition of free live shows for customers at the store, the new Amoeba Music frequently holds free shows during store hours with locally- and nationally-known artists from a wide variety of genres. The band

Red Hot Chili Peppers The Red Hot Chili Peppers are an American rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1982, consisting of Anthony Kiedis (vocals), Flea (musician), Flea (bass), John Frusciante (guitar), and Chad Smith (drums). Their music incorporates elements of a ...

gave a free live performance at the store for Amoeba Music customers after receiving a star on the

Hollywood Walk of Fame The Hollywood Walk of Fame is a landmark which consists of 2,813 five-pointed terrazzo-and-brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along 15 blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in the Hollywood, Los Angeles, Hollywood dist ...

near the entrance to Amoeba Music store on March 31, 2022. George Clinton,

Woody Harrelson Woodrow Tracy Harrelson (born July 23, 1961) is an American actor. He first became known for his role as bartender Woody Boyd on the NBC sitcom ''Cheers'' (1985–1993), for which he won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in ...

, and Bob Forrest unveiled the star at the ceremony.

YouTube channel

Amoeba's

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

channel was created on January 27, 2006, and is home to interviews, recordings of live performances at Amoeba locations, and the award-winning series ''What's In My Bag?'' with various "featuring artists and tastemakers sharing what they found shopping at Amoeba."

Popular culture

The Hollywood store was included as a playable venue in the 2008 music game ''

Guitar Hero World Tour ''Guitar Hero World Tour'' is a 2008 rhythm game developed by Neversoft and published by Activision. It is the fourth main installment and the sixth overall installment in the Guitar Hero, ''Guitar Hero'' series. The game was launched in North A ...

''.

Paul McCartney Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained global fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and the piano, and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John ...

recorded his EP '' Amoeba's Secret'' (which was also released as '' Amoeba Gig'' in its entirety in 2019) at an unannounced live performance at the Hollywood location on June 27, 2007.

Gallery

Image:Berkeley Amoeba Music.jpg, Berkeley store Image:Amoeba Music San Francisco Facade.jpg, San Francisco store Image:InsideAmoeba.JPG, San Francisco store, inside

References

External links

Official homepage
of Amoeba Music * * {{Cite web, url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/indie-chains-are-slump-proof-20030812 , title=Indie Chains Are Slump Proof: California's Amoeba and other retailers succeed amid industry nightmare , date=August 12, 2003 , first=Matt , last=Diehl , first2=Jenny , last2=Eliscu , author-link2=Jenny Eliscu , work=rollingstone.com , access-date=28 November 2005 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080107175547/http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/5936076/indie_chains_are_slump_proof , archive-date=2008-01-07 *
S.F. Music Landmark Headed to Sunset - Brief Article
. (November 13, 2000.) Christopher Keough.

Los Angeles Business Journal The ''Los Angeles Business Journal'', established in 1979, is a weekly newspaper and online news source in Los Angeles, California Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most po ...

. Retrieved 2005-11-28. *
Golden State: Record Chain Bets on the Past, Future
. (November 17, 2005.) Michael Hiltzik. ''

'' (and accompanying
Golden State Blog
'.). *

. (February 17, 2005). ''

BusinessWeek ''Bloomberg Businessweek'', previously known as ''BusinessWeek'' (and before that ''Business Week'' and ''The Business Week''), is an American monthly business magazine published 12 times a year. The magazine debuted in New York City in Septembe ...

''. *

. (December 30, 2023). '' Travel Bug Rachel''. Companies based in Berkeley, California Music retailers of the United States Retail companies established in 1990 1990 establishments in California Landmarks in Los Angeles Music of the San Francisco Bay Area Buildings and structures in Hollywood, Los Angeles Retail companies based in California