Record Store Profile: Birdland Records NSW
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Birdland Records NSW (Supplied)
What is your store called?
Birdland Records
Where are you located?
Shop 3, level 4, 428 George Street, Sydney, NSW and online here.
Tell us about the people behind the scenes?
One day we'll all grow up and get proper jobs !
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When and why did the store open?
1991. It seemed like a good idea at the time. Insert smiley face emoji.
What do your customers most know you for?
Hopefully having the best jazz selection on CD and LP in the southern hemisphere. That's what we aim for. We stock jazz in all its forms with some soul, blues, world and some classic rock music. CDs, LPs, SACDs and some DVDs - everything is music related. No white goods here! New releases and classics from the US, UK, Europe and Japan. We also try to stock most Aussie jazz titles.
What is the most popular title you stock at the moment?
It's a tie between Anouar Brahem After the Last Sky and Keith Jarrett New Vienna: At the Musikverein 2016
What is the most popular evergreen title?
That would have to be Miles Davis "Kind of Blue". If you don't like that album then jazz isn't for you. We have it on 2 different CD versions, about 6 or more different versions on LP and also on SACD.
What is the best thing about running a record store in 2025?
The fact that people now actually value music again after years of expecting it for nothing. This is partly due to the resurgence of Vinyl LPs but also due to the fact that the streaming services don't have everything, they delete titles from your playlists and in the case of Spotify heaps of their so-called jazz streams are actually by fake bands with fake bios. We've seen an uptick in all the physical formats we carry - CDs, SACDs, DVDs, Blu-ray Audio - which is thanks to all the streamers as most of them have pretty bad audio which is very apparent if you have a good hi-fi. As one of the few independent shops in Sydney CBD we and the others are now destinations to visit and if you can't get here in person there's always the internet.
What is the hardest thing about running a record store in 2025?
All the usual things associated with small business. No need to say more.
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