Record Store Profile: Clarity Records SA

What is your store called? 

Clarity Records

Where are you located? 

Clarity Records resides on the traditional lands of the Kaurna People in the city of Adelaide, traditionally known as Tarntanya which means "Red Kangaroo" and online here.

Tell us about the people behind the scenes?

The owners are myself (Matt aka 'Footy') and my wife Laura. We have been life long supporters of the local music community.

We begun attending local punk and hardcore shows from a very young age, that then lead to playing in numerous bands, running a record label and booking countless amount of shows, tours and festivals. After the closure of an independent record store that I worked at for 5 years, it felt like a natural progression for us to open our own store. Together we created Clarity Records and opened our doors for the first time in 2010.

We are joined by a great team who also have their roots firmly planted in the local music community. This includes Sam (PAK Records / Daybed Records), Tahlia (Teenage Joans) and Lara (The Genevieves) 

When and why did the store open? 

Clarity Records first opened its doors on April 17, 2010.

It was a dark time for bricks and mortar record stores, with every key independent record store in the Adelaide CBD closing down within a 6 month period and others closing down all over the world.

Independent record stores played a massive role in shaping both of our lives. As kids we would spend our weekends jumping from store to store in the CBD, spending whatever little money we had made that week from our casual jobs. These stores would also help stock my bands releases as well as let us put up posters or drop off flyers for upcoming shows. They were the places where you could pick up your local street press to find out what's happening that week. There was a large hole left in Adelaide after they all closed down and something had to be done. 

Driven by all of this, we decided to put in everything we had into opening our own store, to help keep the dream alive of a fully independent record store that has its roots planted within the local music community. Given the market for physical media at the time, being in our mid-twenties and our first serious business venture we were terrified and our goal was to make it to 6 months. 15 years later we are still here.

What do your customers most know you for?

Our customers know us for our welcoming, clean, friendly environment that we have created for everyone to enjoy. We are known for our large range of vinyl, CDs, merchandise, books and other music related products. We are known for our popular weekly secondhand drops that happens on our social media. We are known for being a record label that releases local music we love and for our constant involvement in the local music community. We are known for our crazy midnight openings for Record Store Day that attracts huge line ups. We are also known for our A Day Of Clarity free music festival and other events that we host.

What is the most popular title you stock at the moment? 

Our top 3 most popular current titles include Turnstile Never Enough, and Sleep Token Even In Arcadia and Ethel Cain Preacher's Daughter.

What is the most popular evergreen title? 

Our top 3 most popular 'evergreen' titles include Fleetwood Mac Rumours, Tame Impala Currents and Arctic Monkeys AM.

What is the best thing about running a record store in 2025?

All the amazing people we meet and talk to on a daily basis. All of these people make the day interesting and fun and without them we wouldn't be able to do what we do. We are forever grateful for everyone's support. We love keeping in touch with new music, discovering all sorts of gems we wouldn't have come across otherwise.

We love the thrill of exciting secondhand purchases and adding to our own record collections.
We are situated right next door to a popular hotel and cafe, so it is always fun having people, bands and sporting teams visit the shop from interstate or overseas. We also love working for ourselves and being able to invest our own creativity into the business for others to enjoy.

What is the hardest thing about running a record store in 2025?

I would say we are very positive people and we don't have any negative views about running a record store in 2025. We love opening those doors each day to see what excitement the day will bring. We work extremely hard and this helps make the day to day processes run smoothly.

Yes, there are concerns with the rapidly rising cost of new vinyl. This can sometimes reflect badly on stores, where in fact we are just putting our small margins on top of the prices we have to pay. Trying to get stock fast and on time can sometimes be a concern. We don't like customers having to wait too long for special orders or for new releases.

Also, being a small business owner (doesn't matter what you do) you never really switch off. There's always something to do, or something in your mind relating to the business. However, after nearly a lifetime working in music we have our ways on working through anything that is presenting to be an issue and we turn it into a positive.