Record Store Profile: Midland Records WA

What is your store called? 

Midland Records

Where are you located? 

7 Spring Park Rd, Midland, Western Australia and online here.

Tell us about the people behind the scenes?

The store is owned and operated by the same husband and wife that opened it. There’s also a cracking team of 20 somethings working throughout the week to make sure we’re running smoothly and constantly stocked up on the best records, including yours truly writing this who is constantly scouring out new suppliers and connections to expand our range well beyond what your average store can stock.

When and why did the store open? 

Simply Secondhand (now known as Midland Vintage) opened in 1997 and was a secondhand / vintage furniture and collectables store that also sold used vinyl. In 2009 Midland Records was born and separated into its own store in the same location that then began selling new vinyl in 2014. We’ve been in the same location the whole time!

What do your customers most know you for?

Stocking the otherwise impossible to find in Australia, and sometimes impossible to find in any record stores anywhere in the world! We try to stock everything we can possibly get, ranging from the big hitters to the especially niche; this includes many labels, genres and artists that are often otherwise not stocked over here, including but not limited to a wide range of anime & video game soundtracks, tons of indie labels (often run by the artists themselves!) that aren’t carried by any suppliers, and lesser known albums in back catalogues.

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

Preacher’s Daughter by Ethel Cain, by a long shot.

What is the most popular evergreen title? 

C418’s excellent Minecraft: Volume Alpha soundtrack.

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

There’s a lot rewarding about running a record store, but the best part is absolutely the excitement you see in customers when they score that record they’ve been hunting for forever. Whether it’s a brand new reissue or a secondhand copy of a long out of print record, the first ever time an album has been on vinyl, that niche underrated album in their favourite artists’ discography none of the big shops bother touching, a weird release they’d never thought would be stocked at a brick-and-mortar store in a million years, even just their first ever record purchase… there’s a million different reasons and being an integral part of making it happen is the best feeling in the world! It’s especially nice when customers let us know - compliments are always greatly appreciated and are what keep us striving for more.

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

One of our biggest recurring issues is securing a reasonable amount of stock compared to demand - this is maybe something that more specifically pertains to Australian record stores. As we’re seen as a small fry market by the rest of the world and under-allocated (as a nation) copies of new records compared to other countries, often leading to shortages especially around release that are frustrating for both customers and us. On top of that there are other factors like demand on certain releases being direly underestimated by the labels printing these records, or that even in a post-COVID world there have been various shortages and other world events that directly lead to small pressings with huge gaps in-between represses, such and so forth. It’s why it’s important to support local businesses, particularly independent labels and record stores (us!) - records pressed here locally are not only rarely subject to this problem but are also much cheaper, and the more records are pressed here locally the less of a problem supply will be!