Record Store Profile: Rathdowne Records VIC

What is your store called? 

Rathdowne Records

Where are you located? 

230 High St, Northcote, Melbourne / Naarm, Victoria

Do you cater for a specific niche or genre?

In descending order: vinyl only, secondhand exclusively, early and Japanese pressings when the originals are scarce, jazz, 12" inches for DJs across all dance genres, world music (especially Japanese).  Little beyond 1990 on albums or 2005 on 12" singles.

Tell us about the people behind the scenes?

One owner (Joel) who lives on site, two fantastic DJ assistants and a miniature schnauzer named Tessa.

When and why did the store open? 

2007 in Rathdowne Street and with more fanfare 2014.  Music and cinema were my chief passions and working with DVDs during the death spiral of video shops meant I knew I had to recalibrate.

What do your customers most know you for?

My collection of 25,000 records and my knowledge across the breadth of 20th century music and music history. I'm known as a jazz and Japanese press specialist.  As a prolific poster on Instagram. I'm known for my dog.

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

The secondhand market doesn't work that way but my disco 12s are selling at great speed currently.

What is the most popular evergreen title? 

Rumours.

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

As society becomes increasingly atomised, a record shop is still a community bastion.  As apparently everything is digitised and available at the touch of a finger, records and physical media demonstrate that clearly many prefer the tangible, the hunt, the discovery, ownership and collecting as a form of personal and shared passion and expression.  I get to witness this joy daily and there are certainly records I have that are not available digitised.  In what other job can you get up every day and select whatever music you want and listen to it all day long?  It's fantastic seeing so many younger than myself discover this passion.

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

Not one single thing, but a few in conjunction.  The cost of living crisis of the past years has made the sugar hit of sales immediately post lockdowns seem like a false promise.  The willingness to take the risk on unknown records in certain demographics has also decreased in certain demographics - there are less "diggers" with production ambitions particularly as the art of well crafted sample, so all the great lesser known records that would suit these collectors are moving more slowly.  Overall it is harder to find the canonically most desirable records and genres, particularly for a reasonable price but the thrill of the hunt remains!