Record Store Profile: Rocky Road Records

What is your store called?

Rocky Road Records NSW

Where are you located?

Artarmon NSW - we're on the lower north shore of Sydney and online here.

Tell us about the people behind the scenes?

Piers is the store manager, a long haired metalhead who just loves music - he's there every day, and can often be found cleaning, sleeving and pricing records. Piers is married to Mel, who you'll see in store on the weekends. Mel is a jazz, soul and funk-head but also an indie rock, rap and electronic music fan from way back. 

When and why did the store open?

We had long harboured a secret desire to open a record store, and both during and after the travel restrictions during COVID, where we literally could not travel to any dedicated record stores for months as there were none on the lower north shore of Sydney where we live. Emboldened by this inadvertent 'market research' on the dearth of vinyl buying opportunities for northsiders, we started an online store with a local delivery option. After two years of being an online store, delivering and posting records, and also selling stacks of records at record fairs, we finally decided to give a 'bricks and mortar' store a crack and opened in December 2023. Haven't looked back!

What do your customers most know you for?

Fantastic personal service, a deep knowledge and love of music, reasonable prices, high quality second hand records and of course our commitment to serving the north shore, being local residents ourselves! 

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

That's a tough one! There's a few 90s records like Air's Moon Safari and Radiohead's OK Computer that we just can't keep in the store, they sell very quickly every time we restock. Recent releases from Laufey, The Cure, Sabrina Carpenter, Kendrick Lamar and Nick Cave continue to very popular.

What is the most popular evergreen title?

At our store, Miles Davis' 'Kind of Blue' probably ties with Fleetwood Mac 'Rumours' and Pink Floyd's 'Dark Side of the Moon'....!

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

The customers and the records. We have amazing conversations with a broad range of people who are all at different points in their music loving / learning journeys - from young kids of 10 or 11, through to people in their 60s and 70s who've bought records, then CDs, then sold them all and are now back to buying vinyl! Getting to hang out with amazing records, play them for people and to be able to share the culture and history of a broad range of musical releases over decades is a privilege. 

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

The doubters! People who can't believe that a record store even exists anymore, let alone is a viable business. Beyond that is being able to regularly get in stock the titles that you want to have available for your customers - there just aren't enough (good) vinyl presses to meet the worldwide demand. And just the usual 'cost of living' increases that affect everyone really.