Amoeba Music

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Amoeba Music in San Francisco

Amoeba Music in Hollywood

The inside of the San Francisco store

Amoeba Music is an independent music chain in Berkeley, San Francisco, and Hollywood, California. It opened on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley in 1990. The stores are unusually large given their independent status. The San Francisco store, which opened in 1997 in the Haight-Ashbury district, is especially notable for its size. Built in a 24,000 square foot (2,200 m²) bowling alley, the store regularly stocks upwards of 100,000 CDs, vinyl records, and audio cassettes, both new and used.

The Southern California location was added later: in November 2001, the store opened a new branch in Hollywood, on Los Angeles' legendary Sunset Boulevard (at Cahuenga Boulevard.) (See article.) At the time of its opening, the store was planned to stock as many as 250,000 titles, which would place the store among the largest independent music stores in the world. According to Los Angeles Times writer Michael Hiltzik, the location "instantly became a Hollywood landmark." [1]

The stores also trade in movies, though secondarily to their music business. Each location has a smaller collection of movies on DVD, VHS, and Laserdisc. In addition, each store maintains a selection of music-related posters and artwork for purchase, as well as Amoeba-branded merchandise.

A large portion of the stores' business is in used merchandise. Patrons of the store can sell their used music and movies to the store for half of the retail value in cash or 2/3 supposed retail value in store credit.