Amoeba Music

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Mural outside of Amoeba Records off Sunset

Amoeba Music in Hollywood

Amoeba Music in San Francisco

The inside of the San Francisco store

Amoeba Music is an independent music chain with stores in Berkeley, San Francisco, and Hollywood, California. Founded by former employees of nearby Rasputin Records, 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. Occupying a 24,000 square foot (2,200 m²) former 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 on November 17, 2001 when the store opened a new branch on Sunset Boulevard (at Cahuenga Boulevard) in Hollywood. (See article.) At the time of its opening, the store 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. In addition, Amoeba Records frequently holds free shows during store hours with locally and nationally known artists from a wide variety of genres.