Amoeba Music facts for kids
The former Amoeba Music building on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood
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| Private | |
| Industry | Retail |
| Founded | 1990 Berkeley, California, U.S. |
| Headquarters |
U.S.
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Number of locations
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3 |
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Area served
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California, United States (San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles) |
| Products | Records, compact discs, home video, posters, books, collectibles, accessories |
Amoeba Music is a famous chain of music stores in the United States. It has locations in Berkeley, San Francisco, and Hollywood, California. These stores sell many different types of media. They mainly focus on music, but also offer movies and TV shows on DVD and VHS.
You can find all kinds of music at Amoeba, like rock, pop, blues, soul, funk, rap, and jazz. It's a popular place for people who love physical music items or just music in general. Amoeba Music started in Berkeley, California, in 1990. It is still open today, even though many people stopped buying CDs in the 2000s. Amoeba stores mostly sell vinyl records and compact discs.
Contents
History of Amoeba Music
How Amoeba Music Started (1990)
Amoeba Music was created by people who used to work at another music store called Rasputin Records. The first Amoeba store opened in 1990 on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley. The main founders were Marc Weinstein, Dave Prinz, and Mike Boyder. The well-known Amoeba logo was designed by a comic book artist named Shepherd Hendrix.
Amoeba has stayed successful by selling many used goods. This includes a special program where customers can trade in their old music. This helped the store survive when CD sales went down in the early 2000s. It also helped them grow with the new interest in vinyl records.
Opening in San Francisco (1997)
A second Amoeba Music store opened in San Francisco on November 15, 1997. It is located in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood, close to Golden Gate Park. This store is in a building that used to be a large bowling alley.
The San Francisco store regularly has over 100,000 CDs, vinyl records, and audio cassettes. These items are both new and used.
Opening in Los Angeles (2001)
A third Amoeba Music store opened in Los Angeles on November 17, 2001. This store was on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. When it first opened, the store planned to have as many as 250,000 different music titles. This would have made it one of the biggest independent music stores in the world. A writer for the Los Angeles Times said that this location quickly became a famous spot in Hollywood.
The stores also buy and sell movies, but music is their main focus. Each Amoeba location has a smaller collection of movies on DVD, VHS, Laserdisc, and Blu-ray. You can also find music-related posters and artwork for sale. The stores also sell items with the Amoeba brand. The original Sunset Boulevard store had a whole second floor just for DVDs and Blu-rays. Amoeba Music often held free live shows during store hours. These shows featured local and national artists from many different music styles.
In 2015, Amoeba sold the Sunset Boulevard building but continued to rent the space. In 2018, it was announced that the building would be torn down to build new apartments and shops. Amoeba would need to move. On April 27, 2020, Amoeba announced that the Sunset Boulevard location was closing for good earlier than planned. This was due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Many non-essential stores were told to close to help stop the spread of COVID-19. Amoeba then started a fundraising campaign online to help pay its bills, as most of its money came from in-store sales.
New Los Angeles Store (2021)
Amoeba found a new home for its Los Angeles store on Hollywood Boulevard. It is located inside a new apartment building. The store's huge collections of music CDs, LPs, DVDs, and books were kept in storage while the new location was being built. The new store opened on April 1, 2021.
The new Amoeba Music store is close to the popular Pantages Theatre. It is in the Hollywood and Vine area. The store continues its tradition of holding free live shows for customers. These shows feature local and national artists from many different music styles. For example, the band Red Hot Chili Peppers gave a free live performance at the store. This happened after they received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame near the store's entrance on March 31, 2022. George Clinton, Woody Harrelson, and Bob Forrest were there for the star ceremony.
Amoeba's YouTube Channel
Amoeba Music started its YouTube channel on January 27, 2006. This channel features interviews with artists and recordings of live performances from the Amoeba stores. It also has an award-winning series called What's In My Bag?. In this series, different artists and famous people share what music and movies they found while shopping at Amoeba.
Gallery
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Berkeley store
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San Francisco store
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San Francisco store, inside
See also
In Spanish: Amoeba Music para niños
