Big, old-school Museo del Disco says it’s Miami’s last ‘real’ record shop. But it’s not the only one
Step through the doors of an unprepossessing warehouse in Miami-Dade’s Coral Terrace neighborhood, a cheek-by-jowl jumble of industrial buildings and single-family homes, and get ready to do the time warp again.
There before you are rows and rows and rows of neatly organized CDs and vinyl LPs, all of them new and shrink-wrapped, in a range of tastes and sounds so encyclopedic that it reaches from Bach to Miles, from Tito Puente to Bad Bunny, from Metallica to Tyler the Creator.
This is the aptly named Museo del Disco, or the Record Museum. It’s not an archaeological exhibit, though, but a record store. A proper record store, a throwback to the days when you, or your parents, could flip through packed racks of thousands of LPs or CDs at Peaches or Spec’s or, later, at Virgin Megastore, all those extinct dinosaurs, in search of musical treasures.
This is, at least as far as its devotees are concerned, The Last Record Store in Miami.
As Museo turns 21 this year, the fact that a big, general interest record store survives in Miami is, for those who absolutely must have a physical copy of a coveted recording, a small miracle worth celebrating.
“When people come here for the first time, they go nuts, man,” Museo owner Hinsul Lazo said.
And celebrate they will, when international Record Store Day — an annual event created to boost indie shops through the release of limited editions of vinyl records by names big and obscure — returns on Saturday to its full, one-day format after two years in which it was split into smaller “drops” of recordings because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Lazo, a 43-year record industry veteran, is counting on Record Store Day not just for blowout sales — he and manager Johnny Aguilo say they will have about 400 limited-edition records on hand — but as an opportunity for the many Miamians who have yet to discover the store to be smitten by it.
Of course, Museo is not literally Miami’s last record store. There are half a dozen other shops, including Miami-Dade County’s oldest, the stalwart 40-year-old Yesterday and Today Records on west Bird Road, and the redoubtable Sweat Records, an indie institution in Little Haiti since 2005. They have lately been joined by a handful of relative newcomers like Technique Records, in Miami’s Upper East Side, which has generated a devoted following since opening in early 2018.
Those three shops, all of which are also participating in Record Store Day, are thriving on the resurgent popularity of vinyl. They offer new pressings, though much, if not most, of their stock is used or vintage, in spaces that range from comfortable to tiny. They all have something Museo might not, offering dives into niches like indie punk or dance music, rare electronica or, at Y&T, psychedelic, garage and progressive rock from around the globe.
But no brick-and-mortar competitor can match Museo for sheer size and selection, including a vast array of CDs — a format that Lazo said older buyers, especially local Latinos and visitors from South America, a big chunk of his clientele, still seek out. He said his store is the last of its kind in the southeastern United States, and possibly beyond.
“The rest of the stores in Miami are good. I’m great. I’m the best,” Lazo said, only half in jest. “This is a serious record store. I am the last true record store, the only well in the desert.”
Museo has been increasingly pivoting to vinyl as the format’s newfound popularity, in particular among the young, continues to surge — to the point that big retailers like Target and Urban Outfitters are stocking LPs and advertising exclusive editions of their own, be they in yellow or clear vinyl. The bigs can’t take part in Record Store Day, which is for independent shops only.
Half the Museo store is dedicated to Latin music CDs, but it now also boasts a long rack the length of an entire wall stocked with Latin rock and classic salsa LPs. There are two long rows of heavy metal LPs, too — a big draw for fans from Latin America who can’t get them back home, Aguilo said. The selection of jazz CDs and LPs alone, Aguilo said, is bigger than the full offerings of some other Miami stores.
“Nobody’s got more jazz than us,“ he said.
Some customers will drop $1,000 in one visit, he and Lazo say.
“They come here from South America and just eat up this stuff,” Aguilo said, sweeping a hand over the bins of heavy metal LPs. “The older Latinos, Puerto Ricans, Cubans — they buy like crazy.”
The store has survived thanks to the tourists and loyal locals, Lazo and Aguilo say. Echoing owners at their Miami competitors, they say personalized service is key, like contacting customers when a record they’ve been looking for comes in. Because pressing-plant capacity hasn’t kept up with the explosion in demand for vinyl, releases of new and vintage recordings tend to come in limited batches, and the wait for stock can stretch to months, they said.
“A lot has to do with me knowing what customers buy,” Aguilo said. “I call them, tell them, ‘Hey this came in.’ It’s taking care of my customers.”
Some of those loyal customers, now middle-aged and older, are bringing their kids to Museo.
On a recent afternoon, longtime customer Eli Ramos, 50, brought his 16-year-old son, Alessandro Ramos, to dig through the racks for classic jazz — the teen is studying jazz guitar — and see what unusual items piqued their curiosity.
Alessandro nabbed albums by piano great Bill Evans and sax colossus Stan Getz — along with an LP by a contemporary Australian prog-rock band named King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard.
“This is definitely like something out of the ‘90s or something,” Alessandro said, noting the wall-mounted CD players on which customers can sample new releases. “It’s cool. It’s like going back. Vintage.”
His dad got a picture disc of Bob Marley’s ubiquitous “Legend” greatest hits collection and, a real find, a vinyl LP of a 1988 live performance by Dire Straits and Eric Clapton at a Nelson Mandela benefit.
“You can’t find that at Target,” Eli Ramos said. “That’s why we’ve got to keep this place alive.”
The fact that the store remains profitable, however, is in part due to one fact, Lazo noted: He owns the entire block of warehouses where Museo is located. Lazo makes his living primarily in real estate.
“I own the real estate. I own the building. If not, I don’t exist,” he said of Museo. “I don’t pay rent. It’s profitable, yes. But I don’t do this for the money. I love what I do.”
Lazo, who came to Miami from Cuba in 1962, at the age of 5, started in the record business as a distributor, and sold to both Peaches and Spec’s, locally based chains. But as the traditional stores’ sales dropped, first because of competition from big national retailers like Best Buy, which sold CDs at a discount as a draw to get shoppers in the door, and later with the emergence of digital music services like Apple’s, Lazo said, he decided to open his own store just to sell his accumulated stock.
Certain buyers, especially dedicated music fans, will seek out tangible recordings because they are collectors, or they can’t find particular works in digital formats, or they want liner notes and musician credits, or they find the sound quality of CDs and LPs superior to the often thin sound of digital formats.
And as big retailers focused on only the latest popular hits, Lazo realized there remained an untapped market in offering not just big titles, but also a deep selection from the catalog of rock, jazz, blues and Latin music, now supplemented by rap and hip-hop selections. There’s even a small classical section.
Lazo is also happy to keep a rare recording on the shelves for years until eventually someone buys it. After all, he’s got the space. He also sells online and through Amazon, keeping an office staff of five busy.
And the stock in the store, vast as it is, is only a portion of what Lazo holds. He has a back storeroom with shelves of CDs that he notes wryly he wouldn’t be able to sell “if I live to 200.”
Another room in his upstairs suite of offices holds a surprise: Shelves of used LPs, given to him by customers who had to get rid of collections but couldn’t bear to throw them out. They’re not for sale, and Lazo said he has not decided what to do with them.
But Lazo, who’s 65, said he’s slowing down and looking for someone to take over. He has no children, so he’s looking for a buyer who will keep Museo alive. A younger, more energetic owner with promotional and digital-media savvy, he said, could triple sales.
In the right hands, Lazo said, “this could be a monster.”
Record Store Day has become such a popular event, and releases so sought-after, that people start lining up early, before opening, to grab LPs, 7-inch singles and 10-inch EPs before they sell out. Each of the 1,400 participating stores orders only some of the hundreds of available releases, and sometimes won’t even get those because of stiff competition. Stores across the country and in every continent except Antarctica take part.
Expect no lines at Museo, though, because the place is big enough to comfortably handle a big crowd.
Among other Miami shops taking part in Record Store Day are:
▪ Sweat Records, the first Miami shop to participate in the annual event, has become such a Miami institution that it’s featured in travel guides to the city. It’s known not just for a carefully curated and diverse selection of music, but also for live-music and DJ shows, workshops, talks and film screenings. It’s even won Knight Foundation Arts Challenge grants to support its public programs.
On Saturday, the shop will be open from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Owner Lauren “Lolo” Reskin said customers who are in line by 7 a.m. will get to “call” one Record Store Day selection, and it will be held for them.
There will be DJs in the store all day, cocktails and the debut of a beer by Record Store Day sponsor Dogfish Head’s Wynwood outpost called Sweat Stout, a summer brew with coconut and coffee.
▪ Yesterday and Today Records, Miami’s oldest shop, has survived for 40 years by offering a deep selection of high-quality used LPs of classic and obscure rock, jazz, folk, blues and Latin music, now augmented by new pressings. There are also some CDs, including a small selection of sought-after discs made in Japan. The small space, on the second floor of a strip mall, is so crammed with racks and boxes of records that only a few customers at a time can maneuver inside, so owner Evan Chern expects a line at the door Saturday.
“The last time we did it,” Chern said, referring to the full-on Record Store Day, “there was a long line down the stairway and into the parking lot.”
To give people plenty of time, the store will be open from 9 a.m. “until whenever,” Chern said.
▪ Technique Records proved instantly popular when it opened on Northeast 79th Street, so much so that it soon moved into a larger, 2,000-square-foot shop down the street. Owner Michael “Mikey” Ramirez stocks about 20,000 records new and used, including big titles and what he calls “left-field electronica,” a shop specialty, along with DJ gear.
At his eclectic shop, Ramirez said, customers can find recordings by pop singer Charli XCX and ‘90s Goth-rock band Alien Sex Fiend displayed next to an LP by jazz-fusion master Lonnie Liston Smith.
The store will be open Saturday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. To avoid a crush, the first two hours will be by appointment only, Ramirez said. Appointments can be made on its website, techniquerecords.com.
The store will also have $1 and $3 records on sale outside, and an outdoor open bar and lounge area sponsored by the Ilegal tequila and mezcal brand.
Back at Museo, Lazo said he won’t be serving cocktails or anything other than vinyl and CDs.
“They don’t come here for the donuts,” he said.
This story was originally published April 21, 2022 at 3:48 PM.