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101 Music
Category: Shopping Books, Mags, Music and Video Music & DVDs Music & DVDs [Edit]
1414 Grant Avenue(between Green St & Union St)
San Francisco, CA 94133
Neighborhood: North Beach/Telegraph Hill
(415) 392-6369
- Price Range:
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$$
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
Christal B. said: "Coming from San Diego, stores like Amoeba are practically non-existent. I was overwhelmed (in a good way) with the extensive selection of music and movies. Had a great time browsing the classics/ indies movie sections. Ended up…" read more »
18 reviews for 101 Music
18 reviews in English
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Review from Eric ..
Seattle, WA
12/6/2007 1 photo
We're lucky to live in a city with such a wide variety of vinyl proprietors. 101 music is among the most entertaining to browse, if not the most consistent. I have found a few treasures but the turnover could be higher. Since I live up the street, maybe I expect "new stuff" too frequently.
However, my five stars are more about Tom, the owner and his personal attention than anything else. When recently replacing my stylus, he offered to walk me through the process of setting the counter-balance, etc. over the phone on a Sunday. He is an extremely knowledgeable man, while not making me feel silly for needing his help.
Cheers to old-school customer service, the kind you can only find in a locally-owned shop like those in North Beach and throughout our beautiful city! -
Review from Jon T.
2/2/2012
Nothing to rave about here. It looks cool inside with all the musical instruments everywhere, but the record selection is really blah. Browsing through most genres, you'll find the same artist (and albums) as you flip through the LPs. You can also tell they don't put too much care into what they're doing. There is no consistency with the way things are filed or organized. Considering how hard it is to make money off music these days, you'd think they'd try a little harder. Maybe that's why the records are all slightly over-priced
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Review from Natasha M.
San Francisco, CA
10/31/2011 1 Check-in Here
Small but a sweet old record shop. It is a little pricy but considering it is in the heart of North Beach understandable. It is easy to get lost in time and history of the music and easy to navigate cause its so small! There is a random selection of music here. A nice little find.
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Review from Mark C.
San Francisco, CA
12/4/2010
This location is far easier to navigate through than the huge basement around the corner. It's like the owner finally cherry picked enough great records to fill up a smaller location in order to appease everyone who, quite rightly, bitches about the other spot not being organized in the least bit.
Anyways, just picked up two old bossa nova records and a copy of the old For the Whom The Bell Tolls soundtrack (mainly just for the cover) for a grand total of $28. All in great condition and the owner was super helpful to tell me how to get the price tag off of the soundtrack without damaging the sleeve. I can see this place becoming a normal stop after breakfast on the weekends. -
Review from Don Z.
Benicia, CA
9/13/2011
Great place. Lots of LPs. Combing through the rows of music is an adventure.
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Review from Mike O.
San Francisco, CA
4/1/2006
Consisting of two stores on opposite corners of Grant & Green street, 101 Music is the best (read: only) used record shop in North Beach. The main store at the northeast corner of the intersection is well-stocked with sorted vinyl of all varieties, with a smattering of CDs adorning the far wall. There's also a number of old guitars hanging up and quite a few nice deals can be found amongst them.
The southwest store is the real gem of these two. You walk inside to an in-your-face melange of old and new musical equipment of all listening, performing, and recording varieties: a veritable hands-on history of electricity in music. Downstairs lies the Holy Grail of vinyl collecting: well over eighty thousand records, unsorted other than by rough genre breakdowns, just itching for a full-scale browse. Whether you're looking for Pop, Blues, Soul, old-school Hip-Hop, obscure German rock, or chintzy New Age, you'll find everything you could ever possibly want, and a hell of a lot more. Best of all, every record costs only $5! Perfect for an afternoon of hardcore record-hunting, an eBay resell search, or a hipster first-date. -
Review from Blake E.
San Francisco, CA
9/10/2006
I paid my first visit to 101 Music on Saturday night and was blown away. And now reading the reviews other Yelpers have written, I am even more convinced that it will take several more years' worth of visits to truly understand why this place is so amazing.
It starts with the massive collection. Every milimeter of this place is packed. It feels magical. Only the liner notes for the CDs are on display because the jewel cases would take up too much room. And if you have a good sense of humor, you'll realize how funny it is that every time another customer wants to cross paths with you, one or the other of you must back out of the aisle entirely so one may pass, or lean dangerously close to the stacks.
As others have mentioned, with this massive amount of stock, it's not exactly organized to the minute level of detail that Amoeba or Aquarius are. If you can't deal with this, well, go to Sam Goody, sucker. -
Review from Jamie C.
San Francisco, CA
3/27/2007
Great way to spend an afternoon, and you will surely kill an entire one there, digging through the enormous stock of records in the basement. Absolutely incredible collection. Although arranged in a rather haphazard way, I always manage to find what I'm looking for.
Have bought some Sinatra, some Sammy, some Nina Simone, some opera. I take away one star because I found a Renata Tibaldi album that the proprietor said "Oh, I don't normally sell anything from that label." Then what's it doing down there, then??
But since the record had a price tag, he relented. So major score for me. So the star goes back.
Awesome record shop and yet another reason I'm thrilled to live in this neighborhood. -
Review from Tom L.
Maplewood, NJ
8/14/2011 1 Check-in Here
Lest I sound too snobbish, this is not a record store for tourists, or those looking for a CD of their favorite Top 40 artist de jour. The owners are record and music lovers who have sorted through everything, pulled out the 'good' stuff for the main store, and put the rest in the store across the street for your dusty browsing pleasure for when you have more rime. I found two great LPs last time in the main store, a rare Krautrock album, and a 12 in. ep from a 90s band. The former for $18, the latter for $10. Reasonable, for sure. U didn't have time to go through the jazz section, but definitely next time I will. The owner was a gas the way he was so patient with tourists who wandered into the shop while he was tuning one of the many stringed instruments lying about, and very respectful to me, even though I didn't spend a thousand bucks. Highly recommended.
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Review from skip a.
CA
3/9/2007
Very easy to lose an afternoon in North Beach, digging through the records and examining the beat-up guitars down in the basement. I picked up a no-name classical guitar here for around $60, and I play it almost every day.
Spend another few hours looking through the various music-making eclectica upstairs - you will always find a little treasure. -
Review from James J.
San Francisco, CA
12/6/2006
been here once. a couple of years ago. spent a few hours sifting through crates and crates and more crates of records in the basement. with each crate, i became increasingly frustrated and dissapointed, but i kept on sifting because i had the hope that i'd actually find something decent. seeing that all the records are priced at $5, you are bound to get screwed if you don't know the value of a record. most of the records here you'll easily be able to find in the $1 bins at ameoba. i think i came out of here with a church record (their 1st record) ... not a very good deal at $5.
i'd like to hear someone tell me they've actually found a good record here. don't waste your time here. -
Review from Matthew R.
San Francisco, CA
4/17/2006
Music 101 is the dogs bollocks, these two old school North Beach stores supply any vinyl junky with hours of digging. I am especially fond of the north east shop with it's extensive Jazz, Soul and Rock collections. It easy to spend your entire afternoon and pay check here. Oh so nice.
Listed in: Shops
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Review from eric s.
Berkeley, CA
10/27/2009
I recently spent several hours pouring over crates and crates of vinyl at the basement location, entering midday and leaving after dark. Was it worth it? I found a dozen records, some moderately rare, some fairly common, but they were $5 each, so overall it was a pretty good deal. I don't know that I need to go through every single crate every time I visit, but it was a good thing to do once. This is a good place to visit every couple months, because the turnover on the vinyl really isn't that high. There just really aren't that many people looking for Roger Daltrey's solo records, y'know? But as the new stuff comes in, there are some real gems to be found and again, you can't beat that $5 flat price!
Listed in: Vinyl Fetish
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Review from Cornelius S.
San Francisco, CA
5/7/2006
Very reasonable prices, funky atmosphere, a north beach institution since the 80s. Caveat: if you are going expecting to find something in particular that you think every records store should have, you may be disappointed. Their buying scheme doesn't work like that. Best to go there just to see what they have and if you do find something you like you'll get a good deal on it. Also, Tom, the owner, will probably play a record or cd for you if you want to hear it first.
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Review from megan f.
San Francisco, CA
8/5/2008
This place is a little treasure chest full of interesting old instruments, records and old band posters. The owner was very nice and allowed me to browse in peace without being overly nosy or annoyingly helpful.
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Review from Record Lovin' Ben N.
Richmond, VA
1/6/2009
One of two locations for this North Beach record/music junk store, just around the corner from "the basement." This has a fair selection of organized, individually priced stuff. Probably more worth it for the jazz or soul fan, as their rock stuff is pretty run of the mill, and overpriced with albums starting at $8 but generally in the $10-$20 range. Actually they have a pretty cool selection of new age/synthy stuff, and audiophile albums (expensive, naturally) if that's you're thing. But yeah, there's better vinyl shopping options in SF.
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Review from Marc L.
San Francisco, CA
11/15/2010
Wow! These guys are so helpful. I bought a record player and speakers two years ago from them and Tom was very helpful in explaining how to set up the system and the speakers. Today I just called them with some questions about installing a new cartridge and Brian was super helpful and answered all my questions. A+
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Review from Dave H.
Houston, TX
8/18/2006
This place is a home recorder's wet dream. Nevermind the mountains of kickass LPs I've found there. Over the years I've also bought 3 guitars, 2 basses, a Hohner melodica, a Casio PT-30, a glockenspiel, a 13-tine kalimba, a Bach trumpet, a toy piano, a Moog theremin, 2 turntables and several microphones from 101 Music and all of it was well below what I would have spent anywhere else in The City. Tom has so many instruments, vintage effects pedals and pieces of gear, a million different turntables, plus all kinds of rare LPs and radical memorabilia. Other Yelpers have mentioned the vinyl selection, but the cold hard fact is that 101 is an all-around wonderland of cool musical shit waiting to be found. Their inventory is unpredictable, but that's part of the fun. I got my kickass mid-70s honey burst Epiphone Les Paul with black leather and blue velvet case for $250 out the door. I was there once and Tom Waits was buying a wee plastic monophonic keyboard that ran on double A batteries. Apparently he's a regular customer, and that's saying a lot.
