Best music store online or off?

-Squidco has a whopper inventory of unusual brainfry, stuff no postage, good descriptions, real informative site.

-Wayside Music also has a huge inventory of interesting discs, generally has some blurb that describes each recording. Home of the excellent Cunieform label. Can't say enough good things about what Steve Feigenbaum has done over the last 30 years.

-Amoeba is the obvious answer for a brick and mortar on the left coast.

Acoustic Sounds or Music Direct

What's that place in Hollywood? It's even in Mayor of Sunset Strip, isn't it? Was it Arons? I used to live in Philadelphia and heard about the Princeton Record Exchange - and there were a few good stores there out on the mainline even, and people would still go when they went up there. (especially for bootlegs). Great label, that Cuneiform.

The best place in Hollywood that you are talking about is Amoeba. They are the best.

There are some very cool independent releases here:

www.woodstockcd.com

I was at Princeton Record Exchange maybe a month ago, and while I agree with Sbank that it, and most used record stores, aren't as good as they used to be, it's still pretty fabulous. Great prices and selection, and even the inexpensive stuff is in good to great shape. Highly recommended if you're in the area. Princeton is a fun little college town too.