With all the record stores in the United States, it’s no surprise settling on a unique name when starting a record store business can be frustrating.
Picking the right name gives potential customers an idea about the products and services your business provides, creates a good first impression, and helps you stand out from the competition.
What record store names are you allowed to use? How do you come up with something that represents your brand best? And what names are available for you to use?
If you’re not sure how to answer those questions, you’re in the right place. Keep reading to learn my top tips for choosing the perfect business name and how to make sure your favorite choices are available across the board.
Learn more about the record store industry
Tips for Choosing the Best Record Store Name
If you’re struggling to choose a company name for your record shop, one of the best things to do is start brainstorming. As you go through the tips outlined below, make a list of words, phrases, and terms associated with your business.
From there, you can narrow down the list and cross off ideas you don’t like.
Once you have several top considerations, we’ll walk you through how to make sure you’re allowed to use them. This last step helps you narrow down your list even more so you can make a final decision.
1. Consider the Services You Plan to Offer
There are countless types of musical genres, so one source of inspiration could be the type of music you love or plan to specialize in. Maybe you want to focus on hip-hop, classic rock, or even indie rock. Or maybe you plan on focusing on local artists.
Whatever your focus, add the elements of different types of music you plan to sell to your brainstorming list.
Remember to avoid anything limiting your business’s future growth if you decide to go in another direction down the road.
2. Location-Specific Terms
Many record stores are specific to a geographic service area. So, if that’s true for your business, consider adding a location-specific term to your business name.
You can consider things like:
- City nicknames
- Neighborhoods
- Regions or states
- And descriptive terms
However, consider what happens if you expand outside your intended service area. Does the name become limiting? If so, it’s best to avoid it if you plan to expand or change directions later.
3. Avoid Business Names That Are Hard to Pronounce, Hear, or Spell
Despite the technological advances in voice search, assistants like Siri and Alexa struggle to understand slang and other confusing words.
This could limit how often your business shows up in voice (and text-based) searches if your name is hard to spell, pronounce, or hear. Because of that, it’s important to avoid complicated words, industry jargon, and using numbers in place of letters. While having a unique record store name is good, being too unique may not be so good.
Keep your business name as simple and easy to remember as possible so potential customers can easily find you.
4. Consider Alliterations and Rhyming Words
Alliterations and rhymes are catchy and easy to remember. Because of that, they make an unforgettable name for your record store.
That said, it’s not always easy to come up with them. Start by choosing a few of your favorite words from your master brainstorming list.
Then, you can Google “words that start with M” to come up with a name like Melody Masters or R for Retro Records or whatever letter you’re using to create an alliteration. Alternatively, you can search “words that rhyme with _____.”
It can be time-consuming, but it’s an excellent place to start.
And don’t forget to add any exciting finds to your brainstorm list while you’re at it. Try not to overthink the names you come up with during this stage. Just write them all down, as some of the more interesting ones may spark better ideas later.
5. Steer Clear of Initials or Obscure Acronyms
Initials and unusual acronyms are hard to remember, so they typically don’t make great business names for record stores. They can also be challenging to pronounce and confusing for voice search as well.
Furthermore, there are 325 different two-letter combination possibilities in the English language. And the odds of your customers remembering the specific letters you chose are pretty small.
6. Imagery Words
Another consideration when brainstorming name ideas is whether there are industry-related words music fans could relate to that could also lend themselves to be used in a logo. For instance, a record store could use an image of a record or record player needle and focus the name around the image.
Related: How to create a logo for your business.
7. Still Struggling? Try the Owner’s Name
If you’ve made it this far and are still struggling to find the best name, you can always consider using the business owner’s name. Doing so works well if the owner plans to be the face behind the business.
Something to keep in mind is that using the owner’s name as the business name can make it more challenging to sell the business in the future.
List of Catchy Record Store Name Ideas
Here is a list of independent record store names that may help give you some creative ideas. While many of these names may be available for you to use, be sure to check first to be sure it can be used.
Tips on how to check business name availability are after the list of names!
- 10 Million Discs
- 13th Floor Music & Accessories
- A & S Record Shop
- Academy Record Annex
- Algonquin Records
- All Fusion Music & Electronic
- Amoeba Music
- Apprentice Music
- Asylum Records
- Atlantic Sounds
- Babs Records
- Basin Street Records
- Bay Sound
- Bayberry Music
- Beatport
- Been Around Records & CDs
- Best Little Record Store
- Better Days Records, Tapes & CDs
- Big KAT Music
- Big Kids Cd’s & Games
- Black Wax Records
- Blast From The Past
- Blue Jay Way Records
- Boo Boo Records Inc.
- Broadway Records
- Budget Tapes & Records
- Bull Moose Music
- Capital Compass Music Shop
- CD Exchange
- CD Warehouse
- Chain Reaction Records
- Charlemagne Record Exchange
- City Music
- Classic Tunes Music
- Confidential Record
- Cool Runnings Music Store
- Corner Record Shop
- County Line Trading Post
- Daddyo’s Record Rack
- Dat Disc
- Dave’s Records
- Disc Replay
- Domino Sound Record Shack
- Drake Vintage Music & Curios
- Ducks Flying Discs
- Dusty Groove
- Dyno Records
- Eagle Valley Music
- Earth Pig Music
- El Suprimo Records
- Electric Fetus
- Euclid Records New Orleans
- Fifi Records Shop
- First Step Records
- Fort Walton Vintage Records
- Goodboy Vinyl
- Great Scott Records &Tapes
- Groovy Records
- Hear Again Music & Movies
- High Fidelity
- Hip Cat Records & Music Videos
- Hippie Cat’s Music Exchange
- Hollywood Music & Movies
- Honest Jon’s Records
- Hoofbeat Records
- House Rockers Records Shop
- Joe’s Albums
- Joseph Street Records
- Ka-Chunk Records
- Karma Records
- Laurie’s Planet Of Sound
- Let’s Boogie Records & Tapes
- Lucky Charms Records
- Luvin Music
- Main Street Records
- Memory Lane Music
- Music Meister
- Music Millennium
- Music Trader
- Musicland
- Mystery Train Records
- Off The Record Miami
- On Top Records
- Phonica Records
- Play By Play Record Shop
- Princeton Record Exchange
- Reckless Records
- Record Breakers
- Record Connection
- Record Exchange
- Record Parlour
- Record Rack
- Reggae Land Muzik
- Rocket Records
- Rough Trade West
- Salty Dog Records Sarasota
- Saturday Night Records
- Shake It Records
- Smash Records
- Sonic Boom
- Spinnin’ Discs
- Tape Town
- The Record Parlor
- Triple Play Records
- Turn It Up
- Turnt Up Musik Records
- Ugly Mike’s Records
- Underground Sounds
- Vintage Vinyl Record Shop
- Vinyl Solution Sounds
- Wascal’s Wecords & Stuff
- Waterloo Records & Video
- Weirdo Records
- Welfare Records
- Wild Cherry Compact Disc
- Yesterday & Today Records
- Yesterday’s Memories
- Zia Record Exchange
- Zodiac Record Shop
Is Your Record Store Name Available to Use?
At this point, you should have several top considerations to choose from. And the best way to narrow it down further is to check each one for availability.
This step is helpful because using a name that someone else is using could be very costly, time-consuming to rebrand your business, and possibly embarrassing. There are several places to look to check whether a name is available to use, so let’s walk through each one.
Can the business name be registered in your state?
If you plan to use a specific business name, you may be required by the state to verify it’s available to use.
Related: How to check business name availability in your state
Is your name already trademarked?
When searching for a name for your new business, you should check that your new name isn’t trademarked by someone else. If it is, you may not be allowed to use it legally.
Thankfully, the United States Patent Trademark Office (USPTO) makes trademark searching a breeze through their Trademark Database.
A name isn’t necessarily available if it doesn’t appear in this search. Every business has some limited protection through a common law trademark. This means another business can’t open up down the street with the same name, as this creates confusion for customers. Also, check local competitors by doing a Google search and looking through the Yellow Pages.
If your name is available and you want to protect it from being used by anyone else, you can register it with the USPTO.
Related: How to check for a trademark
Hopefully, you now have some ideas for the name of your record store. Once you have narrowed this list to just a few and researched that they are all available, start asking friends, family, and potential customers their thoughts to get feedback, and then pick your perfect record store name!
