Portland has more record shops per capita than any American city, and the density is real. Music Millennium on Burnside is the anchor — an in-store gig calendar rivaling any coast — and Everyday Music runs two mega-locations. Mississippi Records on Mississippi Ave is the reissue-label-and-shop that shaped the past fifteen years of vinyl culture. Little Axe Records handles reissues, folk and international at the same level.

The east side (Mississippi / Alberta / Hawthorne / Division) holds the essential shops within a short drive; the west side (Music Millennium, Crossroads) covers the west-of-the-Willamette essentials. Beacon Sound, Second Avenue, Speck's, Exiled — the second-hand corridor stretches for miles. It rains, so you dig indoors. Two listening bars and a strong DIY pressing culture close the loop.