Record stores in Stratford

Stratford, ON has 5 record stores on the map. That's 5 record shops mapped around Stratford. Every shop grades and prices differently, so the same record can be a bargain in one and a splurge in another — dig everywhere. Bring a want-list, but leave room for the find you didn't know you needed.

This guide covers every record store we could verify in and around Stratford (within about 40 km), built from OpenStreetMap's community-maintained data. Names you'll run into include The Beckett School and Music Plus, plus The Beat Goes On. If a record shop's missing from Stratford's list, it probably just hasn't been mapped yet.

The Stratford record lineup

5 mapped within about 40 km:

What the map tells us about record stores in Stratford

1 of the 5 list their opening hours on the map, which is genuinely useful — record shops keep shop hours, so the listed times are usually reliable.

2 have websites listed. Worth a look for new-arrival posts and want-list services.

The Stratford record crawl

Making a day of it in Stratford? Work this order: The Beckett School, Music Plus, The Beat Goes On, Rebel Rebel, and The Guitar Corner. That's the record crawl in one sensible loop, no backtracking.

Record digging tips for Stratford

A few things worth knowing before you work through Stratford's record stores:

• Check the bargain wall rhythm at The Beckett School. Shops restock the cheap sections on cycles. Ask when — that's when the fresh bargains land.
• Check the vinyl, not just the sleeve at Music Plus. Slide it out (carefully, by the edges) and look at it in good light. Sleeves lie; vinyl doesn't.
• Ask the staff what's new. Shop staff know what's just come in and what's about to. One question can save an hour of digging.
• The listening station is the test. If a record looks questionable, play the loud passages. That's where surface noise shows up.

Good to know

We searched about 40 km around Stratford — that covers the town itself plus the surrounding communities you'd reasonably drive to. Listings come from OpenStreetMap, mapped by local volunteers, so a brand-new record store in Stratford can take a while to appear. Spotted a closure among the 5, or a record store we missed entirely? The map is the source of truth here — one OpenStreetMap edit corrects it for everyone.

We don't list prices or stock — both change by the day. What we list is the where: real shops, verified by real mappers.

If you run one of the 5 listed here and something's wrong — a closure, a move, new hours — the fix is the same: update the shop on OpenStreetMap and the correction flows through to this page on the next daily refresh.