“As a Record Store Clerk, the scope of your job depends on the size of the store where you work,” says longtime record store employee Alison Stolpa. “Generally speaking, at a big store, your job duties are more specialized, whereas at a smaller store you might be wearing more hats.”

“Things you’re likely to do on the job include helping customers find music, selling concert tickets to local venues, offering recommendations, cashiering, putting out product, answering the phone, buying used product for the store to resell that customers bring in to sell you, and helping out when artists do in-store performances.”

“You’ll mainly be working with other Record Store Clerks, Record Store Managers, Music Store Managers, and other people who work at the store in the marketing, wholesale and online departments. Occasionally you’ll work a bit with Campus Representatives, Field Merchandisers, or a ticketing person from a venue that sells tickets via your store.”

A Record Store Clerk’s annual salary is approximately $24,300. The salary range for Record Store Clerks runs from $8.85 to $19.96 per hour.

“Record Store Clerks are paid hourly,” Alison says. “You won’t be making tons and tons of money, but you’ll probably get a sweet discount.”

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“Generally, working in a record store is pretty relaxed,” Alison says. “Customers are usually friendly and excited to be there. During the holiday season, big events like Record Store Day or Black Friday can be pretty taxing though. You’re standing on your feet and working as fast as you can.”

“The nice thing about working at a record store is you usually have a pretty set schedule. You don’t really have to stay late like you would in an office job if you’re still finishing something.”

“However, sometimes there are vacation blackout dates at record stores, like around the December holidays. It can be hard to explain to your family that you work in retail and since Christmas Eve is one of your biggest nights at work, you won’t be able to make their get-together.”

“At a record store, the hierarchy is Record Store Clerk to Assistant Manager to Store Manager,” Alison says, “You could also get hired for another position at the store; there’s a lot going on behind the scenes at most stores, especially if they have a website attached to the store or are a one-stop location, which means they provide product for other smaller shops in the area.”

“The best way to get hired at a record store is to already have some form of retail experience. I started working in a Barnes and Noble music department for a year or so before finally getting hired at the cool indie record store in town,” Alison says. “It also helped that I had other music stuff such as college radio and DJing on my resume. It’s a good thing, too, if you already know some people on staff who can vouch for you.”

• Get retail experience. If a record store doesn’t think you have enough experience yet, apply for jobs at a store that sells music, even if it’s not a specialty for them.
• Listen to and read about as much music as possible. You need to have a huge amount of knowledge to be taken seriously as a job candidate.
• Get to know the people working at your local store. Record Store Managers are more likely to check out your resume if people on staff can say they see you in there every week and that you seem like a solid individual.

“Most stores want you to have some retail experience, and if you come from another music industry field or have experience working in other record stores, you’ll have a leg up on the competition,” Alison says.

“You have to understand how to deal with all kinds of people — from aunts buying music from emo bands they’ve never heard of because it was on a kid’s Christmas list to collectors who expect you to answer (or at least find out) if the Beatles LP for sale is a certain pressing, and so on. Most people who work at record stores are very good at internet research.”

“You have to be curious and you have to be patient,” says Alison. “People will ask you about super obscure stuff that you’ll have to spend time digging for. Other times people will ask you for things you’d never be able to figure out, like ‘It was on around 8 pm last night on the jazz station.’ You ask them, ‘OK, which station’ and they’re like, ‘Hmm, I don’t know.’”

“Yet they’ll expect you to know, or to be able to find out. You’ve got to be willing to ask questions to dig deeper and try to help them find what they want. You also have to be a people person who enjoys interacting with all kinds of people.”

“It’s good to be the type of person who wants to keep learning about music, whether it’s the latest release or reissue in your favorite genre, or if it’s breaking away from the usual kinds of music you listen to in order to educate yourself about say, bluegrass.”

“You really only have to hold a high school diploma to work at a record store,” Alison says, “but lots of people working there have at least some level of college. People who work at record stores are curious about music and about the world, so they’ll usually be self-educated on various genres of music and know a certain amount of musical history.”

“For many people, this is a first job in the music industry, so you can expect to find a lot of younger Record Store Clerks—which probably explains why so many are in college or have recently graduated.”

“Record Store Clerks don’t belong to unions or professional associations, but the store they work for might,” Alison says. “For example, many stores are members of the Coalition of Independent Music Stores (CIMS).”