Iconic Montreal record store up for sale after 25 years

Beatnick Record store is up for sale after 25 years of business on St. Denis Street.

It is a fixture in Montreal's music scene and a top destination for vinyl seekers and those looking for a rare pressing or B-side.

Now, Beatnick Records is up for sale.

Owner Nick Catalano is selling the store on St. Denis Street that he's owned for 25 years, deciding that it's time for someone younger to man the fort.

"I don't want to close the place," he said. "I just want to pass on the torch, and I have to find somebody who has the same passion that I did to continue it."

He said it won't be easy to find someone with the same passion as Catalano has, but that he's willing to make sure the sale is right.

"There's no hurry for this," he said. "I'm just putting out feelers and seeing what happens."

The 72-year-old drummer and DJ opened the store in December of 1998 and said it has not always been easy to navigate city work crews for two-and-a-half decades.

"It's been under construction for probably half of those 25 years," he told CJAD 800 Radio. "Me and everybody else on the street."

He said his passion for music has not changed but he doesn't want to do the day-to-day grind.

"I'm not an accountant; I'm not a business guy. I'm a musician who had to open a record store to have a day job," he said. "Everything is due to passion, but I don't have any passion for numbers and that kind of thing, so that's what I want to get away from."

• LISTEN on CJAD 800 Radio: This famous Montreal record store is up for sale!

The time may be ripe to purchase a record store.

Vinyl sales have surged in recent years. A Luminate midyear report in 2023 showed that sales were up 21.7 per cent for the first half of the year, which continues a post-pandemic trend.

Taylor Swift is credited with helping drive U.K. vinyl sales to their highest since 1990.

• WATCH: Gen Z driving sales at Montreal record store

Catalano said the consumer age demographic has gone down, with kids in their early and mid-teens looking to score new and classic discs for their collections.

"The bulk of it is young kids," he said. "They've discovered vinyl. They've discovered the hobby. They've discovered the pleasure of sitting around with a bunch of friends listening to records... The people that are into it are really passionate."