Record stores

At one time, back in the day, you could buy those round things with holes in the middle - even players - in the antique store strip.

Your best best is to download Torrents. Www.DuckDuckGo.com still hunts them down, just put a comma followed by Torrents after the music title or type. If you ever want books just add a comma and PDF.

You should still be able to find racks of pirated CDs in the Pham Ngu Lao area. Be warned - the quality is very poor and even playing once is too much for some.

Like for DVDs, there may be better quality CDs available in boxes from China (most likely), although I can't quite recall seeing them in HCMC when I was there, but they are available in Hanoi.

Finding ska/punk might difficult though although in the better quality ones (I did buy some Nick Cave etc in the cheapo CDs until I gave up on them).

Rock maybe but probably mainstream. What about switching taste to Richard Clayderman or Celine Dion?

PS. Yes, torrents. I work on the assumption that no copyright holder is going to chase a Vietnamese IP address!

Stylostar wrote:

You should still be able to find racks of pirated CDs in the Pham Ngu Lao area. Be warned ...

PS. Yes, torrents. I work on the assumption that no copyright holder is going to chase a Vietnamese IP address!

The OP said records and a record to me are black (I even have some).

There are music CD's in the stores around/behind the SunWah Building on Nguyen Hue. (Opposite 46 Photographic on Nguyen Hue).

As for Torrents, I have downloaded for years, one computer all day and four overnight on high speed fibre optic.

What about switching taste to Richard Clayderman or Celine Dion?

I've never associated the word 'taste' with Celine Dion, the scraggy hen from Quebec. Clayderman - oh, yes, I remember I last heard him in an elevator or was it a public toilet?

I know what records are and am sympathetic to your implication ... I am old enough to remember vinyl, in fact kept most of it and added to in the pre-back in fashion years ( I did sell some high value stuff which I regret now...another story). It all isn't in VN though.

The big cover, flipping it on the turntable will always be better than the more soulless digital mode, but that is easy and available. Rips in FLAC format from vinyl sort of meets in the middle.

However, I can't help on buying old (or new) vinyl as such, it is likely in a pile in the back of a shop, by recommendation etc and I am not sure how much punk and ska will be on offer. I used 'record' store in the generic sense.

On a trip to KL, perhaps.

Stylostar wrote:

I know what records are and am sympathetic to your implication ... I am old enough to remember vinyl, in fact kept most of it and added to in the pre-back in fashion years...

Still squeezing them out today in a growing plant outside Toronto, Ontario. And these days it's the 'contact-less needle' zero wear and tear record reproducer!

Even the BBC has re-recorded it's whole audio library and is storing them in proprietary format - and they had floors and floors in a special purpose warehouse with all the freebie records and CDs they were sent by record companies!

Hi,

You can visit Nguyen Hue bookstore. I found some nice records there. Why don't you use youtube?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xufuZ0dCmLA

Regards!

Hi!
You can come here to look for what you need
Huynh Thuc Khang St., Dist. 1
301c Dien Bien Phu St, Ward 7, Dist. 3, TPHCM
139 Hai Ba Trung St.

However, rock/punk/ska are quite rare cause most of Vietnamese people are more familiar to jazz, classic, country or pop. Hope you can find what you need!
I'm a member of Vietnam audiovisual network. So feel free to ask if you need something related!

Thanks for all the advice. I know using the internet is a possibility but I like to own hardcopies of my music, and since I plan to stay here a while I thought its time to start collecting some.

I will definitely check those stores out and hopefully find something of use!

Hi!
You can come to this place
Audio Space Corporation
7/1 Nguyen Thi Minh Khai St., Ward Ben Nghe, D1, HCMC

Ask the men named Thiện 091. 410 4725 abput what you need, he'll help you. People in Hanoi can contact him, too. Cause our network are through out Vietnam. He worked a long time for Malaysian oil company, so his English is quite good. Tell him my name Ms. Vi (Scarletvn).
They have a website but I'm not sure it's completed, you can check: http://www.audiospace.vn. Surely all of stocks are not listed here.

Cheers,
Vi

Thank you very much! I will make sure to check it out ASAP its much appreciated !

I have the same interests and it worries me.I love seeing live music and would love to spend an afternoon in a used cd store.
I did see a post from DaNang with a Filipino band playing heavy metal.