Pinellas County is about to lose one of its cornerstone record stores.<\/p>\n
Sound Exchange, which has had a location in Pinellas Park since 2001, will close at the end of April.<\/p>\n
The independent retail outlet at 8625 66th Street N., Pinellas Park opened in 2017, replacing an earlier incarnation on Park Boulevard. The anchor store, in Tampa, has been in business since 1987.<\/p>\n
Erin Stoy co-owns Sound Exchange with her father, the business\u2019 founder Ron Stoy. Since 2014, she has managed both the Tampa and Pinellas Park locations.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had a great 2025; the store is not failing in any way,\u201d she insisted. \u201cIt\u2019s just, I am one human being and I cannot do it any more \u2013 managing two stores, two staffs, two sets of inventory, two of everything. Because I\u2019m working every day. When I\u2019m not at the stores, I\u2019m working from home, and it\u2019s just not sustainable for a single person to do. Or to do well.<\/p>\n
\u201cI could cut back at both and do kind of a mediocre job at both of them, but that\u2019s not what I want.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her father, who\u2019ll be 75 this year, is retiring. So it seemed the time was right to make additional changes. They put the building up for sale.<\/p>\n
Sound Exchange sells new and used vinyl, CDs, cassettes, DVDs, Blu-Rays and audio equipment, and has a large selection of books. Although vinyl, both new and used, continues to move in good numbers, Stoy said she\u2019s seen a resurgence in the sale of CDs to young people \u2013 presumably, she said, because new titles on vinyl are much more expensive than their compact disc counterparts.<\/p>\n
The inventory is being moved to Tampa. \u201cThat\u2019s one of the large reasons that we didn\u2019t attempt to sell off a business location as a whole,\u201d she explained, \u201cbecause we can use this inventory. And it\u2019s worth more to us than it is to anybody else; we can sell it in Tampa.\u201d<\/p>\n
A percentage of the used CDs in the store\u2019s large \u201cbudget bins\u201d will be sold at reduced prices, so that it won\u2019t have to be hauled across the bay.<\/p>\n
When the 66th Street location debuted in 2017, the 6,400-square-foot space was stocked with everything that had been in the (smaller) first Pinellas store, as well as the inventory from a Sound Exchange outlet in Brandon, which closed when Ron Stoy\u2019s original business partner retired.<\/p>\n
The building, on 0.64 acres, is already under contract, Erin Stoy said.<\/p>\n
Record fans need not worry that the Pinellas Park Sound Exchange will close before Record Store Day, the national event wherein record labels create limited-edition \u201cspecialty\u201d vinyl releases, just for independent record retailers.<\/p>\n
Record Store Day 2026 is April 18. \u201cI placed a big order for Pinellas, even bigger than I did last year,\u201d Stoy said. \u201cSo we\u2019re not skimping on Record Store Day. At all.\u201d<\/p>\n
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