Diversions

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In an age of CDs and MP3s, shopping for old-fashioned records can be a frustrating business: many high-street music stores have simply relegated their LP offerings to the trash can. Luckily, a committed cadre of record-shop owners are still keeping the vinyl dream alive. Here's where to replenish your wax. VIENNA Tucked away in the Windmühlgasse, just behind the city's busy Mariahilferstrasse shopping street, lies an Aladdin's cave of audio treats. Teuchtler is crammed with more than 180,000 records—split between classical, jazz and pop—as well as some 40,000 old 78s. The store once sold a rare shellac of Austrian violinist Marie Roeger-Soldat (born 1863) playing Mozart for $3,000, but most of the vinyl is priced between $7 and $120.

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TOKYO The city is in the grip of a vinyl revival, so you'll find it easy to satisfy your wax-cravings here. Head to Udagawa-cho, a five-minute walk from Shibuya train station. The area is crammed with dozens of vinyl stores, ranging from hip-hop specialists like Dance Music Record to purveyors of the unusual such as Yellow Pop, whose stocks include decades-old Japanese Rakugo—spoken-comedy records—and pressings of sporting events.

ROME Goody Music is Rome's best-stocked venue for vinyl. Hidden away behind the central Piazzale Flaminio on Via Cesare Beccaria, the store has catered to vinyl fiends for over 25 years. The shop deals mainly in house, hip-hop and soul, and twice a week hosts a DJ school where wannabe mixmasters can learn their cuts. "Somebody walks in here, and when he leaves he can do a rave for 20,000 people," boasts owner Claudio Donato.

SEOUL Livingsa, located in the Hoehyeon Underground Mall in the financial district, is a mecca for vinyl hunters. The tiny shop is so tightly packed with its 150,000 records that customers have to shuffle sideways around the store. The catalog is eclectic and includes Korean folk collections from the 1950s, live Nat King Cole recordings, Eddie Murphy stand-up albums as well as a jumble of jazz, classical and pop.