Main Street in Brattleboro has had a record store at number 85 for long enough that it barely needs an introduction to locals, but for anyone new to town, Turn It Up is the place to know: an independent record and movie shop that is part of a small, deliberately regional chain rather than a lone storefront experiment. The company traces back to 1995, when it opened as a Northeast independent record store, and has since grown to three locations, anchored by its original store in Northampton, Massachusetts, a second shop inside the Montague Bookmill complex in Massachusetts, and the Brattleboro storefront serving southern Vermont. Across all three, the pitch stays consistent: deep catalog stock alongside new releases from today’s artists, with new inventory arriving daily rather than sitting static on the shelves.
The Brattleboro location functions as a full buy, sell, and trade shop for both music and movies, meaning it works in two directions at once, selling curated used and new CDs, vinyl LPs, and films to customers while also actively buying collections from people looking to sell or trade in their own. That trade-in side of the business is a meaningful part of what keeps the inventory fresh and regionally distinct from big-box or online-only retailers; a collection that comes in from a Brattleboro household this month might be back out on the racks within weeks, giving local shoppers a rotating, community-sourced selection rather than a warehouse-supplied one. For customers with larger collections, staff will travel throughout New England to appraise and purchase them directly, a service more commonly associated with dedicated collectible dealers than a neighborhood record shop.
Beyond what is on the shelves in Brattleboro, Turn It Up maintains a broader online presence for collectors chasing something rarer, including a dedicated online store for hard-to-find items and an active Discogs storefront, plus the ability to special-order CDs, LPs, and movies that are not currently in stock at any of the three physical locations. That combination of walk-in browsing and backend sourcing gives the Brattleboro shop a reach well beyond its own four walls, useful in a town where record collecting culture runs deep but any single storefront can only hold so much stock at once.
Brattleboro’s downtown has long supported a mix of independent shops, and Turn It Up sits within that tradition as one of several secondhand and specialty retailers along Main Street, distinct from the town’s antique dealers and vintage clothiers in that its entire focus stays on music and film. For collectors working through a want list, casual browsers looking for something to put on the turntable that night, or anyone with a box of old records or DVDs taking up closet space, the Brattleboro store offers both a place to buy and a place to sell within the same visit. Turn It Up in Brattleboro, Vermont is an independent record and movie store built on daily-refreshed used inventory and direct buy, sell, and trade service for local collectors.
