Resident Music

Fell across Resident a bit by chance. But what a super fund! Great for fans of vinyl, the selection is good and well laid out. Prices are about what you would expect, but the service was super. Nice selection of books too.

Absolutely love resident and have done since I moved here over ten years ago. However as someone who frequently uses their website I have to say that the recent re-design is absolutely awful. The old design was really simple and clear, and now everything feels obscured and harder to find. I've used it a lot to see if it's just me being bad with change but I'm finding it much harder to use.

This shop is in a good location and has a very good selection. My only gripe is that they have the empty covers on display! I do understand as it would deter shop lifting, but as a collector of vinyl, a sealed copy is of more value!

One of the best record stores in the UK and a mandatory stop when visiting Brighton! Located at The Lanes, Resident Music Store has the best soundtrack for your day. The staff is really cool and everything looks and feels right. We loved the tote bag with Nick Cave's sentence. Hope to see you all soon!

Wonderful shop. Packed full of amazing reissues. Reissues and new vinyl isn’t usually my jam but this shop delivers. The electronic music section was insanely good along with the rock section. No listening station as it’s a new vinyl spot.

Great venue for record store gigs. Friendly and helpful and an intimate gig experience

Amazing record store with fantastic staff...nothing is too much trouble; they really go above and beyond to ensure customer satisfaction...that's the benefit of shopping with an independent. Their online store is excellent, it has a huge catalogue of music, books, events, hardware, and merch to choose from, and their online support staff, like the in-store staff, are all about customer satisfaction and are really friendly and helpful. They fixed and refunded an ordering error, without question super quick (thank you!) I discovered this store when The Hives announced a special album launch show at Chalk in Brighton hosted by Resident...they offered CD and vinyl + ticket bundles at crazy low prices! I got a signed CD, signed 'exclusive cream indies only’ vinyl and 2 tickets to the show, which was an audience of just 750-800, for £46!!! They also made sure CDs and records, signed by the band on the afternoon of the show, were available to collect from the store before closing that day, meaning any ‘out of towners’, like me, didn’t have to wait for the goodies to arrive in the post or pay for shipping. I will definitely buy from Resident again and visit the store whenever I am in Brighton...I highly recommend them to all music fans.

Bought a vinyl as a gift and had an issue with one of the records (manufacturer issue) , contacted resident and they were so helpful! Got it all sorted and even posted the new copy to the person who's gift it was. Amazing service!

Fantastic web site, excellent online service. Great shop. Looking forward to visiting the physical location some day. I have indeed placed an order here and found the customer service and ordering experience to be top notch. Excellent service. Support your local record store!

Every city needs a great independent record shop. London has Rough Trade Records, Soul Jazz and Sister Ray. Manchester has Piccadilly Records. Liverpool has Probe. And Brighton has Resident. Situated at the heart of the North Laines, Resident is a complete joy to visit. The record selection is small but perfectly formed and there's aisles of great CDs to flick through. The choice of music is also extensive as they stock everything from rock, pop, dance, hip hop and electro to funk, soul, jazz, bluegrass, country, americana and afro-beat. The staff are knowledgable, approachable and passionate and there's handy sections like New Releases and Resident Recommend as well as an on-going £5 section that includes recent and classic albums. I love this shop so much I would happily work there!

As record stores in town go, Resident is by far the best in town (followed closely by Rounder Records, but that's another review), providing a whole host of popular and independent CDs for very reasonable prices. They seem to specialise in the more independent stuff: most of the CDs I've picked up here have been more niche and out there, or some classics from when I was young: neither of which is a bad thing! Most of the popular CDs have printed reviews stuck to the display cases, allowing you to get an idea of what a CD is like before you've even listened to it, or even heard of the band: a real great idea, and a great way to pick up new bands. As well as offering plenty of great CDs, Resident also has two other great services: they sell tickets for all of the gigs in Brighton, plus send weekly emails with what's been released. These are both amazing offers, and very worth going in for: especially the weekly email service, which is a great way of keeping abreast of the independent music scene. To be honest, I often use these emails to make new playlists on Spotify, but most of these don't become available online for quite some time: they are independent, after all. In the rare occasion I do buy music though, this is the place I go to for the independent stuff, although Rounder (in the Lanes) is much better for popular music.

As the definitive Brighton record shop, make Resident your first point of call for gig listings, local music and the hottest indie/rock records of the moment. My favourite thing about Resident is that they stick reviews of the records on the album covers, making it really easy to find something you'll like (provided you're relatively clued up about your own taste in music). The staff are really knowledgeable and more than happy to chat to you and recommend stuff a service you just can't get from Play.com. They have a regularly updated website (with the option of signing up to a mailing list) with weekly album reviews, news of upcoming gigs and the latest on the most cutting edge music of the moment. As one of the few surviving independent record shops, it's everything that a music store should be. We've become far too used to tapping a band into iTunes and downloading our regular music fix, so why not pop in here and treat yourself to something that's tangible and a bit more personal...

Yay for CDs under a fiver! This store was my saviour when I was a student and spent all of my dough on Radiohead and Fat Freddy's Drop albums. They have loads of classic albums all under 5 squid. You can spruce up your CD collection for £20 and make yourself look cool at the same time. The other fantastic feature at Resident has to be the events calender in the window. No matter how busy Kensington Garden's is I always stop for a peek at the next big events, and more often than not drop in to grab some tickets. Unlike the other independent music shops in Brighton (not mentioning any names) the staff are really helpful, and truly do know their stuff. They won't sneer at you when you ask for tickets to Dizzee Rascal, oh no! They'll charge you 50p to buy them on your card, but they won't sneer.

This is a great independent music store. They focus on CD's and I like that they have a lot of information from the staff on the cases. They carry an impressive catalogue covering all the genres you would expect. You can find a lot of older titles at bargain prices and I was also pleased to see an extensive electronica section in the shop (my genre of choice) and the staff are happy to let you try any cd's you are not sure on. It's also the prominent place to get hold of any tickets for music events in the city. It's certainly worth putting yourself on their mailing list to stay on top on what is happening in the city. The staff are well into their music and always up for a chat on current and upcoming bands. The shop has a good vibe and the genres are well presented. Top marks and this is how a music shop should be operating against the competition of the Internet and the retail giants.

Resident is the daddy of record shops in Brighton, the hub of the community for musos and indie types, and a defiant two-fingers to the notion of the CD in decline. While it has all the classic signs of a proper record shop, like that fictionalised in Nick Hornby's High Fidelity, there's one thing Resident doesn't seem to suffer from, and that's a diminishing trade. If there's one place that can buck the trend of decreasing record sales it's Brighton, and Resident is often jammed. The arrangement and selection obviously play a part. While there is the usual A-Z of rock and indie, the 'Resident recommends' and chart displays are always good for the latest in new independant-minded music. The 'every home should have one' is for modern and bygone classic albums, and 'three of their best' is a neat introduction to new material from familiar artists. There's also plenty of CDs that cost just a fiver. As well as ticket sales for almost all local shows, they have free magazines and even put on the occasional in store show.

A superb record shop, boasting a great vibe, excellent categorisation regards its collection of cds, and a good range of different musical genres and styles, including the mainstream, the alternative, and the less well known, this is the sort of store that's quite simply a pleasure to visit. The prices are reasonable and the service is friendly. So if you want a cd, or just want to browse through a well organized library of music in order to find something new to try, you couldn't go far wrong checking out Resident.

Resident is an independent record shop that knows the best in new acts and new releases. With its finger on the pulse and ear to the ground they're always notifying and recommending great music. You can get tickets from here for upcoming gigs and they regularly hold in store sessions from the artists playing the city. Really helpful and friendly staff who love to share their passion for music. They even invited people to come and have mulled wine and listen to a preview of the new Vampire Weekend album over Christmas, how sweet.

Agree with the other reviews here - would also recommend signing up for their weekly new release email, this is now my primary way of finding out what new music is coming out, what bands I should be listening to and who's playing in brighton. Also, in the shop they offer descriptions on many of the CDs to describe the music - these are very well written, and have often persuaded me to buy a CD from bands I've not listened too previously.

Resident is a brilliant independent record store in the heart of the North Lanes. With a large selection of eclectic music, this place is a music lovers dream. The prices are definitely reasonable, especially with the varied selection offering you the chance to dip into groups you may not otherwise stumble across. Of particular note is the fact the Resident sell tickets for almost every music night in the city (which have advanced tickets anyway). Having signed up to their mailing list a few years ago I have since been able to catch some of my favourite bands (Sleater-Kinney for 8 quid anyone?) who I would likely otherwise have missed due to lack of promotion. Well worth popping into for an extended browse.

It seems necessary for record stores in Brighton to use alliteration in their names to both unify and confuse at the same time. Resident is a more updated and contemporary in its layout than Rounder, but this is not a negative point for Resident, or indeed a criticism of Rounder. They are both independent, which is great, but they do both have similarities. Here are three: 1) They both sell music 2) They both sell tickets for live music events 3) They are both purveyors of some of the finest tunes around I am a particular fan of Resident with their recommendations, well-stocked shelves and occasional in-store performances keeping music heads happily nodding to new and diverse beats. Oh CDs I miss you! Let's start a record revolution!

There aren't many places left in the world that you can stroll into and - regardless of your taste in music - walk out of with something a little special in your hand that 20 minutes ago you'd never heard of. Whether its what's being played, in the stores recommendations, or based on the wordy wonder of the individual reviews, you'll find what your looking for and more besides. resident puts the value back in music, and makes me happy to part with my cash for the experience.

Even if you can get everything online these days, this record shop provides everything you need to truly enjoy buying the perfect record. They have all the very coolest of newbies all out on display, and because the peeps that run it have impeccable taste, a music lover can pretty much go through the 'recommends' section with a blindfold on and pick out something that will still get their rocks off. The 'change from a fiver' means that this is often the cheapest way to buy new records from the not-so-distant past, much cheaper in many instances from any online retailers. Other perks include the handy gig guide in the window (with tickets for sale to all the most decent live offerings), the occasional poster or freebie with new records and pretty much the nicest staff ever to have kept their ear to the ground as to what musical merriment is going around.

These guys really care about what they do. I come here every time I'm in town & always leave with something different and special. I love the little review notes they attach to the CDs and I love their £5 bargain selection. I hope to finally be able to check out one of their in stores soon. The top record shop in Brighton!!!

I am not a person that goes to record stores anymore, relying on mp3s as a more eco-alternative to CDs. But there was something charming about this place, and I was looking for some local trip-hop, etc. Low key, helpful and not snotty staff that tried to find something to match my taste resulted in me finding some lesser known but fun music. If you must know, a The Herbalizer sampler, and local Brighton artist, Mr. Scruff.

A really good independent music store in the heart of the North Laines. It is particularly strong on indie and alternative stuff but also has a good dance section. What makes this place really worth visiting is the way the stuff is laid out: there is a Resident recommends section with staff picks (and the staff are very knowledgeable); an Every home should have one section with classic albums; a Three of the best with a range of 3 of the best albums of various artists; and Change from a fiver with a large selection of budget stuff, all of which is well chosen and not dreck. Another sign that this place is a labour of love is the detailed reviews of most CDs which have helped me find some interesting new stuff now that I am out of the clubbing loop. Prices are very reasonable. This is exactly what an independent music shop should be.

I love Resident. I think this shop was made for me - it reflects my quirky taste in music and they dont just stock the predictable roots titles/bands - but are more creative and open-minded in getting more unusual upcoming music. The staff are really helpful and nothing is too much trouble and they treat everyone with the same care regardless of age/gender etc. I always read their music recommendations and this influences the music I listen to. I buy tickets for gigs here too - and their email listings service is excellent - I always read it. They often host instore early evening gigs from visiting musicians - including recently the amazing Jesca Hoop. This is a well run business with people who seem genuinely passionate about what they do. I make a point of buying by CDs and tickets from here.

Really great music store - good mix of music, especially indie/alt. Friendly staff, great location.

Awesome record store with a great web ordering store too. Got my Adam Ant Dirk Wears White Sox record day White Vinyl in two days. Recommend this to everyone. By the way the service is great and you can get all your concert tickets

This is, I think, the best music shop in Brighton. It is small but perfectly formed. Obviously what makes a good music shop is different for each person depending on their musical inclinations...I can't believe however that Resident wouldn't have something for every taste, and no one can deny the extraordinary passion for music that resonates in this place- visible in all the extra touches in the shop and on the website. Starting with the decor- the shop front is painted an excellent grey-green and they always have an updated concert listings in the window with details of ones that have tickets available- sold on site at Resident. The inside of the shop is painted dark colours with a dark wooden floor giving it a cocoon feel- it does actually feel like you are in a particularly fashionable cave filled with treasure. They have chart cds in racks and best sellers, as well as end racks with staff recommendations- I have bought several CDs from this rack and now trust the staff blurbs implicitly. They have a good rock/indie selection with all the best albums from staple artists and a great folk/soul/blues section. I believe they have a dance section- I'm revealing my musical inclinations now! They provide a cd player at the desk so that you can listen to cds before you buy- such a good idea! Their website is also brilliant with excellent reviews and picks of new releases.