Hear Records

Hear Records opened in Singapore in 2013, founded by Nick Tan as what he calls a "music lifestyle shop" rather than a straightforward record store. The Bencoolen Street shop stocks more than four thousand records — new and used, spanning hip-hop (GZA's Liquid Swords), minimalist composition (Steve Reich's Four Organs), and film scores (the Oldboy soundtrack) — with fresh shipments arriving monthly from the United States, Europe, and the rest of Asia.

Tan runs the shop personally: he posts photos of new import sleeves on Facebook, sends email updates to regulars, and takes special-order requests directly from customers. Alongside vinyl, Hear Records sells turntables, electronics, accessories, and display units for building out a collection. As Tan told The Vinyl Factory, which profiled the shop in its "world's best record shops" series: "People don't just come to the store to buy records. They meet other music fans as well and we all end up talking about music."

The shop emerged as part of a small wave of new Singapore vinyl retailers that filled the gap left when chains like Gramophone and HMV closed their doors in the city.