52.5 opened its’ doors for the first time on February 21st, 1997. The address was 52 1/2 Wentworth St. The store was very small, not even 500 sq. feet. The size was in our favor though, as we could not have afforded the stock required to fill a larger space.

We filled the store with punk, indie-rock & ska..... a LOT of SKA.
(There was a ska revival at the time. ) Our personal collection of CDs and LPs were used to fill the other bins with “used” music. The store’s survival that first year was due to the sale of our own collections & the “third wave” ska revival. Yep. We owe it all to SKA.

We outgrew the 52 1/2 location after a couple of years & moved to our second location at 75 Wentworth where we were able to expand our selection to include a wider variety of music as well as books, video and posters.
In May of 2006 we accepted a buyout offer on the lease for 75 Wentworth. After a brief homeless period we signed a lease on a new space. Five months of red tape and construction hurdles later - we opened the doors of our current location. 561 King Street is a larger and more user friendly space. The extra room allows us to host regular in-store performances - something that we have always wanted to do.

Our goal has always been to provide a good selection of music, focusing on artists outside of the commercial mainstream. While we don’t exclude artists based on commercial success, a hit on the radio certainly doesn’t guarantee a space on our shelves. I wouldn't say that we are snobby or elitist about it. We may not have a CD from the latest American Idol, but we would never belittle you for asking. The fact is, we can't stock everything. I was told once that it is "borderline un-american" of us not to stock Aerosmith CDs. That seems a bit extreme to me, but whatever. If you visit the store, I hope you'll find something you like. If you don't see the latest CD from your favorite artist, please don't be offended. I should also say that we'll be happy to special order just about anything!

"Money doesn't matter. Only music matters. When people think first about the money and then about the music, the music won't be worth the money they were thinking about." - Robert Nesta Marley, 1945-1981