Compact Music

I’m honestly shocked that this place has received only positive reviews in the past. This place has got to be the worst record shop in the downtown area. Terrible selection with even worse prices, and the owner, while knowledgable, has a HUGE God complex.
Shop here if you want to drop 35 $ on an Arcade Fire or City and Colour record; however, if your musical tastes go beyond Canadian radio rock, you can do a lot better than this.

This is a very pleasant store to browse in. The owner is a participant in the music scene in Ottawa and is very knowledgeable about contemporary music. My interests are classical and jazz, and these two forms are well represented here. Jason D. mentioned the LP’s and they are a delight to pick through (even though I no longer have a turntable).

I love music, I LOVE it. I used to have a collection of hundreds of rare and obscure discs. I never shopped at the big name chains — I assembled my collection from scratch, from shops like Compact. I have been to a few small cd shops in Ottawa and Compact has impressed me the most. First of all, they actually have a used section — a really good used section, not just a collection of cds no one actually wants. And, their discs are organized mostly by artist, not just under alphabet letters. Sadly though, I was unable to find cds from my rare/​obscure favourite artists (Lush, Cocteau Twins, Primal Scream). This is probably because fans of these bands actually keep their discs and do not sell them to used cd stores — rather than the fact that Compact has a shoddy collection. Compact also has tons of new cds (from $ 16.99 to $ 18.99) not cheap, but lots of titles. And, believe it or not, they actually have records — LPs! But, they had some major titles, but not everybody. I loved this store. Please support it!