Finer Sounds is an independent record and audio shop located in The Ace Hotel Brooklyn. We sell newly pressed vinyl: new releases, catalog classics, things you wouldn’t easily find at most domestic stores, along with audio accessories and merch. We’re only selling things that we enjoy. That’s kind of our North Star.
What really pushed me toward starting something of my own was watching my partner build her interior design company from scratch over the last decade. She’s gone through all of the ups and downs. The feeling of having it all figured out, the feeling of not knowing what she’s doing, the isolation, the scrambling. But also the reward of having autonomy and shaping something as your own—things that I kept watching and wanting for myself.
I had to ask myself what I could picture doing for the next 20 years. And the answer was: being in a really nice, pleasant environment, listening to and sharing great music, and helping people buy their first turntable setup. I’d always had a vision for what that could look like. My business partner Shota and I opened Finer Sounds because we genuinely believe in what we’re selling, and because we think the concept can travel.
Right now there are three of us: myself, Shota, and our full-time employee. A very lean and mean crew. The store is open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and we split the shifts throughout the week. My mornings are for computer work like orders, finances, and emails. I usually head into the store around 2 p.m. Here’s how a typical day looks.
9:00 a.m.
I take my dog to an off-leash park in the morning and have a beautiful hour surrounded by dogs, which I’m obsessed with. Then I eat breakfast and sit down at the computer.
10:00 a.m.
I’m at my desk by now, checking emails, looking at order statuses, and moving money around in Relay. There’s a lot of time-sensitive stuff in this business. New vinyl releases have a strict street date—people come in expecting them on the day, and if you’re not set up, you miss it. Some of the ordering is projections and data. Some of it just goes off of feel, or what we like.
11:30 a.m.
I'm constantly checking the bank account—that's a huge part of why I went with Relay. I'm not an accountant, but I do want to know what's coming in and what's going out of my accounts. What I love about Relay is being able to have these snapshots of the financial health of the business without opening QuickBooks and staring at reports. It's all just visually present in a much more digestible way.
2:00 p.m.
I get to the store around 2. Every time I walk in, I'm reminded of how much thought went into every detail: the millwork, the lighting, the layout, the scent. Our branding agency, Gretel, did incredible work with us and posted a case study. A lot of the traffic we've gotten through social has come from designers finding us through that post and coming in. Those are the folks who'll notice things like the brand font used on the push-pull of the door. I don't do it so that people will notice. But when they do, it feels like that extra level of satisfaction about taking this path.
3:00 p.m.
By mid-afternoon, the store is busy. The best part of the job is the customers. When someone comes in and says they either own most of these records or want most of these records, that's a real compliment. Our selection is totally subjective, so our taste is out in the open with no pretense. We're cross-genre. Some of it is highly accessible while some requires more adventurous listening, but we present it all equally. We're not going to make someone feel bad for asking for an Olivia Dean record. And when a customer leaves with a catalog classic and some cool ambient jazz they'd never heard of, I love that. That's a customer that's reflective of the taste we're presenting.
6:00 p.m.
I do the cash count if I'm there at close, then walk the store. My last moments before I leave feel very much like working in a retail shop, locking up and making everything look nice for the next day. Then I walk home through the neighborhood, maybe stop for groceries, and hopefully run into some dogs I know. It's easy to be overwhelmed when you're building a business, so I try to consciously clear my head on that walk.
7:30 p.m.
Sometimes, right before or after dinner, I’ll move some money around, check on something, place an order I didn’t get around to. And that’s not to be like, I’m hustling. It’s just the nature of it.
What ‘making it’ looks like
I think of it in phases. Right now, phase one is paying myself and Shota living wages, running a smooth operation, and being able to live off this without having to do side hustles.
Long-term, I think about this the way I think about bookstores I love. McNally Jackson has multiple locations — each one feels different but carries the same spirit. I think about Finer Sounds that way. Cool little outposts across New York, and then hopefully beyond. Not because of some insatiable need to grow, but because we see it as an exportable concept.
Getting there is the work. Brand partnerships, getting artists to come through, and building awareness. In the abstract it feels like it should be pretty straightforward. It's not. You might have a cool idea that feels like a quick strike, but you don't want to think it to death, and you never want to fire something out without putting it through a certain filter. That takes time.
We don't want any aspect of this business to feel half-baked. That's been true from day one.
This May, Relay is celebrating National Small Business Month with a series of stories from owners who chose the hard way—and built something worth keeping.
Relay is a financial technology company and is not an FDIC-insured bank. Banking services provided by Thread Bank, Member FDIC. FDIC deposit insurance covers the failure of an insured bank.
