Back in the dark ages of modern musical history (the early 90’s), we knew something big was missing. The record industry was systematically killing vinyl and the Indianapolis stores were willing accomplices. Even used vinyl was hard to find. Worse, popular independent labels couldn’t get even their CD product stocked in local stores. Fans were mail ordering tons of music because few local stores were willing to go beyond the major labels.
One day in June 1993 we found out that Aardvark Records, a longtime south side record store, had gone out of business. Thinking that we might take advantage of their existing traffic, we rented its space at 4022 S. Shelby Street, filling the shelves mostly with used and collectible vinyl culled from our collections. Thus began the history of Missing Link Records.
This was a fun but rather random experience. We attracted vinyl collectors from all over but the neighborhood mostly wanted country cassettes and top 10 CD’s. Rather quickly we made plans to open a second store in Broad Ripple, got some capital for new product and opened a second store at 828 Broad Ripple Avenue, where Metamorphosis is now.
Our guesses were mostly right. Broad Ripple was super hungry for both vinyl and independent label CD’s, and we ended up closing the south side location in October ‘94 to focus all of our energies in Broad Ripple.
We enjoyed some great years on Broad Ripple Avenue before live local music moved off and the meat market bars moved in. Seemingly overnight, Broad Ripple was unrecognizable. Adventurous music fans and skatepunks were elbowed out by a different crowd that was more interested in the bar scene than the music scene.
Then came Amazon.com, eBay, CD burners, MP3’s, Napster, you name it. Each technological step has hurt record stores; the landscape is littered with those that didn’t make it, including national giants such as Tower Records, Sam Goody and MediaPlay. Dramatic rent increases drove us to “shack up” with Rick’s Records at 54th and Keystone in 1998-99, only to see us lose our lease to the Washington Township Assessor just as the ‘99 Christmas season arrived. Briefly we retreated to our storage space in an office park on Tacoma Avenue (honk if you shopped there); in May of 2000 we relocated to 6053 N. College Avenue.
Catching the rave wave, we invested heavily in electronica and hip hop. Just as we got used to it, the moralistic purging of the rave culture reached Indianapolis and once again we had to adapt as electronica took a nose dive. Fortunately hip hop has grown in popularity, though Serato’s digital imitation of records has dented hip hop vinyl sales of late.
With the growth in SoBro we've just taken the plunge to a nice new spot at 4905 N. College Avenue.
All along, we’ve stayed true to a large part of our original mission, which is to offer a great selection of used, new and collectible vinyl. It seems that vinyl collectors are always around; some retire and new ones come on board. Also, the quality of used vinyl that we are able to purchase is still quite high. Many desirable collections come in each week and go home with our equally desirable customers.