"I started collecting records when I was about 14 years old," says owner Tony Mignone, 74, who grew up in the neighborhood but now lives out on Long Island. "I started selling records in 1965, a few blocks down, and I haven't stopped." The first store was on the corner of Fifth Avenue and Sixth Street, and Mignone moved it into the current space in 1971. 

It's fairly obvious that nothing has changed since. There's a Mork and Mindy poster on the wall, and you get the feeling that if it were removed it would crumble to dust and the wall behind it would be a few shades darker. The small room is stacked floor to ceiling with records, CDs, audio and video tapes, and DVDs, most of them second or third hand, and the two narrow aisles leave just enough room for two people to squeeze past each other. 

Mignone has an encyclopedic knowledge of music (as anyone who's owned a record store for 45 years would), and he's usually humming or singing a song to himself, feeling right at home in the shop.

While the collection in the store is vast and expansive, it's well-organized alphabetically and by genre, and if you can't find what you're looking for Tony can. As more and more artists begin releasing their albums on vinyl LPs, he makes sure to keep the latest vinyl records in stock. "People are finally starting to realize that turning on a record is a great way to listen to music," says Tony.

His in-store collection is just the tip of the iceberg, though. "I've got 40,000 more records at home," he said. "I was thinking about putting them all on eBay, but I don't know who can afford all of them!"

The small store has made the news before, most noticeably in May 2009, when the landlords decided to shut the store down and annex the space to the deli next door, which they also own. Thankfully the deal fell through, and The Record and Tape Center survives as one of two record stores in the neighborhood (the other is Music Matters, on Seventh). When asked about his relationship with the landlord, Tony replied, "It is what it is. I'll be here for at least another couple years."

We should be thankful for that. Even if you're not a vinyl aficionado, it's easy to appreciate the dusty old shop and its friendly, soft spoken owner. As music continues its transition from physical to digital, and music megastores like Virgin shut down, these old shops and their owners are the holdouts of a vanished era.