Request Music

A very cool place to find everything under the sun. We ended up inside because it was raining at Wailuku First Friday. Things happen for a reason so glad we took some time to check out all the great stuff. The staff is friendly and really knows music. Very reasonable prices as well. The real fun was when we discovered the basement and I relived my youth as well as made a sleeve face. We will be back… so much to see 8 tracks and 45’s too… WOW ! LOVED IT !!!

Well curated selection of new and used vinyl. Excellent choices in jazz, rap, indie rock, classic rock. Picked up a St. Vincent cd and CCR’s first LP for very reasonable prices. For a real crate digger there are stacks upon stacks of old vinyl if you want to put the work in– don’t forget the basement! Friendly staff. I was stoked to find this place.

Awesome selection fantastic service and stuff you never expect to find in the islands! I stood there in awe in the doorway until someone offered to give me a tour lol. Highly recommend this shop to locals or tourists looking for a truly unique vacation souvenir.

forget about lava on the big island, request music brings the real heat. deep crates for all the heads and a rich smattering of everything else you could want. plenty of vinyl but let’s not sleep on every other format under the sun: cd, vhs, laser disc, cassette, 8-​track, and even some books. lots of artifacts scattered about, both working and decorative hi-​fi gear. usual «record store» accoutrements from t-​shirts & gig posters to a healthy array of glass pipes FOR SMOKING YOUR OWN HOMEGROWN TOBACCO ONLY. don’t miss the basement where things really start to get weird, i wish i had hours to dig through everything down there. the dust almost gave me the vapors but i was able to stop my impulse buy or i’d be sitting at home trying to figure out what to do with a 2-​tape criterion vhs set of dr. zhivago. last but not least, this may be the only record store on the planet that sells fresh fruit; grab the latest dr. dog and a papaya and you’re ready for a dreamy maui afternoon.
JCTSFR: 3.14

Best music shop on island… What a great collection! They have everything or at least can get it for you for I reasonable inexpensive price!!!

Very cool independent music store that we almost drove by. But when we went into the store almost type of music and artist you can think of is there from Charlie Daniels to Bob Marley. Great selection of albums, cds, and videos. My only suggestion is to make the basement a little too cooler with a fan.
Great store and a staff that knows music.

Nice little record shop :)

Awesome selection and service

The main store floor has undergone abit of a change the last time I was in, Now it’s sorta hard to find specific areas to look for CD’s, though some areas remain the same. I was in during a Friday, which coincided with Wailuku’s First Friday. Got some cheap stuff because of First Friday.
But I did find some stuff that was overpriced. One item was selling for double what you could find on the Internet. And it looked like it had been there for a time.
From past experiences, some of the staff are nice, others are… not helpful. It’s a mixed bag depending on who is there.

This is really a cool music store. It reminds me as a little kid buying single 45’s and cassette tapes. Gone are those days. But here the dwindling CD remains supreme and a nice selection at that. Located some hard to find titles, but overall I admire the owner’s spirit in spite of the industry going digital, devoid of tangible substance and artwork. Didn’t see much vinyl, however that section may have been in a backroom I failed to peruse. The lost era of music-​shopping-​sensibility, further widening today’s generation’s (and even the last) disconnect with music marketing/​packaging as an art form.

If you’re looking for any kind of music this is a great place to go! The staff is more knowledgeable about music than anyone I know! You could hum a song and they’ll know what it is. If they don’t have it they’ll order it! Prices are great also. I will never go anywhere else for music!

This is what a music store should be. Stacks of cds and vinyl for you to search and discover. The guys there were extra friendly and even opened the doors a half hour early since we were there only for the day. This is a wax fiends paradise. The basement has jems upon jems. The two hours I spent there were not enough to even make a dent in their collection.

Requests may be the last independent music store on Maui. Where there was once at least a semblance of options for music purchases — Tropical Disc, Tempo Music, the odd shop upcountry or in Lahaina — now there is only Requests (or, if you must, Borders). That such a store can still exist amazes me, and gives me hope that not all of Maui will be lost to larger mainland-​based chains.
The store doesn’t look like much from the outside — a small sign announces its presence, the larger, more colorful graffiti-​inspired signage a victim of Hawaii’s anti-​billboard laws — and inside is not much more inviting to the casual shopper. Religious icons line the walls and nooks and crannies above your head, juxtaposed with the Bob Marley and concert posters that are tacked up underneath layers of dust. Not a single surface is clear — cds, records, dvds, concert, and other paraphernalia cover the tables, countertops, and, in some corners of the store, even the floors. The owner is almost always found at a counter in the back of the store, rifling through records or cds (and in all my years of patronizing the store I’ve yet to exchange a word with him, my last visit found him nearly mute and either ignorant or unhelpful with simple questions about records or prices) and I can’t imagine their catalog is anything but organized chaos.
Still, Requests is a treasure-​trove. Used CDs, new CDs, records, and an assortment of music and movies on DVDS, t-​shirts, and assorted smoking paraphernalia are all things they stock. New CDs are organized by category — reggae, hip-​hop, jazz, world, soundtracks, pop/​rock — both old and new selections are represented well. Reggae section is deeper.
You won’t find many LPs on the main floor — a rack or two of new releases and DJ-​relevant records, and a few other boxes on the floor by t-​shirts — but ask to be directed downstairs — all the way to the back of the store and into the basement (they’ll turn the light on for you) — is a near library of records, likely once cataloged but has since seen better days: stacks of records are strewn across the floor, shelves have fallen to disarray. If you’re a record-​head, however, the alphabetizing is still largely intact and you can surely spend hours sifting through the stacks. (At least that’s why my companion did; I left him on two separate occasions in the basement for hours on end). You’ll find good deals — purchase20 or more records they’re $ 1 each, less than 20 will set you back $ 2/​record.
Pricing on CDs is competitive — no rock-​bottom chain store discounts here, but you can certainly find a solid array of new releases and feel good about supporting a local business. The staff (owner aside) is friendly and consistently helpful, offering to order CDs they didn’t have in stock and knowledgeable about their music and stock.
I have a huge soft spot in my heart for Requests. As a music-​starved pre-​teen I would convince my parents to make a special trip so I could buy bootleg CDs (which they, sadly, no longer sell) and chat with Jay, one of the former employees, about the Smashing Pumpkins. More than a decade later I’m still happy to stop in, chat with the employees, and find much of the same. Here’s hoping the store will stick around for another decade.