Tulsa’s Studio Records Helps Fill Many A Vinyl Fanatic’s Collection (VINYL LIVES)

With Record Store Day 2025 right around the corner, indie record shops worldwide are gearing up for the biggest vinyl event of the year. Tula’s Studio Records is no exception. The one-stop-shop record palace strikes a delicate balance between classic records and new releases and offers turntable equipment. Its vast selection showcases its dedication to providing visitors with anything they can put on their wishlist. 

Tulsa has always been an underrated music city, and Studio Records is helping lead the charge in a new movement that has taken over the city. Thanks to the dedicated eye of owner Mike Nobles, Studio Records has become a home to traveling and local music fanatics looking to fill out their vinyl collection. Glide had the pleasure of asking Nobles a few questions about how Studio Records came to be, the ever-evolving Tulsa arts scene, and his process of keeping his shelves stocked. You can read our full conversation below. 

Did you visit a lot of record shops as a kid? Are there any record shops that inspired what you do with Studio? 

I started shopping for records at an early age, and by my teens, I was fortunate to have a couple of stores in my town that had people who turned me on to lots of great stuff. I remember the good things that those stores did and try to incorporate that into Studio Records. I have also been to a lot of current stores, and if I find something that I like, I will implement it. There is a great store in OKC called Guest Room that I like a lot. 

You guys have been praised for your wide selection. Does your wide selection reflect your personal taste? How does your taste in music influence what you put on your shelves? 

We pride ourselves on having the widest selection that we can possibly afford to have. While my personal taste varies from Punk to Jazz to old school Country, I try not to have it influence what we carry. We listen to what our customers ask for and try to serve them all. We are within a mile of the University of Tulsa, so we get a lot of college students and certainly keep up with new artists. Still, we also get a lot of people from out of town and a surprising number of people from other countries, so we get lots of different requests. My philosophy is to listen and talk with your customers; you will learn what they want. 

You guys also buy used collections. What is the largest collection you guys have had to look through? Do you have any stories of finding hidden gems in these collections? 

We have certainly had some interesting buys. One of the biggest was from a farm out in the country. The man, who had recently passed away, was a guitarist who played in many local country and bluegrass bands for around 50 years. His house and barn were literally filled with milk crates filled with records; all alphabetized and in plastic sleeves.

Additionally, he collected multiple copies of each record. A lot was country and bluegrass, but there were also blues guitarists, classical guitarists, and world music artists. We lost count at well over 250 crates! And we continually find rare records mixed in with everyday titles. The most expensive one was either a first pressing of the Velvet Underground’s first record with a perfect cover with the banana still unpeeled or a rare Introducing The Beatles original with an “ad back” cover.

Tulsa has a lot of good music venues and a rich musical history- do you feel the city doesn’t get the reputation it should? If so, why do you think it is getting slighted? 

I think it is starting to now that we have both the Bob Dylan and Woody Guthrie centers open and the continuing popularity of Cain’s Ballroom and Leon Russell’s Church Studio. Tulsa has had a rich history of great musicians and continues to this day. I think the city is really more open to promoting the music scene here than it used to. We do hear talk now of Tulsa being the “next” Austin or whatever as a music city. We are the “now” Tulsa! Great musicians, bands, creatives, venues, etc. Come check out our city! 

Have any noteworthy musicians ever shopped in your store, and do you have a story to share about that visit? 

We have lots of local musicians that come in our store, but we don’t see too many major out-of-town artists. But we do get a lot of touring bands at the clubs that stop by. And some of the artists that record at the Church Studio or Teagarden Studio do come by. We had the Dropkick Murphys shop when they were recording, and so forth. However, we have had quite a few actors come by while filming in town (they are now doing a lot of films here). One of the cool things we got to do was provide a bunch of records for some scenes from Reservation Dogs when that was filming!  

What is the rarest or most expensive vinyl to come through your doors? Do you have any bucket list pressings you hope to acquire? 

As I might have mentioned before, I think the most expensive was the Beatles or Velvets albums, but we have had some butcher covers and some really rare country and blues records. And we have found quite a few jazz records in the $300-$500 range. 

Where do you see the future of the physical music medium going in the next decade? Do you see CDs or cassettes making a comeback or any other form?

For us, we are seeing a slowing of the incredible growth of vinyl, but it certainly is not going away. Pricing is the main issue there, particularly on some of the new releases. This seems to be more impactful on younger customers. Instead of buying 3-4 records, they might only get 2. But they are still buying. Used remains strong. The CD market is growing again now, which may have something to do with the vinyl pricing. We can not seem to expand our CD selection fast enough! Cassettes are interesting. We get a lot of requests, but sales are still a bit slow on those for us. We are committed and will see how it goes this year. 

You sell turntables and speakers. What setup would you recommend for beginner collectors, and what about more seasoned vinyl fanatics? 

We sell audio supplies and beginner-type speakers and turntables. We have a good relationship with the premier audio store in town, so we send our customers there for more expensive gear. We do well with the edifier bookshelf speakers. They are priced right and sound great with our turntables. We do a lot with audio technica turntables, but my choice is the Music Hall US-1 turntable (manual turntable), which has a pair of DB1280 Edifier speakers. Music Hall really makes reliable and GREAT-sounding turntables. That pair will run you $350 or so all in and is a great way to start! We sell a lot of those setups.