After a nearly15-year presence in Downtown Long Beach, music and record stalwart Fingerprints Music will be shuttering its DTLB doors in order to move to a new and better suited space in Bixby Knolls come April. Located at 3811 Atlantic Ave., the newer space will provide more freedom for the music shop to, bluntly put it, survive healthily.
“I want to respond to our customers’ needs” owner Rand Foster said. “I’ve been extremely fortunate— something I don’t take lightly- but I am constantly on the lookout for the next opportunity to do something cool. And honestly—this new space? It has incredible potential to be cool.”
The evolution of cities and their cores brought Fingerprints to a move, reflecting a larger part of its story.
Fingerprints Music, no matter how it is diced, is a destination space that happily moves and evolves.
And such a destination space in SoCal means accommodation on a level where, well, the people who want to access it can easily do so. It marked why the space originally moved from Belmont Shore: Rand ultimately felt like he was “paying the price” for the neighborhood’s sought-after walk-by traffic only to have patrons simply walk by. Which signaled to Rand that Fingerprints wasn’t in its most viable space.
“When people saw the store in Downtown Long Beach, they realized, ‘Oh. Got it. This makes total sense,'” Rand said. “And I know people, once they pull up to our new spot, will have the same reaction.”
Across the past decade, the DTLB location of Fingerprints has seen construction on nearly every major parcel surrounding it, including the former parking lot directly to its east. Slowly but surely, its ability to welcome travelers from afar became significantly stifled with the decrease in parking, according to Rand.
“Any downtown is going to have issues; I fully grasp why the city has accommodated development,” Rand said. “I, however, don’t think one particular neighborhood is more removed from those concerns than any other. With Downtown [Long Beach], I feel we have a density issue that isn’t necessarily geared toward the immediate success of small businesses like Fingerprints… I think the city has worked really hard to appeal to developers but it comes with a cost shouldered by many of our small businesses. It doesn’t necessarily have to be that way.”
With its last in-store show at its DTLB location complete, Fingerprints is ready to take a dive into its new space.
With a roster that includes everyone from boygenius and Grimes to Foo Fighters and Tegan & Sara, Fingerprints has a lush, rich history of in-store performances that have made it a staple in the larger music community. Artists ranging from Taylor Swift to Lady Gaga have sent the store signed copies of their records while acts like the aforementioned revere the space.
On Feb. 28, Banks welcomed the Downtown space’s last in-store performance and it was clear that Rand was speaking— likely without much audience knowledge— as to why the show was so important.
“It was hard to not make the final live performance a big deal while I was talking up there, because it was her release day, and how happy she was to be there,” Rand said. “A lot of my intro and outro was coded because I was trying to say what I couldn’t say. It was the last time we would have that in that space and, being real, it was emotional. But rest assured: the new space is going to be even more impactful.”
There’s, oh, much more to come for the famed record shop.
When it comes to their new space, Rand assures us that Fingerprints has many more missions. One is to directly connect with its new neighbors, with Rand planning on doing what he does best: Showing up face-to-face to talk about his store’s presence in a community, and his ideas as to what the future of Fingerprints brings.
But for now? It is to let the music play for just a little while longer in Downtown.
“Downtown, for me and for the collective spirit of the store, will always be a part of the Fingerprints story” Rand said. “There’s no question about that. As for its new home, we expect it will be woven into Bixby Knolls.”
Fingerprints will eventually be located at 3811 Atlantic Ave.
Although I love the store in DTLB, I’ve gotta admit that I am excited about the move to Bixby Knolls as it is closer to my home in Lakewood. The parking in DTLB was terrible – sometimes I would not go into the store because of it. With parking made as a priority at the new location, and knowing there is plenty of it on the street and in the surrounding neighborhoods, at least that will make me feel better about the move. I’m also excited that my fellow neighbors will be able to discover this great store as it will be closer to them.
Second paragraph: “Customer’s” suggests Fingerprints has just one customer. The apostrophe should be after the second S.
Correct and thank you.
Agree with Mario. I like the downtown space but getting down there is a hassle, and parking means I usually just spend a few minutes getting what I came for rather than looking around.