But it's not just about size. It's also about diversity. Looking for the ultrarare, out-of-print LP, "I Get That Lonesome Feeling" by bluesman Ivory Joe Hunter? Amoeba has it. How about a one-of-a-kind Japanese import of the Byrds' "Ballad of Easy Rider"? Got that too. At a time when the music industry is mired in another one of its slumps and most retailers are placing smaller orders and stocking fewer titles, Amoeba covers a dazzling array of music genres and subgenres: experimental, electronica, New Orleans, dance, hip-hop, Appalachian, New Age, Celtic. Its classical section alone carries 15,000 CDs, roughly three times as many as one of the bigger Tower stores. But that's not all. Amoeba devotes every square inch of its space to selling stuff. Instead of wasting real estate on promotional displays from the record labels (as do most of the chains), Amoeba's walls are plastered with historic posters: the Beatles at the Palladium, B.B. King in Hamburg, the Who and Santana at the Fillmore. Says tattooed Amoeba salesman Nick Tyhurst, as he takes in the mind-bending display of art: "First you get high on it, then you buy it." [Fast Company]