At first glance, No Radio Records may seem a bit bare: a handful of filled CD shelves, paintings on the wall, a back room with some vintage furniture. Owner Bob Proehl said good intentions are more important than filling the empty space.

“This is not a massively lucrative endeavor,” Proehl said. “If you’re going to get into [the record business], you’re in it because you love doing it, you love listening to music, you love introducing people to new music.”

Located less than a half mile from No Radio Records is Volume Records on The Commons. Both stores are independently owned and offer new and used CDs and vinyl. Volume Records, which opened in May, and No Radio Records, which opened last month, have replaced Ithaca’s former record store, Sounds Fine, now located in Elmira.

Volume Records opened with the combined efforts of owners Steven Holzbaur, Pete Wolfanger and Jennie Stearns. The bare brick walls of the store’s interior accommodate a modest rack of CDs on the left and an impressive selection of vinyl on the right, something for everyone. Holzbaur has seen different people walk in, listening to different forms of music.

“I’m finding young people who are getting into old vinyl, and people in their 40s and 50s getting into new indie music,” Holzbaur said. “There’s such a cross pollination. It’s a great time to be listening to music and collecting.”

Volume Records houses a collection of new and used CDs spanning the rock/pop, rap, blues, jazz, Americana, funk and international genres with a section devoted to local musicians as well. Record collectors will be pleased to know the store boasts an equally diverse old/used/new/traded vinyl selection.

Owner Pete Wolfanger said the eclecticism of Volume’s music is a credit to the musical tastes of its owners.

“We each have our own interests,” Wolfanger said. “Steve is really great with the funk, soul, R&B. I like a lot of indie music and alt-country music. Jennie likes a lot of alt- country and country. So between the three of us we cover a lot of interests.”

No Radio Records has only been open for two weeks, but it has come a long way. Owner Bob Proehl said he wanted to create a record store that combined music with other aspects of Ithaca’s downtown and college culture. With a little help from about 20 friends, Proehl transformed a former tattoo parlor into a colorfully original record store.

Proehl’s ideas to make No Radio Records into more than a mere record store range from adorning its walls with local art to inviting local bands, such as Idatel, and out-of-town bands, such as Nat Baldwin Trio, to play in the store.

“I want people to really participate in this space,” Proehl said.

Specializing in mainly new and used CDs, Proehl said he wants No Radio Records to be a reliable source for the newest, less mainstream CDs. From early Pink Floyd to Whiskeytown, Velvet Underground to Built to Spill, No Radio Records’ humble selection of music already holds great albums through and through.

Volume Records and No Radio Records offer Ithaca such different outlets for music and culture it’s no surprise they feel little competition with one another.

Zug Thompson, an employee at Volume Records, is happy to see the new record stores. “It’s really exciting that we have two independent record shops in downtown Ithaca after there really was only one shop, Sounds Fine … ,” Thompson said.

But students in this college town are immersed in the age of iTunes, LimeWire and other sites for music.

A stark difference exists between downloading music online and purchasing music at a store. Volume Records and No Radio Records provide something that online music cannot: genuine human contact. Paul Buchholz, a regular at Volume Records, said he values the intimacy of an independent record store.

“I like to know that there is some kind of personal exchange going on where you go and talk to somebody when you buy a record,” Buchholz said.

Ithaca College students like freshman Alana Murphy are torn between tight budgets and moral stances on the subject of music purchasing and downloading.

“I’m a student, I’m grappling to pay for everything and since I’m a freshman it’s hard for me to get off campus,” Murphy said. “But being a musician, there’s still that guilt of not supporting [artists].”

Both Volume Records and No Radio Records supply Ithaca with fresh music, which is what links both stores. But while people download music, these stores offer other perks to purchasing music that the Internet doesn’t have.

“There’s a ton of great music that people aren’t being exposed to,” Holzbaur said. “We’re going to have to be on top of that to really stay in business.”