ear X-tacy first opened in 1985 in a 500 ft² (46 m²) building stocked with John Timmons' personal records "and a cash advance on his MasterCard." The store name came from the band XTC, of which owner John Timmons is a fan. As the store grew, it changed location three times over a period of sixteen years; it then remained in the same location, in a former bathroom fixtures showroom on Bardstown Road just south of Eastern Parkway in The Highlands, until late July 2010. It then moved to the Douglass Loop, a former streetcar turnaround point on Bardstown Road about 1 mile (1.6 km) southeast of its previous location but still in The Highlands.
ear X-tacy carried a wide variety of CDs, cassettes, and vinyl records, and also carried a large stock of DVDs, including many hard-to-find items. In 1995, Timmons launched the ear X-tacy record label, which released records by Louisville-based musicians such as Tim Krekel.
The building that the store occupied before its final move had two stories and 10,000 ft² (930 m²) of floor space. The first floor was dedicated to CDs, DVDs, T-shirts, toys, etc. It also included a stage for live performances and a large selection of small and large stickers mocking current U.S. events or promoting Louisville. The second floor was dedicated to new & used vinyl records. The final store was on one floor, with comparable floor space. Like the previous location, it included a stage.
Due to financial issues, ear X-tacy moved for the final time to a smaller location in 2010, just south of where their previous location was on Bardstown Road. However, the financial issues continued and ear X-tacy owner John Timmons made the decision to permanently close. ear X-tacy officially closed on October 31, 2011, but due to the amount of unsold inventory still remaining after the close, the store held a liquidation sale in December 2011 before officially closing for good.
ear X-tacy also operated a second location in the Eastgate Shopping Center in Middletown from 1992 through 1998.
The store's signature white-on-black logo stickers spawned a local fad wherein people cut up and reassembled the distinctive letters to form other words or phrases, such as "racy aXe" or "area X."
The insert of the Gin Blossoms' New Miserable Experience album features a photo of one of the band members with an ear X-tacy sticker in his mouth. An ear X-tacy sticker is also seen during a pan shot in the Cameron Crowe film "Elizabethtown."
A documentary on ear X-tacy was released in 2012 under the title Brick and Mortar and Love.