Thoughts on 2010's Record Store Day, What are your thoughts?
April 19, 2010 
16 Comments
I have read a lot of thoughts about this year’s Record Store Day and figured I would share with you a few thoughts I had. While there is no way on the planet to make every vinyl collector in the world happy, I think that Record Store Day is a fantastic celebration of Vinyl Collecting, Independent Record Stores, and Nerdiness. I thought I was being pretty slick by getting to my favorite indie store, Twist and Shout at 9:45 (15 minutes before they open). When I parked and walked towards the entrance, I noticed that there were already 40 people ahead of me. While I was pretty bummed that this pretty much assured me that I wasn’t going to be able to get the new Hold Steady album, I was so excited for Record Stores and Physical music sales. I worked in Record Stores in college and I can tell you that never once I had I seen a line like this. By the time, Twist and Shout opened up its doors, there were probably 80 people in line. That is just amazing.
I had my list and had the releases highlighted that I wanted to get. The mob around each of the vinyl sections made it difficult to move around, but I found nearly everything on my list. There were a few records that I was unable to get (Pavement and Hold Steady), but I texted a friend of mine at Angelo’s in Littleton (a smaller indie store) who said that they had both records and he would be happy to buy them for me. This should serve as a reminder that some of the smaller stores involved in Record Store Day are just as likely to have the really hard to find releases and are definitely worth hitting up. You might even have a buddy go to a different store and help you get the records you can’t find at the store you are at.
So the tough question is how will brick and mortar record stores get these vinyl collectors to keep coming to their stores? I think that the key for Record Stores is to have exclusive releases you can’t get everywhere else. Vinyl Collective learned this lesson when we starting taking pre-orders of the Gaslight Anthem’s 59 Sound. We had an exclusive color (white) and sold nearly 500 copies in 42 minutes. Had all of these Record Store Day releases been available at internet retailers prior to record store day, I know for a fact that the enthusiasm would not have been as big. If I am not mistaken Record Store day will happen each month with exclusive releases; hopefully this will get those customers to come back every month.
I have seen a lot of talk about the number of records already showing up on Ebay and how this act of flipping is troubling. While I agree that it is frustrating to see 20 copies of the new Hold Steady fetching between $50 and $200 on Ebay, this is also the reason why people lined up at record stores and bought with a fervor that doesn’t happen but once a year. We all know that as much as we all say we buy records just to listen to, it definitely doesn’t hurt to know that we have records that are valueable.
A thought that entered my head as I saw 80 people that I am pretty sure never ordered from Vinyl Collective, I think it would be amazing to put together night at a local bar where we played new records, discussed vinyl, and drank some beer. I am thinking about setting up one in Denver, each of you should put something together in each of your towns. Maybe a local record store in each town could help sponsor the event by giving free records to listen to and giveaways. Maybe the bar or tasting room could offer a happy hour drink special. Would you attend something like this in your town?
If I didn’t have my son’s soccer game to go to that day (I am the soccer coach), I would have gone to Wax Trax, Angelo’s, and Independent. i would have drank beer at Twist and Shout (they had a free keg), and I would have seen Taun Taun at Twist and Shout. Although I only went to Twist and Shout, that whole weekend found me discussing Record Store Day with my friends from all around the world.
A few noteworthy releases include: The Hold Steady (it’s really cool that they offered a pre-release vinyl version of the album 3 weeks prior to street date); the Pavement best of (how cool is it that they allowed one lucky fan to pick the best of track listing), Fuck Up 7″ (I think it is such a great idea that they enlisted record stores to submit cover images and made specific versions of the 7″ with various record store images; bummed I couldn’t get a Wax Trax (denver store) version in Denver though), the Joe Strummer vinyl releases (kudos to Epitaph/Hellcat for recognizing that there were people who wanted to see this album on vinyl), and the Hot Water Music 7″ (always love seeing the die-cut Hot Water Music logo; it looks so damn classy).
What were the noteworthy releases you found, what were your overall thoughts on Record Store Day, and what would you change for Record Store Day 2011?
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