How Record Store Day Kickstarted the Vinyl Revival

How Record Store Day kickstarted the vinyl revival

In 2008, only a tiny percentage of releases came out on vinyl and sales of vinyl accounted for just 0.3% of physical album sales. Fast forward to the present and almost all key releases come out on vinyl as well as the CD and digital formats. In 2017 vinyl accounted for 19% of physical album sales, making it the tenth consecutive year to witness a rise in the sales of the vinyl format.

In 2008, £2.9 million was spent on vinyl in the UK. By 2017 the sum had risen to £88.7 million, according to the Official Chart Company.

The digital generation has discovered the joy of owning vinyl and it is no coincidence that the initial rise started following the first Record Store Day (in 2008 in the USA; 2009 in the UK). Since then, sales of vinyl in independent record shops have risen from 78,400 units in 2008 to 1,280,700 in 2017. And overall sales of vinyl records have increased five-fold since 2013 – from 831,000 units to 4,319,300 units in 2017.

Much of the credit for the resurgence of vinyl must go to the inspirational idea of having a day to celebrate record shops. Record Store Day was founded in Baltimore, Maryland in 2008 by a group of record store owners: Michael Kurtz, Eric Levin, Carrie Colliton, Amy Dorfman, Don Van Cleave and Brian Poehner. It has since grown into an annual, worldwide celebration of record shops by artists, record labels and most importantly of all, music fans. For record shops the event, which takes place on the third Saturday of April is more important for trade than Christmas.

Record Store Day queue at David's in Letchworth

Here, in co-founder Michael Kurtz’s own words, is the story of Record Store Day - how a little idea has developed into one of the most important dates in the music calendar.

Record Store Day was originally pitched to me as an idea by Chris Brown, one of the guys who runs Bull Moose out of Portland, Maine. Bull Moose is the largest retailer of new and pre-loved music, movies and video games in Maine and Seacoast New Hampshire with 10 stores, employing over 100 people. Chris had observed how the comic book industry ran an event called Free Comic Day and suggested that we organize a similar event for independently owned record stores. I run an organization called the Department of Record Stores. DORS is now the largest of the indie coalitions in the US and Canada. Part of my job is bringing together indie retail stores for an annual event called Noise in the Basement, held in Baltimore. At the 2008 event I posed the idea for Record Store Day to folks in my group, as well as to Newbury Comics, Criminal Records, and the Coalition of Independent Music Stores. At the time, everyone was grousing about all the negative press on record stores and how, even though there had been a good deal of expansion in our world over the past few years, everything that was reported about record stores in the media was bad. Record Store Day would simply be an excuse to throw a party for ourselves and the artists we love, as well as get the real story on record stores out to the media. Chris originally pitched the idea of Record Store Day, which I took to some of the other great indie stores in the country as well as to the Coalition of Independent Music Stores and the Alliance of Music Stores (two noteworthy indie coalitions).

 After getting the stores on board, I felt that the best way to see if the idea had legs was to see if the artists themselves would support us. Paul McCartney had recently released Memory Almost Full  and had celebrated its release with an intimate in-store event at Amoeba Records, in Los Angeles (with Ringo in the audience!). Shooting for the stars, I reached out to the Hear Music/Concord label (owned by TV producer, and huge music fan Norman Lear). I asked them if they would alert Paul to what we were doing with Record Store Day and see if Paul would give us a word of support. I was stunned when an email from Paul appeared in my inbox saying “There’s nothing as glamorous to me as a record store. When I recently played Amoeba in LA, I realized what fantastic memories such a collection of music brings back when you see it all in one place. This is why I’m more than happy to support Record Store Day and I hope that these kinds of stores will be there for us all for many years to come. Cheers.”

 Almost all the folks who run record stores grew up with The Beatles so getting a note from Paul gave us the strength to say “Yes, we are pretty cool. We can do this.” From there the messages started cascading in from the likes of Chuck Berry, Mike Patton, Tom Waits, Nick Hornby and Cameron Crowe, amongst many others. I then took the message of Record Store Day to Mike Sherwood at Warner Bros and to Marc Reiter, who was based at a management firm called Q Prime to see if Metallica would get involved in their hometown of San Francisco.

One of the most exciting days of my life was getting the call from Marc saying that the band loved record stores and the idea of Record Store Day so they would help launch it at Rasputin in their hometown of San Francisco. Having Metallica participate was especially gratifying to me as I always thought Lars Ulrich got a raw deal from the media for having the audacity to speak up about not embracing peer-to-peer networks because he thought Metallica, along with other artists, should be paid for their work. What a concept.

Anyway, Metallica ended up being incredibly nice to work with and they treated their fans like royalty insisting that they be given time to meet and talk with each and every one of them circling and fanning out from the store for what seemed like miles. It was, as Lou Reed, once sang, a “perfect day”. Others joined in like Steve Earle who performed at Manifest Discs in Charlotte, NC and Panic at the Disco played at Waterloo Records in Austin, TX. Pretty much all the major labels and distribution companies embraced the idea and created wonderful promotional/collectible pieces like vinyl LPs and 7-inch singles to give out freely to music fans on the day. We even had various commercial products made for us by artists like REM, Stephen Malkmus, Built To Spill, Death Cab For Cutie, and Jason Mraz. A group of about 200 or so stores in the USA jumped into the fray and before we knew it the news media was reporting our positive story pretty much everywhere from the NY Times to the BBC to CNN. This was our beginning.

2009 was our second year for Record Store Day and I don’t think anyone was prepared for what took place, or how exciting it would be. The labels and distributors showed record stores a massive amount of love and created close to 100 commercial pieces made specifically for Record Store Day and independent record stores. We had Radiohead, the Flaming Lips, Wilco, the Smiths, Iggy Pop and the Stooges, Iron And Wine, Tom Waits, Bruce Springsteen, Sonic Youth, Leonard Cohen, the Killers, Bob Dylan, Slayer, Dead Weather and the Black Kids involved in one way or another.

Apple Records even gave the stores beautiful hand numbered Beatles’ lithographs. Jeff Tweedy from Wilco issued a statement saying, “My introduction to a lot of great music and to the music business came from hanging around and eventually working at independent record stores. It’s the life I know. Nothing beats browsing in your favourite store, listening to music, finding something new or old that you’ve been searching for, being ignored by the store clerks, all that. Without these stores, there’s just no way Wilco would still be around. They’ve been there with us from the very beginning, through thick and thin. Even if I wasn’t in a band, I’d still support Record Store Day.”

With artist statements like Jeff’s coming out with regularity and a press release from NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg declaring Record Store Day as an officially recognised day by the city of New York, media coverage on Record Store Day began to build. By the time the day hit, Record Store Day reached the No.5 Google news item of the day, ranking #34 as the most googled term of the day. 10% of all tweets for that day were about Record Store Day, and our story went worldwide. The result was the creation of a new event that hundreds of both established and developing artists embraced, including Ani DiFranco, Wilco, Disturbed, Erykah Badu, the Eagles of Death Metal, Talib Kweli, the Silversun Pickups, Chris Cornell, Ashford & Simpson and so on. Record Store Day now brings even more people through the doors than Christmas.

The dark side of Record Store Day was having a few embittered indie stores attack the organisers of Record Store Day. This was a bit of a shocker, but as I reached out to each of the stores to work with them so that they could fully understand what we were doing, everything came together. For the most part, the American indie record store community is fully now behind Record Store Day, so all the hard work was worth it, and we accomplished what we set out to do.

The bad press, paranoia and the weirdness has gone, replaced by innovation fuelled by local community spirit. It’s the essence of rock n’ roll. You could see this in the indie record store that Record Store Day erected on site with Zia Records (out of Arizona) at the Coachella Music Festival in California. Over 80 bands stepped in to participate and meet fans and over 30% of everything sold was on vinyl. It was a huge success, allowing us to take our story directly to the music fans at arguably the world’s coolest three-day music festival. Progress in rolling out Record Store Day internationally has gone well, with over 300 stores joining in from around the world. Our main task now is working to help international stores get commercial pieces made for Record Store Day in their respective countries so that Record Store Day can continue to grow and strengthen local record stores everywhere.”

The UK record shops were first involved in 2009 but only a handful of shops took part with a limited selection of releases. Since those humble beginnings it is now the most important day in music retailing for record shops. Each store celebrates Record Store Day in its own way. As part of their individual celebrations, most shops have a day of bands playing in-store, unique offers, and product giveaways.

The record companies have embraced Record Store Day. Last year there were more than 400 exclusive releases that could only be obtained from independent record shops. The film Last Shop Standing featured scenes from Record Store Day of a staggering 900 people queuing outside Rough Trade East in London, and more than 400 people waiting outside Record Collector in Sheffield. People are often astonished to see this, not realising just how big the event has become.

What Record Store day achieved was to encourage music fans back into visiting independent record shops. Once there, they discovered and, in many cases, re-discovered the pleasure visiting a record shop can bring. By releasing exclusive records, it re-ignited the interest in record collecting.

The event has attracted extra publicity by each year appointing a Record Store Day Ambassador. In recent years artists such as Metallica, Chuck D, Dave Grohl, Jack White, St Vincent, Iggy Pop and in 2018 rap duo Run The Jewel have fulfilled the role, giving media interviews and live events to help promote the day. Many artists have fond memories of making their first record and finding that the local independent record shop would be the first to stock it. By supporting Record Store Day those artists are giving something back.

In 2017 Record Store Day celebrated its 10^th anniversary and each year is better than the last. Every year the event makes changes that lead to improvements both for the retailers and customers. They have done sterling work taking on the scourge of Record Store Day, the “flippers”, a term used to describe the people who queue outside shops on Record Store Day, purchase the most collectable items then go home and immediately put them on eBay to make a vast profit. These people are despised by shops, labels and music fans as they deprive true vinyl fans of titles they want in the same way as ticket touts do with concert tickets. Johnny Marr referred to flippers as tossers and urged people not to buy from them. If a shop sells a collectable Record Store Day piece for £20 and a flipper turns around and sells it for £100, then the shop and the record label have made a small profit on the £20 whilst the flipper has made £80. If labels sell the record for a higher price, the artist gets more royalties, with the flipper making less profit but neither label nor shop wishes to increase the price. Record labels and shops are not in the business of making flippers a living. They are in the business of giving music fans what they want.

Record Store Day rules say that it is first come first served. In the early days of the event, shops would inform me that they would have people at the front of the queue that they had never seen in the shop before spending a four-figure sum clearing many of the collectable releases out. Since then I have always advised new shops taking part in the day for the first time to limit the queue to purchasing a maximum of five titles for one copy of each. After that they would have to return to the back of the queue if they wish to purchase more. This ensures the stock is spread out and limits the impact of flippers.

It is also the disgruntled who shout loudest. Following Record Store Day 2017, the internet was full of people complaining about flippers. Record Store Day founder Michael Kurtz commented: “There are about 600,000 pieces that were sold on Record Store Day, out of 650,000 that were shipped to stores, and of those, I think about 7,000 ended up on eBay. So that’s about 1 per cent. That’s good to know, that almost 99 per cent of everything goes home to a music fan.”

I think that shows that things are not as bad as some media commentators would have us believe. Record Store Day organisers have done their utmost to make life difficult for flippers. They watermarked the cover photos of stock with giant anti-resale text saying “support record shops not flippers”. This made the artwork unusable, thereby safeguarding it from pre-selling on the internet. Flippers had to wait until after Record Store Day to obtain the real photos up online.

Many observers lay the blame for flipping with eBay, for apparently doing nothing to stop it. Record Store Day organisers have appealed to eBay not to allow listings, but to no avail. With Record Store Day stock, flippers often post things on eBay that they don’t even have. Often the stock is not even shipped yet. They are taking a gamble that on the day they can queue early and obtain the item and fulfil the order they have already taken. Flippers are the parasites of the music industry, so save your ire for them not the Record Store Day organisers.

The UK event is organised by ERA (Entertainment Retailers Association) and the work this organisation has done in shaping Record Store Day has been outstanding.

Formed in 1988, when it was first known as BARD (British Association of Record Dealers), the Entertainment Retailers Association is a UK trade organisation which acts as a forum for the physical and digital retail and wholesale sectors of the music, video and games industries.

It represents all types of retailers who sell both physical and digital music, as well as video and games sellers, and is a must-join body for independent record shops as membership has many advantages.

ERA membership benefits for record shops include:

-       Free sign up to Record Store Day for eligible record shops.

-       Payment for music data if the shop contributes to the Official Charts. In some cases, a shop may receive more than the £100 cost of ERA subscription.

-       Access to chart data, free legal advice from the ERA office, plus much more.

If you are planning to open a record shop, joining ERA is essential. The ERA board is made up of 18 to 20 members covering the full spectrum of entertainment retail. Currently the board consists of representatives of 7digital, Amazon, Deezer, Game, Google, HMV, Isotope, Proper Music, Sainsburys, Sky, SoundCloud, Spotify and Tesco. Six people sit on the board to represent the independent record shops.

The organisation has a fascinating history and is modelled on a USA trade association known as NARM (National Association of Recording Merchandisers) which was formed in 1958. This trade body looked after the interests of music retailers, wholesalers and merchandisers. Each year they would hold a huge conference attended by members from all over the country. It was re-named MusicBiz (Music Business Association) in 2013.

NARM had carried out its work for 30 years when one of its board members Russ Soloman (the founder of Tower Records in the USA) paid a visit to Steve Smith the chief of Tower in the UK. Russ asked Steve if they could meet up with the UK equivalent of NARM. Steve informed him that no such trade body existed.

Determined to do something about this, Steve Smith hosted a get-together with Russ Soloman and other NARM members with the senior executives of UK multiple retailers, wholesalers and independent record store owners. At that meeting it was agreed that retail should have a voice within the music industry and Steve Smith was elected the first Chairman of BARD.

It was not all sweetness and light at the beginning, and BARD was certainly not welcomed with open arms. There was a fair share of scepticism from the independent record stores who suspected that BARD would become a talking shop for, and controlled by, the multiple music retailers of the time such as Woolworths, Boots, WH Smith, HMV, Virgin, Andys and Our Price. However, when it became clear which issues BARD was looking to address, the independent shops realised there was a lot of common ground, and were won over. Soon BARD began to have a big impact on how the industry worked. The first major achievement was to create a joint venture with the record labels for compiling and managing the sales charts and to secure payment for its members sales data. Unbelievably, this information had previously been supplied for free. This arrangement forms the basis of today’s Official Charts and has since become a regular source of income to ERA and its members.

One of the most important decisions from an environmental point of view BARD took was not to go along with the longbox packaging adopted by stores in the USA to display CDs. Millions of trees have been saved by this decision. When the CD was marketed in the USA, retailers complained that CDs did not fit into the old LP racks. Instead of informing retailers that if they wanted to stock this exciting new format they would need to purchase new racking, the record companies pandered to them by supplying CDs in long boxes which although only slightly wider than a CD were the same height as an LP. This meant record shops could use the LP browsers to rack out CDs. With millions of CDs being sold every year the sheer waste and extra cost of so much needless packaging was mind-boggling. Fortunately, BARD had the foresight to resist using the longbox packaging in the UK. It was decades before the Americans came to their senses and started packaging CDs the way we do in Europe.

Initially, the organisation was run by people who already had a full-time job in the music industry, such as Brian McLaughlin the managing director of HMV and Andy Gray owner of the Andys record shop chain. But after a while it made sense to employ somebody full time, and ex-CBS man Bob Lewis was appointed to the role of Director General. One of the first issues he addressed was the chaotic shipment of new release product. It is hard to believe now, but back then the UK delivery system did not enable all retailers to sell new releases at the same time. BARD created a level playing field and achieved cost savings by requiring all product to be shipped for release on a Monday.

Next on the agenda was to sort out the confusion created by not having a uniform standard for barcodes which made reporting chart information difficult, time consuming and costly. In addition to these administrative improvements, BARD started making voluntary contributions to support the fight against music piracy as well as negotiating with banks to reduce fees being charged to its members.

Many of today’s industry events such as the BRITS and the Mercury Music prize came out of collaborations between BARD and different sectors of the industry. The Mercury Music prize was created by BARD board member David Tyrell and Jon Webster from the BPI whist BARD members participated and helped the growth of the BRIT Awards.

Bob Lewis retired from the job of Director General in 2004 having done a brilliant job of bringing together all sides of retail to work together. He had always been able to negotiate from a position of strength as more than 90% of music sales in the UK were conducted by BARD members.

Bob passed the baton of Director General on to Kim Bayley who had started her career as a commercial lawyer before joining BARD in 2002 as Director of Development.

One of her first tasks was to expand the membership to encompass all forms of retail including the nascent digital music sector. Her role also involved fighting piracy, a major problem for the industry then which was depriving artists and retailers of income. In 2002 alone almost 300 artist sites providing illegal MP3 downloads and approximately 450 auction sites were taken down.

Under her leadership and due to the changing nature of the membership the name was changed to ERA (Entertainment Retailers Association). The organisation represents those who sell music, video and games including record shops, supermarkets, online retailers and digital services so the British Association of Record Dealers was a name that no longer reflected the membership.

Kim also encouraged Paul Quirk, an independent record shop owner who sat on the board as an independent record shop representative to organise the first indie record shop conference, which was held in Birmingham. He persuaded retailers and suppliers to meet up for one day to showcase products and discuss the future of the indie retailer. It gave the record shop owners a valuable opportunity to question the policies of the suppliers at a time when many shop owners suspected that record companies no longer cared about them, and that their priorities were now selling to supermarkets and the internet companies.

Paul Quirk’s message to the shops was “Be independent but don’t be isolated“. He emphasized that the idea of the conference was for record shops to communicate with each other and work together in unison.

Further indie record shop conferences were held in Birmingham in 2006 before relocating to London in 2007 and 2008. One thing ERA could not do was negotiate pricing with record companies. This resulted in some record shops who belonged to ERA forming a new group calling themselves The Coalition to fulfil this role and focus on independent retail. Around 25 shops signed up, the idea being that together they would be in a stronger position to negotiate deals with the record companies. The Coalition did not last long, however. Arguments on whether to allow all record shops to join or whether to restrict the membership to “cutting edge” shops created a split in the ranks.

Apart from reaffirming ERA’s position as the organization best-placed to represent indie retail, one positive legacy of The Coalition’s brief existence was that many of its members’ shops took part in the UK’s first Record Store Day. After hearing that the USA had started a day celebrating independent record shops, Spencer Hickman from Rough Trade decided to bring the event over to the UK. He was the driving force behind Record Store Day, encouraging both shops and record companies to take part and attracting some excellent media coverage of the event.  With only a small selection of official releases to mark the occasion, it was up to the shops to make the day a success.

Spencer continued organising RSD, with ERA first getting involved in an administrative role and providing the services of industry PR Steve Redmond. ERA also set up the Record Store Day website with a store locator facility, which proved a significant success in putting the individual shops on the map. For the first time, potential customers could submit their postcode and immediately be pointed in the direction of their nearest independent record shop.

In 2012, it was decided that Record Store Day would stage a launch event designed to bring in extra publicity. Exclusive releases would be announced and there would be a party for retailers and the media. Spencer Hickman pulled off a coup in booking a couple of top artists - Public Image Ltd and Orbital - to play at a secret location in Shoreditch.

On the week of the event, disaster struck. The person in charge of looking after the bands and venue for the evening pulled out. Not only that, when the ERA representatives arrived at the venue, they discovered it was a shell with no facilities such as a green room.

While frantic calls were made to draft in an event organiser to sort out the mess, ERA’s Kim Bailey headed to the pub across the road to see if by chance they had a room that could serve as the green room. Thankfully for the bargain price of £50 the pub agreed to let Kim rent an upstairs room, fully equipped with balcony, bar and sofas, but no staff. Although Kim and Paul Quirk had no experience in this field, they set to work on the rest of the event. They were handed a rider (catering agreement) from the bands requiring food, wine and beer. No problem, they thought. The green room was in a pub with a bar. Sadly, the pub did not stock any of the wines or beers that the band had requested. Kim and Paul set off through the streets of Shoreditch on a treasure hunt. Luckily, they found a beer and wine warehouse which could supply the required brands of booze. The warehouse even lent the duo a trolley. It was tiresome work dodging the crowds as they returned to the venue with Paul pushing the trolley while Kim held on to the stock.

 
They had just finished loading the drinks in to the dressing room when one of the managers approached. He informed the duo that the band would not perform unless they provided a dozen fluffy white towels. With only 30 minutes before Public Image Ltd were due to take the stage, the duo set off again. It was now 9.30pm, where on earth in London could you pick up fluffy white towels? They started popping in to hotels explaining that they had a packed venue with the legendary John Lydon waiting to perform, but the gig could not start till they had procured a dozen fluffy white towels. After some early rebukes, they found a friendly Sex Pistols fan working at the Shoreditch Premier Inn who kindly lent them the towels for the evening.

After all this palaver and against all the odds the evening turned out to be a huge success. Paul has fond memories of John Lydon and the band staying long after the event finished, happy to chat to all who wanted a word with them and Kim serving Coronas from the bar.

The following year, the Record Store Day launch party took place at Rough Trade East with Tom Odell headlining. It is now a much-anticipated day and in subsequent years many of the shops also started holding their own launch parties.

Record Store Day does attract criticism a lot of it unjust. Nothing is perfect, and each year ERA have taken steps to address any issues that have cropped up. To counteract complaints, ERA launched a communications offensive, visiting as many record shops as possible as well as holding regional meetings for shops to offer feedback on the day. In the early years the event had problems with product being sold online before the day. ERA brought in strict rules forbidding any retailers from doing this. Shops were removed from Record Store Day if they breached the rules. This eliminated the problem as no record shop in the country would risk losing the right to take part in this amazing event.

Those who criticise often have short memories. Before Record Store Day started, the only queue you were likely to see outside a record shop was for a closing down sale.

ERA have attracted sponsorship from the likes of Rega Turntables and Friels First Press Vintage Cider, Fred Perry and Sound Performance to help fund the event.

Each year for Record Store Day, Rega produce 500 RSD turntables of which thirteen are signed by artists such as Liam Gallagher, Jarvis Cocker and Tim Burgess. I am proud to say that I started the ball rolling with Rega’s involvement in the day. Before the Last Shop Standing film was released I gave a talk at the End of the Road festival where I showed a trailer for the film. In the audience were a couple of the team from Rega who informed me they would be happy to sponsor the film. I was delighted they got involved, and from there it led on to them being an RSD sponsor.

Friels have proved a very popular sponsor. Anybody who sends record shops free cider is immediately loved. They even produce a Record Store Day cider and do a brilliant job of promoting the day through giveaways and competitions via social media.

ERA took on a young graduate, Megan Page, to work full time on the event and she has taken to the role with relish, working tirelessly as the link between shops, suppliers, and the media.

In 2015 they secured the support of BBC 6 Music to promote RSD. The station spends the time leading up to RSD playing tracks from forthcoming RSD releases, interviewing artists and staff in the shops taking part in the big day. The day before RSD, they broadcast the Lauren Laverne show live from a record shop. In 2016, it was Resident in Brighton, 2017 was Vinyl Tap in Huddersfield and in 2018 Spillers in Cardiff.

A great initiative has been to set up a private Record Store Facebook group for ERA members. Here, shops can communicate with each other, ask advice from other shops and even arrange to swap excess stock. What ERA have created is a record shop community. In the past record shops were in competition with each other. Now they work together in a spirit of co-operation.

A major initiative was to re-introduce a record token scheme. Can you remember when you were a child and your Gran or Auntie would be stuck for ideas on what to buy for your birthday or for Christmas? A record token was always the perfect answer.  Each year thousands were sold, redeemable at any record store across the country. As well as providing a steady source of income for shops, they also enticed people into record stores who may not have otherwise considered entering. Many children’s first experience of buying a record was redeeming a record token at their local shop.

The EMI-administered record token scheme was a consistent success. However, in 1995 WH Smith broke rank and decided no longer to accept universally-redeemable record tokens and, instead, introduced its own token scheme, “locking in" the customer transaction and taking advantage of its network of stores in most towns across the country. Soon, HMV followed suit. Without the support of two of the biggest retailers in the country, EMI decided to abandon the record token. At this point, independents needed to come together and start a new scheme selling tokens which could be redeemed at any independent record shop in the country.  Sadly, nobody took the initiative, and this has cost them millions of pounds in lost revenue.

While many stores have begun selling record tokens which can be redeemed only at their own store, the great thing about EMI’s record tokens was that if you lived in Inverness you could buy a record token for somebody living in Bude, confident that the recipient could spend it locally. During the past few years I have been in record stores dozens of times when people have come in to purchase record tokens, only to see them leave empty-handed after finding that a single-shop scheme did not suit what they needed.

ERA recognised this problem and invested considerable time and money to come up with a solution which offers the opportunity for shops to sell their own record tokens alongside a national record token scheme. For shops who do not do their own record tokens it is a godsend. If you are looking for a present, why not go out and buy a record token?

What the team from ERA have achieved is remarkable. They have made a major contribution to the vinyl revival and I have no doubt that we have more record shops trading today thanks to their efforts. 

Record Store Day is always the best trading day of the year for the retailers. Despite the stress and the extra workload, it is also the most fun. Here are a few of my observations on how the day could be made even better and more importantly help to secure the future of independent record shops.

The industry ought to encourage more artists to be involved in the day itself. That does not mean just releasing product. It is fantastic to see so many groups playing in-stores on Record Store Day, but it tends to be local bands or artists yet to hit the big time. The day lacks big names playing stores. I am sure if artists were aware that record stores would like them to play then many would be delighted to support them. This is about communication. It is down to labels to reach out to their artists and let them know that shops need their support so popping in for a signing or to play a few numbers would give them such a boost. So many artists release product on the day; how about a bit more support for the shops selling their releases?

The very first Record Store Day featured both Metallica and Steve Earle making appearances in shops. I don’t feel we have had any artists personally involved since then who are of that status. If you are a musician, a DJ or work in the media, offer your services to your local record shop for Record Store Day. Give something back to the people who have helped you on the road to success.

The product gets better each year. One gripe is that some of the stock doesn’t arrive until the day before, or in some cases, doesn’t even arrive in time for the Record Store Day itself, which is unforgivable. Staff in many shops have worked well into the night to get stock processed for the next day. This time would be better spent preparing for the day’s events. Stock should be shipped earlier. It is not as if record companies don’t know in advance when Record Store Day is.

Another criticism levelled against Record Store Day from small independent record labels is that, because pressing plants are working flat out in the months leading up to the day itself manufacturing RSD product, there are no opportunities for smaller labels to get records pressed during this period. This issue has received plenty of negative media coverage, but it all comes down to long term planning by the labels concerned. Everybody knows when Record Store Day is and that pressing plants are going to be stretched to full capacity between January and March. The music industry is no different from any other business; forward thinking is required.

Furthermore, looked at from the other side of the fence, this is a problem that reflects the continuing success of RSD. I recently visited a new pressing plant in Portsmouth, where the owner noted with satisfaction that his order book was already full for many months ahead. Such is the continuing strength of the vinyl revival, that there are simply not enough pressing plants to cope with demand for the format.

Music fans may have noticed that on many occasions an artist releases the vinyl at a later date than the CD. This is not a clever marketing trick. More often it is a failure to plan effectively. The label will set a release date to coincide with a tour, then they discover the pressing plant can’t press the vinyl in time for the release date. The CD release goes ahead, as planned, at the start of the tour. But the vinyl release is unintentionally delayed until such time as it can be pressed. It is important for all involved in the industry to understand just how long it takes to get vinyl pressed and to plan accordingly.

Then there is the accusation that Record Store Day is just a cynical opportunity for major labels to rip off music fans with over-priced product. It is important for consumers to appreciate that a small run of vinyl - maybe coloured or a picture disc, often containing a download code and/or booklet - is an expensive thing to manufacture. The artist, the writer, the sleeve designer, the label manager, the label, the distributor and the shop will all be taking a small percentage of the sale of the record. Add VAT and you get a better understanding of the true cost.

It’s all very well harking back to the golden age of vinyl in the 1960s, when a record cost the equivalent of £2.99. But in those days a pint of milk cost £0.06p. And besides, big-selling albums were pressed in batches of 5,000, so manufacturing costs were far lower.

It would help if all involved sought to educate the media and the public that the event is called Record Store Day. I have had people mention to me no end of alternatives

Record Shop Day

Vinyl Day

Record Vinyl Day

Record Day

World Record Day

Record Store Day is a brand that the music industry can be immensely proud of, so all of us involved with it should take care to emphasise the correct name.

It is imperative that shops have artists performing on the day. Many shops offer free coffee or bake record-shaped cakes. Some shops continue the celebrations on through the evening, holding a pop quiz, or a vinyl listening evening where customers can bring their favourite record to be played. Many have DJ sets or more bands playing. There are endless ways for them to engage with their customers beyond simply encouraging them to buy collectable vinyl.  My top tip, which has been adopted with considerable success by some stores, is to keep the celebration going throughout the whole weekend. It requires some creative thinking to entice the customers back again on the Sunday.

I always recommend to the shops I deal with to do a one-day sale where all non-Record Store Day product is 20% or whatever discount they wish to give for that day only. That way customers will stay in the shop and browse instead of just buying their collectables. I like the idea of doing a “CD is not dead” promotion where they offer a discount on the CD stock, ensuring they are appealing to buyers of all formats.

Another of my suggestions is for shops to print their own vouchers offering £5 off a £20 or more purchase in May. This ensures the customer returns. Shops who have implemented this idea tell me they receive 25% - 30% of the vouchers back.

Record Store Day is a wonderful thing despite what the doom-mongers say. It gives a boost to local economies with most shops having artists play in the shop or outside bringing free music to the masses. Independent businesses such as coffee shops, bakers, Hi-Fi dealers, fashion retailers and brewers have all linked up with record shops to make a great day even better.

This article is taken from the book The Vinyl Revival and the Shops That Made it Happen

 

Over 220 independent record shops are  featured

The books of Graham Jones are available in record shops or online. The latest book The Vinyl Revival and the Shops That Made it Happen' has been turned in to a film. It is released on 13 April on DVD and is available in record shops. Distributed by Proper Music.

 www.thevinylrevivalfilm.com

The books of Graham Jones are available in record shops or online. The latest book The Vinyl Revival and the Shops that Made it Happen has been turned in to a film. It has just been released on DVD and is available in record shops or online. Distributed by Proper Music.

Each week I record The Vinyl Revival Record Shop Podcast. It contains lots of funny tales from the crazy world of record retailing. It is also available on Spotify.

Twitter: @Revival_Vinyl

My blog has over 100 features on record shops and vinyl.

grahamjonesvinylrevival.blogspot.com

For film screenings and talks contact Graham. 

As the person who has visited more record shops than any other human, I often get asked my advice on buying turntables. I always say do not purchase a budget model. What is the point of buying one that costs the price of a few albums? The sound will not do the recordings justice. For a long time, I have recommended Rega Turntables as they are superb quality at great prices. They got more brownie points for sponsoring 'Record Store Day' and manufacturing limited editions just for record shops.