The ongoing decline in the number of record shops worldwide has done nothing to halt the momentum of the annual Record Store Day (RSD).
On April 16th, independent record stores around the world will have their day in the sun. While there are fewer of them now than ever, this will not stop thousands of music fans paying a visit to the ones still in business to buy limited edition bits and bobs.
Many of those punters might go home to flog their limited- edition booty on eBay and most probably won’t come darken the door of a record shop for another year. Many record stores report a huge fall-off in business in the weeks leading up to and following RSD because of this huge attention on one out of 365 days.
RSD has become a marketing racket. It starts with the limited- edition special releases. More than 350 different special records have been pressed up for the ninth RSD. Artists with reissues, repackaged releases and special versions include David Bowie, Chvrches, Johnny Cash, Miles Davis, NOFX, Lush, Iron Maiden and many more. There’s also a limited-edition Justin Bieber single (right).
The presence of Bieber on the list is a bit odd given that RSD was, once upon a time, about supporting and promoting independent record stores. Then again, RSD is where major labels get to posit a Bieber record as a must-have for his fans. For many Bieber fans, it will probably be their first and last encounter with a record store.
You can’t blame the major labels for capitalising on the promotional value of RSD, but you can blame the organisers for capitulating so easily to their wishes. Record-pressing plants have been busy with major-label orders as they seek to make the most of RSD and the vinyl revival. While the limited-edition stuff will move quickly on RSD, over-priced new releases and reissued records will sit in the racks for many months to come.
Because vinyl and record stores are not the future. As this week’s report from record industry lobby group the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) showed, revenue from digital surpassed the takings from traditional formats for the first time in 2015.
Streaming, downloads, and advertising now account for 45 per cent of total record-industry revenue, compared with 39 per cent for physical formats such as CDs and records.
There will always be a place for a good, well-stocked record store with knowledgeable, helpful staff, but the importance of the sector and the number of shops that fit that description is waning. While RSD is a boon for music fans who want to pick up limited-edition releases and see bands playing in-store gigs, it’s not great in the long-term as it fosters the idea that a record store is just for one day a year. RSD may have inadvertently created as many problems as it set out to solve. Jim Carroll
