Record Store Day: Has It Ran Its Course?

It's definitely a debate worth having. We are constantly being reminded of this "vinyl revival" (so much so that even supermarkets like Sainsbury’s are now re-stocking vinyl) which has coincided with the rise of Record Store Day. A day dedicated to visiting your local independent store for a scrap with a stranger for a copy of a David Bowie single limited to 500 copies.

As a consumer of music in vinyl form, I like nothing more than getting hold of that album you’ve lusted over for ages and holding it in my hands. I had a minor crisis when I first got Darklands by The Jesus and Mary Chain. Seeing that iconic album artwork blown up to 12 inches and first hearing that crackle of the vinyl against the needle softly breaking the silence as the album began, opening up a whole new world for me. Now that I'm a university student, my LP spending spree has been brought to an abrupt standstill. Food and warmth is more important (unfortunately) than the new Fat White Family album. Nonetheless, countless other people have caught the bug. So much so that in 2015 The Official Charts Company launched a new top 40 vinyl chart for singles and albums. Having said that, vinyl sales only make up 1.5% of record sales in Britain, so is there really a revival? In a brilliant article for The Guardian, Bob Stanley poses the idea of the “50 quid man” who spends “fistfuls of cash on LP’s and CD’s.” 40somethinger’s are even spending more on music than 15-21 year olds.

Having experienced two Record Store Day’s for myself, there is a sense that the day is a bit anti-climactic. The “£50 men” are usually THOSE PEOPLE who stands at the counter endlessly checking the vinyl for scratches whilst most people are left disappointed. Record Store Day first started in 2007 stocking limited-edition records to lure people in and also remind them that if they didn’t shop there the shop would close. Now however, the boom in vinyl sales suggests that Record Store Day isn’t really necessary anymore. Independent record shops are becoming more familiar along high streets across Britain. For example in Yorkshire there are a cluster of stores throughout the county including places like Leeds, Halifax, Huddersfield and the newly opened Record Café in Bradford which sells records by day and ale by night.

In 2014 I embarked on my first Record Store Day. I set out for my local record shop (Head Records in Bromley) with £20 in my pocket hoping to get hold of the reissue of the Oasis classic; ‘Supersonic’. It was re-released as a 12 inch single and limited to 3000 copies. The store apparently was opening at 9am and I arrived at 5 minutes past. To my horror there was a vast queue outside the shop and my heart sank. When I eventually got in, the aisles were littered with packaging and the shelves were almost bare. I frantically looked for the single but to no avail (I later found out that the store had only been given 50 or so copies).

This is where it gets interesting. I was browsing eBay on my laptop and what should I stumble across? But hundreds of copies of “The Exclusive Record Store Day Release” of ‘Supersonic’ by Oasis. My eyes lit up. I quickly began bidding on auctions for a copy. And finally I managed to get hold of one. I’m not at liberty to say how much I spent, but I can tell you it was a lot more than the RRP. But even the RRP is astronomically high for just two songs. This is probably why that generation are buying physical versions of music. They can afford to. Whereas us students are lucky if we can afford the £3 for a meal deal from Sainsbury’s.

The fact that I was able to buy a copy of the single through eBay says a lot about Record Store Day. Sure there is a thrill about getting hold of something exclusive and making a day of it like some shops do.  Most notably Pie & Vinyl in Southsea. Last year they curated a street concert outside their shop for people to enjoy whilst shopping for vinyl. The fact that you can just pop onto eBay and find all the releases that are (apparently) exclusive begs the question, why is record store day needed? Is it just a throwback? Or is it a money-making scheme? Having seen the prices that shops charge for these releases, the latter seems likelier than the former. Shops charge obscene amounts for records because they know that the queue’s come record store day will extend right round the bend. A mind-boggling £18 for a 12 inch single with just two songs which you can probably get for less than a quarter of that price in a second hand music shop. Some people just go to a store on the day to get hold of an exclusive, only to then put the record on ebay and watch people who missed their chance frantically bid to get what they're after.

Without doubt, vinyl has grown significantly. But Record Store Day as an event seems ludicrous. To queue for hours not to buy anything is pointless in every sense of the word, and when you can get hold of the releases on the internet why waste time travelling to a shop? And with the sales of records growing evermore, the day’s previous ethos of saving the independent shops is no longer needed. I completely understand the whole “support your local shops” and all that, but the fact that each shop gets a certain amount of copies per release means you’d have to be extremely lucky to get hold of what you want. And if your luck is anything like mine, the release you're after has gone, and then it appears on eBay with the price at least treble the retail value. 

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