Record Store Day Mixed Blessing for Record Stores

[thebes]

Interesting article in today's Washington Post on Record Store Day.

The soft psychedelia of Kurt Vile
comes wafting from the stereo speakers like a sedative mist, but Bill
Daly is still stressed. Cordless telephone smooshed to his ear, he’s
trying to locate 60 boxes of vinyl platters that vanished off a loading
dock in Whoknowswhereville, Pennsylvania.

He still has time. It’s Sunday evening at Crooked Beat Records
in Adams Morgan and Daly, the shop’s owner, needs the shipment to
materialize in the next five days. Because on Saturday morning, he’ll
have a line down the block.

Record Store Day brings customers — and headaches — for independent stores

Record Store Day organizers aren’t
ready to take all of the credit for the format’s resurgence, but “it
cannot be a coincidence that vinyl sales started climbing in 2008, when
Record Store Day started,” says Carrie Colliton, co-founder of Record
Store Day.

Launched by a coalition of independent businesses hoping to
fight the suffocating forces of big-box stores and online retailers, the
growth of Record Store Day has been as surprising as it has been quick.
On Saturday, more than 800 stores are expected to participate, not
including those overseas. More than a dozen area shops are listed on the
official Record Store Day Web site
— including Joe’s Record Paradise in Silver Spring, Memory Lane in
District Heights and CD Cellar in Falls Church — many of them recognized
as official participants for signing a pledge not to hawk exclusive
Record Store Day releases for higher prices online.

And although most local store owners say that Record Store Day
brings excessive headaches, it’s easily the busiest day of the year. But
they’re also quick to point out that the labels are the ones with the
most to gain.

Labels “can ship these out, and they know that
they’re never coming back,” says Daly at Crooked Beat. “They can line
their pockets. It’s a no-brainer for them.”

Joshua Harkavy, owner
of Red Onion Records in Adams Morgan, agrees.“I feel like it’s Record
Label Day,” he says. “The sheer number of things they release and the
sheer silliness of those releases is too much. There are 400 records,
and it can’t all be good stuff.”

Some area stores have flirted
with the idea of backing out of Record Store Day, but the surge in foot
traffic is just too good to turn down.

“I feel like we have to
participate at this point,” says Daisy Lacy, co-owner of Smash! Records
in Adams Morgan. “I can’t imagine this will go on forever, but until
then . . . ”

Colliton reiterates that no record store is forced to
participate and that the organization encourages store owners to be
judicious when it comes to the stock they order. “We always tell stores,
‘If you don’t feel like your customer base is going to want this title,
please don’t bring it in.’ ”

That sounds sensible, but it also
clashes with the evangelical mission at the heart of Record Store Day.
If the idea is to remind a Rolling Stones fan that vinyl not only still
exists but that there’s a shop in your neighborhood where you can buy
it, that shop needs to stock that Rolling Stones limited-edition
seven-inch single to convert the newbies into regulars.

But local
shop owners say that isn’t happening. In addition to “flippers” — those
scoundrels who snap up the most-coveted records and run home to resell
them for a profit on eBay — most Record Store Day visitors treat the day
as an annual pilgrimage and won’t be back until next April.

“Sure, it’s a great day for record stores,” says Harkavy at Red Onion. “But there are 364 other days.”

Daly
is working on a scheme that might remedy that. He’s hoping to initiate a
card system that would allow customers who frequent his store
throughout the year to jump to the front of his line on Record Store Day
2014.

But first he needs to track down those 60 AWOL boxes — and
hopes that the records packed inside actually move. Because in the
center of his sales floor, across from the new releases, next to the
local bands, there’s a section of leftovers labeled “RECORD STORE DAY
2012,” and nobody is flipping through it.

Every April since 2008, independent record stores have celebrated their survival with Record Store Day,
a super sale of exclusive vinyl recordings released especially for the
event. This year, there are roughly 400 releases set to touch down—
special reissues of classic LPs, unreleased live recordings,
limited-edition rarities and other instant collectors items.

When
the shops open their doors, it’s like an Easter egg hunt on the
cobblestones of Pamplona. Customers squeeze their bodies, and their
expectations, onto cramped sales floors, scouring the shelves for gems.
The mood is up, the sales are brisk, but local shop owners say the
rigmarole of Record Store Day is beginning to test the tensile strength
of the very stores it was created to support.

Daly says a line
will start taking shape outside of his shop in the tiny hours of
Saturday morning, not long after the bartenders of Adams Morgan announce
last call. Last April, he had more than 400 customers pass through on
Record Store Day. This year, he’s expecting collectors from more than
five hours away. He recruited 10 volunteers to help him and his two
employees peddle nearly 8,000 pieces of vinyl he’s purchased for the
event, doubling Crooked Beat’s inventory for a single day. The profits?
He says they’ll be negligible.

“It brings people out, but it’s
basically a wash. You’re buying for one day what you would buy over the
course of one year,” Daly says. “A lot of people wonder, ‘When is Record
Store Day going to put a store out of business?’ ”

It probably
won’t put Crooked Beat out of business — but it could. When the roster
of special Record Store Day releases begins trickling out each February,
stores scramble to crunch their budgets and rush their wish lists off
to distributors. Due to the frantic demand for a limited supply of
recordings, as little as one-third of those requests might arrive in
time for the big day.

And here’s the rub: Nearly every piece of
vinyl is nonreturnable to those distributors. So if stores end up not
getting the titles customers want, tough luck. If they get stuck with a
surplus of records that nobody wants, too bad.

“Ordering is a real
nightmare,” says Neal Becton, owner of Som Records on 14th Street NW.
“You order all this stuff, and you don’t really know what you’re
getting. But it’s a trade-off. It’s a great day.”

Especially for
the growing bloc of record enthusiasts that has helped save vinyl from
extinction in recent years. According to an annual report
from Nielsen and Billboard, vinyl sales rose for the fifth consecutive
year in 2012, up 19 percent from 2011 with 4.6 million units sold.
Sixty-seven percent of these albums were scooped up at independent
record stores.

[Mallette]

Not sure how it's working elsewhere, but in Texas the lines form a couple of hours before the store opens. Sort of "Black Saturday," if you will, but there a few other colors of vinyl as well.

In Dallas, some open at six am and there is a line. Here in Houston, Cactus, our biggest vinyl mecca, won't open until 10 but LoneLobo is gonna be there by 8.

I've a family reunion. Is there any WORSE excuse???? I shall try to be a good sport, dammit.

Dave

[Boxx]

In the Dallas area, this is the place to be (tomorrow).

http://www.foreveryoungrecords.com/index.html

Or

http://billsrecords.com/

[Daddy Dee]

Marty, thanks. interesting. i'd never heard of RSD before.

[mcp]

Marty,

Thought you might find this interesting...from your old neck of the woods. Let me know if you make it back up north to visit the minions...

http://www.syracuse.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2013/04/record_store_day.html#incart_more_entertainment

Marty

[The Dude]

Dammit I forgot all about record store day, my only chance now is the record show in two weeks.

[skonopa]

Unfortunatly, there is not a single record store in this d[8o|]mn town! When I first moved here 20 years ago, there was no less than FOUR record stores in this town. Three of them in the same mall (Sam Goodys, Musicland, and Camelot), and an 'indy' one downtown (Blue Dog Records). Alas, they all eventually shut down. Heck, even the Best Buy, which used to have ISLES of CDs and records, seperated out in genres, i.e., Rock, Rap, Classical, Country, etc), now barely has a single isle with all the CDs jumbled together.

I don't even know where the closest record store is anymore, but I imagine that I'd have to go into D.C. or down to Richmond to find one. There used to be one on D.C. that catered to the heavy metal crowd that I used to go to a lot, but it is also no more... [:'(]

[Lonelobo]

This saturday I stood/sat in line for 2 hours BEHIND 150 other mostly much younger people waiting to get into Record Store Day. Good news is that young people are buying vinyl. Bad news is Cactus Records allowed no browsing and kept all the records behind a table manned by staffers. A most unsatisfying way to shop for any record and I believe counter productive to sales.

I got the creme colored Box Set of Cream at the Royal Albert Hall, The Last Waltz (the band), Miles Davis Sketches of Spain and Round Midnight in Mono, 1960's demo tape sessions of Willie Nelson, a Joan Jett reissue, 45 rpms of The Small Faces, Chet Atkins, and the Shangri-las. Only thing I missed that I wanted was the Jail recordings of Big Mama Thornton.

The one I passed on but will probably regret is a 4 record box set by The Flaming Lips meant to be played simultaneously on 4 turntables.

Got a call the day after to be told that I had won 2 tickets to a May 15 concert by Toad The Wet Sprocket.

[Boxx]

This saturday I stood/sat in line for 2 hours BEHIND 150 other mostly much younger people waiting to get into Record Store Day. Good news is that young people are buying vinyl. Bad news is Cactus Records allowed no browsing and kept all the records behind a table manned by staffers. A most unsatisfying way to shop for any record and I believe counter productive to sales.

I got the creme colored Box Set of Cream at the Royal Albert Hall, The Last Waltz (the band), Miles Davis Sketches of Spain and Round Midnight in Mono, 1960's demo tape sessions of Willie Nelson, a Joan Jett reissue, 45 rpms of The Small Faces, Chet Atkins, and the Shangri-las. Only thing I missed that I wanted was the Jail recordings of Big Mama Thornton.

The one I passed on but will probably regret is a 4 record box set by The Flaming Lips meant to be played simultaneously on 4 turntables.

Got a call the day after to be told that I had won 2 tickets to a May 15 concert by Toad The Wet Sprocket.

Have you ever tried "Forever Young" in Grand Prairie?

[Lonelobo]

Yes, I have 2 of their t-shirts. I like Good Records in Dallas and a couple of really great used and new vinyl stores in Denton. Doc's in Fort Worth is great for Jazz. And of course, there's Bill's in Dallas. Bill is a legend in his own right...I shot an interview for an Scottish documentary on the Dixie Chicks with him by mistake. Turns out, the producers mistook him for someone that they were supposed to meet at the Record Store. So we did 2 interviews and Bill never knew his interview was a mistake. That was quite an experience as the entire documentary was in Gaelic.

[Boxx]

Yes, I have 2 of their t-shirts. I like Good Records in Dallas and a couple of really great used and new vinyl stores in Denton. Doc's in Fort Worth is great for Jazz. And of course, there's Bill's in Dallas. Bill is a legend in his own right...I shot an interview for an Scottish documentary on the Dixie Chicks with him by mistake. Turns out, the producers mistook him for someone that they were supposed to meet at the Record Store. So we did 2 interviews and Bill never knew his interview was a mistake. That was quite an experience as the entire documentary was in Gaelic.

Very interesting... I did find out that Bill opted not participate in Record Store Day this year.