Record Store Day? No Thank You

By Tankboy in Arts & Entertainment on Apr 17, 2014 9:00PM

I was never a big fan of Record Store Day [RSD] from the beginning, but at least in the initial years I could appreciate the handful of bona fide rarities that were released. Now RSD happens twice a year and is proving to actually hurt truly independent record stores financially leading “stores [to] risk losing a lot of money on records that don’t sell.”, and is overrun with pointless major label reissues of albums that don't even fall into the "seminal" or "under-appreciated" category. Seriously, 311 and Korn are both issuing vinyl on Saturday. And those aren't even the worst bands the labels are using RSD to cash in on. What the fuck?

Look, in Chicago RSD is starting to be a chance for local shops to throw all day parties with local bands, which is fine. And fun. And good. But why can't they do that weekly, or bi-weekly, or monthly? Why wait for an industry cash-in on a sentimental notion instead of building a sustainable community that comes together more than twice a year? Some stores already do that—including Saki, Permanent Records and Reckless Records—but the fervor over those events isn’t nearly what it should be the other 363 days of the year that aren’t a bogus retail holiday.

Long live record stores, but fuck Record Store Day.