Straying from our normal social justice focus, I want to take a moment to note that tomorrow, Saturday April 17th, is the 4th annual Record Store Day. Held primarily though hardly solely in the U.S. and UK, Record Store Day is a day to celebrate music and the culture of independent record stores, and to promote the reasons that those independent stores are worth keeping around.
It’s no big secret that with big box and online retailers like Best Buy, Walmart, and Amazon, along with the huge popularity of digital downloads, a lot of independent record stores are in trouble. Over the years, many, many of those stores have closed. Many other stores are treading water, have had to let employees go, moved to a business model that largely involves online trade, and so on. This is bad for independent record store owners and employees, bad for local communities left with empty storefronts, and bad for many music lovers. Independent record stores are very far from extinct, but they are endangered.
Even more than to those who are still attached to CDs, this is a big source of worry for those of us who collect vinyl records. I rather spontaneously and almost accidentally bought my first records last October; in the months since, I’ve fallen headfirst into quite the joyful obsession. I never bought my CDs in stores. But now that I’ve rebuked them for vinyl, and though as far as I know they’re doing fine, the very thought of my favorite local record store closing is a rather terrifying one.
It’s not that without physical locations, the vinyl format will finally die. No, vinyl will live on, through eBay, online record stores, and the occasional record fair. But an important culture will be lost. The increase in unethical online sellers lying about the quality of their records aside, some of the physical pleasure of records will be taken. If independent record stores die, a place to hang out and talk about music will be gone. And the joy of flipping through hundreds of old LPs, examining each piece of vinyl for scratches, assessing the cover for wear, play testing, and walking out with a heavy stack of records will all be no more.
If that strikes you as being an incredibly small issue in the grand scheme of things — and without a doubt, it is — and/or you just don’t care, that’s cool, and more than fair enough. I don’t expect everyone to care about or even respect my personal hobbies. To each their own. But if it does matter to you, I urge you to get out there on Saturday, and to remember that “record store” doesn’t just mean vinyl records, but CDs, too. And to still manage to throw in a small feminist tidbit, I notice that most record stores are direly lacking in other female customers when I go and visit — it’s time for us to get out there and represent, and to bring along some friends.
The Record Store Day website has a list of stores participating throughout the U.S. and internationally. Most stores participating in Record Store Day will have big sales, limited releases, and/or fun events like barbecues, live music, DJs, etc. If you can’t make it out on the 17th, you’ll miss the festivities, but that doesn’t mean you have to miss all the fun. Independent record stores need your business and support year round. For me, Saturday is sadly out of the question, but I’ll definitely be making it down to my favorite record store later this week.