A Record Shopkeeper Writes: Why Record Store Day Must End

Record Store Day 2016 is right around the corner. The annual onslaught for brick-and-mortar stores when loads of people descend upon a retail store to buy exclusive releases. This years list of releases is long. Very long.

But not all seems well in the world of RSD. Phil Harding, of Blackcat Records, claims Record Store Day Must End - a clickbait-y headline if there ever was one but the man makes some valid arguments. The first is simple - RSD has become "vinyl day", the only day in which people are going to record stores. This has its upsides but it's not really serving the initial purpose of the event, to remind folks of the value of visiting your local record store regularly.

He goes into a much longer list of why it's actually bad business for a record store owner to take on this much stock with no good return policy but I'll leave that to you to read.

Personally, I don't think it should die but it certainly seems a little out of hand. At first, the event seemed to focus on indie shops and indie releases. While the indie shop portion is still the focus, the releases are largely commercial and printed in such large quantities that there really isn't much reason to wade through a crowd of 100's of other eager buyers when you can just simply wait a week and pick up the exact same item.

All and all, it's worth discussing. As these kind of events grow, it's good to keep a laser focus on what your actual goals are, which seems like RSD might be slipping from a little.