RECORD STORE DAY - IT'S EXCITING, BUT ALSO A BIG RISK FOR INDIES

 

By Manuel Gemperli

A whopping three people stood in line for the very first Record Store Day related event at 22 Sound, Black Friday 2021. I guess it’s a bit of a stretch to call it a line. They were able to comfortably sit in their warm cars or have some of the way too many breakfast snacks we’ve gotten, expecting our first big rush. For Record Store Day 2025, there were so many people lining up the evening before that Evon and his son ended up spending the entire night at the shop making sure they were taken care of (bathroom breaks, video game options, you know - the essentials). We even had the police patrolling every so often. It’s St. Tammany, not Orleans. They had the resources.

 

It was nerve-wrecking for us as brand new small business owners on and before Black Friday 2021. We had invested pretty much all of our life savings and took out what was for us quite a sizable business loan (secured by a mortgage on our home) to create this record store and made it as great as possible. We used our budget mainly to bring in as many records as possible, so there wasn’t much left for marketing. We had to rely on word of mouth. It sure didn’t help that roughly a month after the grand opening our area got hit by a major category 4 hurricane (Fuck you, Ida!) that affected pretty much everybody around us. When you’re rebuilding your home your record budget tends to go down. But we trucked along, building a small customer base slowly. Record Store Day Black Friday seemed like a great opportunity to bring people in. To show them that we were serious and that our area now had a legit record store. 

 

Ahead of RSDBF we spent way more than our usual modest budget hoping to be prepared for the masses and motivate them to make us their preferred Record Store Day stop. We had to make sure we bring the goods when we would be exposed to the vinyl community of the area on the second biggest day of the year for independent record stores. When we opened the doors that morning and our three customers looked through the stacked boxes in our dedicated RSD section, we feared that this day was going to be a disaster. But weirdly, as the day went by, more and more people showed up. People we had never seen before. Of course, we pointed all of them directly to the RSD-section and were mostly met with questioning looks. They weren’t there for the oh so-special releases we had overextended ourselves for. Maybe they just wanted a little break from their families on the long Thanksgiving weekend. I don’t know. But they were there. They saw the store. They saw what we had to offer. It was a glimmer of hope. Maybe this was gonna work out after all. 

 

The very first “proper” Record Store Day in 2022 was already on a whole different level for us. I’ll never forget driving by the store on my way to PJ’s to get some coffee and breakfast for our customers, seeing a line of people wrapped around the building. It was nothing compared to 2025, but it was by far the most people we’ve ever seen at our store. It felt great. It sure helped that Taylor Swift decided to reissue some random song on a 7-inch or something like that. But that wasn’t the whole story. People with all kinds of backgrounds, levels of vinyl obsession and musical preferences were there. Regulars and first-timers. Locals and out-of-towners. People who collected records when there was no other way to get music and some who just found out what records were. We always said everybody would be welcome at 22 Sound.

 

I understand why some record store owners view Record Store Day as a double-edged sword or why some even decided that it’s a net negative and don’t participate at all. Yes, it feels great to see such a large amount of people at your store. And yes, it does also feel nice to see the net revenue dollar amount that day. But it’s also a risk. Revenue doesn’t necessarily mean profit. Record stores don’t just get these releases shipped to them out of sheer good will from the record labels. We have to decide which titles and how many of them we are willing to gamble on. Because if you end up not selling what you bought, you’re sitting on it. You might have made some revenue, but you might have spent more, because you couldn’t sell enough. I’m telling you, those leftover records in the RSD boxes somehow already feel stale by 3pm that day. 

 

Then there’s added difficulty because of the limited quantities of each title. Obviously, the limitation is the point, but it makes it extra hard for a small store to judge how much to order. You might order 20 copies of a title, but because the demand surpassed the supply, you might end up with only 5 copies of said title in the end. But what if you try to overshoot deliberately and you do get all that you ordered? This might cause another problem. See above. In that short time frame between the release of the list and the order deadline you might not be able to gauge which one of the titles will be in high demand. There’s always some dark horses. To me, it’s understandable if certain stores who struggle to make ends meet to begin with (like probably most stores including ours) decide not to take on that extra risk. 

 

Another reason for foregoing Record Store Day might be the fact that an event like this obviously attracts lots of “tourists”. There wouldn’t be lines around stores all over the country if only regulars showed up. The vinyl revival is real but not to that extent. There will be customers that you will never see again after that day. I don’t think that should disqualify anybody from participating. It does make the big day seem like an illusion though. Yes, the people are real. The excitement is real. The sales are real. But soon it will be a regular Wednesday afternoon again and maybe only two people will show up. All the more thankful we are for those. 

 

Despite its flaws and the risks that it poses for small stores, we have always decided to participate. So far I think it has been the right decision. It’s a thrill to see the store full of excited people making it seem like the center of the universe for a fleeting moment. We’re looking forward to anybody who decides to spend the big day at 22 Sound. I hope you’ll get what you’re hoping for. And I hope you’ll remember that we (and all those other brother and sister stores) are open year-round. Believe me, in a way it’s even more fun on those regular ass days – when you have no idea what you will find, because every store and its selection is unique, and when you have time to talk to those crazy record store people (who make it all possible) about your and their passion.