RSD 2024

[madshadows]

For Record Store Day today me and my son Joe went to Casbah Records in Greenwich, it was opening at 9am, we got there at 8:50 and there was quite a queue (see pics), got into the shop at about 10:30 and luckily got what I wanted, a copy of Ian Hunter's new album "DEFIANCE PART 2 - FICTION". It was a tad chilly in London this morning and I was glad to get back home !! 🥶😂

 

Anyone else buy anything for this years RSD ? 😃

 

John 

 

 

[RAY AGAINST THE MACHINE]

A friend of mine queued up early in the morning for an album by Propagabda. ( not the great sparks album)

He was telling me that the staff at the store gave him a ticket to write down the artists he was interested in . He then got to the till ,and the album was waiting for him at the counter awaiting paynent . All good . A bit like ordering breakfast from McDonalds I guess.

 

nothing of interest for me this year . Maybe next year 🙂

[joeystrange]

Went to Rough Trade in Nottingham because Mrs. Strange wanted an Oceansize EP that was never released on vinyl.

As there were only 1000 available she wanted to get there early to avoid disappointment. We arrived at 7:15 to join the end of the queue which was around the block and back onto the street the shop is on.

It was 12:15 by the time we’d bought the record and left the shop.

 

I already hate RSD but never again. Ever.

[Dankology]

At one of my local shops, the queue started at 9.30am the day before 🙄

 

The whole thing narks me enormously. Records being bought, never to be played, Ebay gouging, pressing plants tied up for months to meet demand, the occasional bit of music that you might want being potentially unobtainable without joining the melee.

 

And, of course, most of the action just representing people paying over the odds for music they already own.

 

If RSD has revitalised the independent sector, I guess I'm happy but looking at my local record shops the new stuff costs way more than I'd usually consider paying, new pressings are often quite ropey and even secondhand prices are moving skyward.

 

Not sure who the winner is meant to be here but it'd be great if at least some of the people willing to wait 24 hours queuing outside to spend £40 on a 12" single might consider dropping £5 to see a new band later that evening. 

 

Rant over. Next year maybe I'll hit the queues and hand out CDrs of my band...

[meterman]

I missed out on RSD yesterday as the nearest record shop is a couple of cities away from me. It doesn’t really happen down here. Ever since I moved out to the sticks 4 years ago I haven’t passed an actual record shop anywhere near me. It’s a fair trek to even get food or medicines, never mind records. 

 

But this morning I went to a local vidé grenier (basically yer French car boot sale) and picked up “Melting Pot” by Booker T & The MG’s, the 3rd Velvet Underground album, and a cracking two-sider 7” from when the Bee Gees still had a bit of psychedelia in them. 
 

 

Also got some cassettes for my Tascam 4-track recorder, a Tour De France promotional cup that I’ll turn into a shaker, and a toy piano. Total cost? 8 euros 💥 (and no queues 👍) Scorchiooooo!!!

 

 

[meterman]

1 hour ago, Dankology said:

Next year maybe I'll hit the queues and hand out CDrs of my band...

Do it!
 

Or join the gougers and put CDrs on ebay and Discogs yourself at crazy inflated prices. I found one of my bands CDrs on Discogs the other day going for 10x the original merch price. They’ll never sell it for that much but it still makes me laugh to see them try it on... 😂

 

[NancyJohnson]

I've avoided RSD like the plague.  I went to our local record shop for one about six years ago, organisation was a shambles, the shop was ticketing people and not limiting purchases to a couple of records; guys were coming out with bags and bags of stuff, god knows how much if that went on eBay the same day.  The place was full of dozens of blokes who looked like they'd never stepped into a record shop in the last 30 years.

 

Thing is, I'm of the belief RSD started out with the genuinely good intention of trying to engage the public and getting them into small, independent record shops, but it's transcended that now; in my opinion, if you're a stadium filling band or on a major label, it shouldn't be for you.  If you're just rehashing something under the guise of 'first time release on vinyl' or remix stuff, it shouldn't be for you.  And so on.

 

By way of a similar analogy, we attend cheese festivals once a year (om-nom); at an event in Cheltenham, Tesco were set up with a big money corporate stall extolling how they supported British cheese makers.  Their stall was dead.  Nobody.  Elsewhere, independent makers were selling tons of stuff.  It's just blind ignorance; Tesco or big labels.  Stay away.

 

 

[madshadows]

Must admit I think RSD is just a bit of a cash grab by record companies and to a certain extent the shops. This was the first one I'd been to and the queuing wasn't too bad (about  90 minutes until I got served) and I only went because I'm a massive fan of Ian Hunter and wanted the RSD special edition of his just out album "Defiance Part 2 - Fiction"  because the RSD vinyl version has three tracks not on the CD I'd already bought on 18/4 via Amazon !!. The two LP vinyl RSD version was a whopping £42 which is a ripoff really but hey Ian's one of my all time musical idols and I could afford it.

 

Casbah records in Greenwich were well organised and even had a young lady from the store walking down the queue of people telling folk when an item had been sold out

 

It was an experience but one I probably won't do again unless there is something I really want again !!  😛 

 

John 😎 

 

 

[cetera]

Wanted the Eric Carr (KISS) 2 coloured vinyl/poster set.
Couldn't be arsed to hunt/queue at a record store for it.
Went on ebay yesterday and got it from a record store for the same price.
Job done. 😎

[Cat Burrito]

I struggle with RSD since it stopped benefiting the shops and artists and became more of an excuse for industry fat cats to take over, pushing live desk tape recordings and demos on vinyl that should probably never have seen the light of day.

 

That said, it doesn't take much for me to buy an LP so I lounged around all morning thinking "they won't sell out of what I want", only to discover they had and it was busier than ever. The queue of almost entirely middle aged men, all mansplaining how "this one is purple smoke vinyl" to some very bored looking partners - like a less filtered version of myself! In the true spirit of RSD I found myself walking away with an LP of two EPs I have owned since the 80s, have on both CD and a different vinyl format and having parted £38 for the pleasure of doing so. No doubt I'll be back next time. 

[BigRedX]

I don't like vinyl. IMO it's an inferior format. I do like the bigger packaging, but only if the design actually makes proper use it.

 

Personally, I would only buy something on vinyl if it was unavailable in any digital format, and I certainly wouldn't queue for the privilege.

[Leonard Smalls]

1 hour ago, BigRedX said:

I don't like vinyl.

Never!

😁

No thread where the word "record" is used will be complete without Big Red saying it's an inferior format!!

😆

That Roy Castle didn't like 'em either. 

[Rumple]

I happened to pass by Rough Trade East on Saturday morning and couldn't believe the size of the queue! here's a few phone pics of it, you'd have to pay me good money to wait in that.

 

[BigRedX]

19 minutes ago, Leonard Smalls said:

Never!

😁

No thread where the word "record" is used will be complete without Big Red saying it's an inferior format!!

😆

 

Even as an artist I'm conflicted about the advantages of vinyl.

 

Part of me says that if this is the format that our audience wants to buy, then we should consider releasing out music on it. However it's massively expensive compared with putting out the album on CD. When I last looked I could get 2000 digipack plus 8-page booklet CDs for the same price as 500 12" albums in a single sleeve. And even if I looked at the price for 500 of each format, the savings made by putting the album out on CD would buy us a considerable amount of additional time in the studio, and that's where I'd rather be spending my money.

 

And that's not taking the practicalities into account like the fact that no-one in either of my bands has anything to play the test pressings on and there is no way I could contemplate producing vinyl without hearing and approving test pressings.

 

Additionally the compromises in the running order for vinyl would mean that the track we'd like to end the album on won't sound as good as it could if placed at the end of side 2, whereas there are no restrictions like that for digital formats.

[RAY AGAINST THE MACHINE]

I was one of the ' suckers' who started to sell vinyl records when I replaced them with CDs . 
Having said that , I had way too much at the time , and in terms of moving into smaller accommodation to live I did the right thing ' 'downsizing ' the record collection . I was also getting pretty miffed at having to adjust the belt on my old turntable to play 7" singles . I'm glad they're gone . I do have a selection of 12" s though, which I play on my current turntable which doesn't need the platter removed to play them .

 

I offloaded a hell of a lot of albums and 12" on fleabay over the last 2 years. However, I have made a decision to only have "the best "albums and 12" of my favourite artists  and not everything on record as I have them on cd anyway. Much tidier inn my flat.I have roughly a handful that I want , but even they may get pressed again . ( Rush Counterparts for example) . I did purchase vinyl remasters of a couple of albums I sold in the past , so not all sad . That wasn't on RSD . 

I notice that certain record stores do invite people to contact them on the following Monday after RSD to see if there's anything left.

It's a bit like trying to obtain a ticket for a gig . Can't be doing with that . 
Plus some of those RSD albums are still available . 
 

I went to our local record store pre covid 😷and that was good . Not too much of a queue , and a few ciders afterwards 🙂

If my local friend suggests it again , then I'd probably do it but I'm not bothered either way 

 

[RAY AGAINST THE MACHINE]

2 minutes ago, RAY AGAINST THE MACHINE said:

 

**edited to say , I'm sick of those cd digipacks / booklets ** only because of the space they take up .

2 minutes ago, RAY AGAINST THE MACHINE said:

 

 

Edited April 22 by RAY AGAINST THE MACHINE

[Leonard Smalls]

9 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

it's massively expensive

Indeed! However, folks seem to be barely buying cds anymore - we've sold about 100 from our run of 250, but had shedloads more plays on streaming platforms (which has netted us about £8, though quite a bit more from Bandcamp downloads).

I spose the argument might be - will you sell more vinyl meaning that in the long run you'll make more?

As for test pressings, I have a vinyl system that is serious enough to evaluate them and where even end-of-side tracks sound excellent. Though whether any buyers will listen to it themselves is a different matter!

[Cat Burrito]

42 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

Even as an artist I'm conflicted about the advantages of vinyl.

 

You can't play it in the car or take it to the gym. Summed up beautifully by the New Yorker cartoon (I think I like the nostalgia of it all)

 

[Leonard Smalls]

5 minutes ago, Cat Burrito said:

You can't play it in the car

Can too!

 

[BigRedX]

1 hour ago, Leonard Smalls said:

Indeed! However, folks seem to be barely buying cds anymore - we've sold about 100 from our run of 250, but had shedloads more plays on streaming platforms (which has netted us about £8, though quite a bit more from Bandcamp downloads).

I spose the argument might be - will you sell more vinyl meaning that in the long run you'll make more?

As for test pressings, I have a vinyl system that is serious enough to evaluate them and where even end-of-side tracks sound excellent. Though whether any buyers will listen to it themselves is a different matter!

 

It really depends on what your audience wants. 

 

Originally one of my bands made decision to only release our songs as singles for download and streaming, and while this strategy has been successful for the most part, we've spent the last 2 years being bombarded by requests at gigs for a "proper" album release on CD which is what most post-punk/goth bands seem to sell. Therefore this is what we are working on.

 

My other band sold out of our most recent album on CD during last year's mini tour. When the few copies that are left of the two previous albums are gone, our audience will have to wait until the next one is written, recorded and released - right now we have 4 songs complete.

 

As for vinyl. I still have over 300 copies of The Terrortones album. Everything was selling really well (I have just a few copies of the 3 previous releases left) right up to the point where Mr Venom became too ill to do any more gigs, and since then we have sold almost nothing. As a result, I'm very reluctant to invest the kind of money required for vinyl again.

[Cat Burrito]

47 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

 

It really depends on what your audience wants. 

interesting… I have always envisaged my music as LP records because it is the format that I grew up with. I am lucky enough to say most have been released on vinyl and sold quite well. My current band do small run CDs because I don’t think we have the audience to sell vinyl to. I wish we did but I don’t want hundreds taking up space here. 

[Lw.]

I was down at Casbah in Greenwich too - got there an hour after opening & the queue was a similar size to your picture, flowed quite easily through, though it was a bit rushed in the shop. 

Picked up a couple of the records I was after, all in all a good morning! Might check what spare stock Rough Trade have tonight though my wallet is feeling the strain! 

[NancyJohnson]

3 hours ago, BigRedX said:

 

Even as an artist I'm conflicted about the advantages of vinyl.

 

 

In the various bands I've played in, we've tried to run a merch table.  It honestly made me sick to my stomach when a punter would come over and ask, 'Have you got any vinyls?'  Vinyls.  Collective noun, plural.  Vinyls.

 

I mean, you simply wanted to walk around the other side of the table and beat the guy to a pulp.  "Look, we have t-shirts, little cards with Soundcloud/Spotify links, free stickers and a pile of signed CDs that we've all been burning for the last few days, but do you see vinyls?  No. F*ck off!"

 

Your average punter has no idea how much hassle it is to get records pressed, and yeah, we don't have vinyls because nobody will buy them and they'll haggle us down because they won't pay enough to cover our pressing costs.  I've spent days in the studio refining these recordings, why should I have them pressed on a format that sounds like we were eating Rice Krispies during the mastering process.

 

Vinyls.

[ezbass]

9 minutes ago, NancyJohnson said:

'Have you got any vinyls?' 

No, we’re a band, not a flooring showroom.
 

Unless he was after monogrammed trousers that make you sweat.

[12stringbassist]

I just went for the Ian Hunter 2LP set.