Record Store Day—Saturday, April 22—is fastly approaching, with many independent record stores and customers preparing for the big moment in sales.
Key Details
- Record Store Day was created in 2007 to celebrate and spread the word about the culture surrounding nearly 1,400 independently owned record stores in the U.S. and thousands of similar stores internationally, according to the official website.
- The 2022 celebration helped sell 1.316 million vinyl albums in the U.S. in the week ending April 28—marking a record number of vinyl albums sold in a Record Store Day (RSD) week.
- Artists release exclusive vinyl for the event, and this year’s releases include Taylor Swift’s Folklore: the long pond studio sessions, a live album from RSD 2023 ambassadors The 1975, amongst records from rising talents like Yard Act, piri & tommy, Celeste, Baby Queen, and more.
why it’s news
Music streaming is one of the most popular ways to listen to music, with streaming platform Spotify boasting nearly 489 million active monthly users. Despite streaming services’ large popularity, nostalgic vinyl records are making a comeback with large sales.
Forty-one million vinyl records were sold in 2022, marking 16 years of consecutive record sales growth, BBC reports. The Recording Industry of America reports that vinyl albums earned $1.2 billion in sales for 2022, compared to $483 million for CDs.
Before vinyl records had their recent resurgence, numbers were low. Between 2006 and 2008, vinyl sales in the U.S. fell short of 1 million per year, only selling around 900,000 physical albums.
To help promote vinyl sales and intrigue more customers to visit independent record stores, a group of store owners and employees created the idea of Record Store Day in 2007. The first Record Store Day took place on April 19, 2008. Today, Record Store Day is celebrated at independently-owned brick-and-mortar record stores worldwide.
Every year independent stores can participate in the day, which has rapidly grown since its creation over a decade ago. Special releases are created for the day, with fans lining up for hours to purchase the limited edition vinyl.
Small independent artists to large-name creators release vinyl for the day. This year’s releases include Taylor Swift’s Folklore: the long pond studio sessions, a live album from RSD 2023 ambassadors, The 1975, amongst records from rising talents like Yard Act, piri & tommy, Celeste, Baby Queen, and much more.
Last year’s RSD brought 1.316 million in vinyl album sales in the U.S. in the week ending April 28—marking a record number of vinyl albums sold in an RSD week. RSD 2022 also drove a modern-era record of 1.012 million vinyl albums sold in the U.S. via independent record stores in that frame, according to Luminate entertainment data.
Over the last few years, the day has become so popular that fans will sometimes camp out at the record stores overnight to buy the limited edition releases for the day.
Matt Adkisson, the owner of Basement Records in Knoxville, Tennessee, spoke to Leaders and states that he has had customers begin lining up 12 hours before his store opens at 8 am on RSD. His store has been participating in Record Store Day for 11 years, stating that it is by far their busiest day of the year, with lines out the door nearly all day long.
“People come out at all hours because the releases are only available that day, and many want to make sure they are able to get them,” he states.
Many artists only release a limited number of the special edition vinyl that has to be dispersed to the thousands of stores participating in RSD across the country, leaving small numbers at each store.
For example, one of the most coveted vinyl releases this year will be Taylor Swift’s Folklore: the long pond studio sessions, which will only have 115,000 copies available. Swift released fewer copies of a special edition vinyl last year that sold out almost instantly across many of the stores, and the 115,000 copies are expected to go very quickly this year.
Many stores nationwide are preparing for the busy day and expecting to see record-breaking numbers for RSD 2023.
cassette resurgence
Vinyl records are not the only nostalgic music product making a recent comeback. Cassette tapes are seeing a jump, with sales increasing nearly 30% as artists release new music on tape.
In 2022, sales of albums on cassette tape in the U.S. increased by 28% to 440,000, up from 343,000 in 2021, according to the U.S. 2022 Luminate Year-End Music Report.
Physical album sales totaled 79.89 million in 2022, making cassettes a 0.55% share of the physical album market, which is small but still a significant jump considering only 74,000 total cassettes were sold in 2015.
The top five selling cassettes in the U.S. for 2022, according to Billboard Music…
- Soundtrack, Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2: Awesome Mix Vol. 2 (17,000)
- Taylor Swift, Midnights (14,000)
- Soundtrack, Guardians of the Galaxy: Awesome Mix Vol. 1 (13,000)
- Harry Styles, Harry’s House (11,000)
- Billie Eilish, Happier Than Ever (8,000)