Bristol, VA | Record Store Day celebrated at Bristol store: Vinyl records have been making a comeback in recent years, and it was on display Saturday. Saturday was Record Store Day and Cheap Thrills Records in Bristol is one of many stores seeing a huge turnout. The owner says people were camped out waiting in line even before they opened. In addition to discounts, local record stores also have exclusive, limited-edition prints from big name artists. Cheap Thrills opened just before last year’s record store day, and this is now their biggest sales day ever. Record store day is always the third Saturday in April. It started in 2008.
Brighton, UK | Record Store Day 2023 was a resounding success! Well that’s it for another year! The annual Record Store Day took place today throughout Brighton, Sussex and the UK. Hundreds of vinyl junkies set their alarm clocks last night so that they would be able to rise before the crack of dawn this morning and queue outside their favourite independent record shop in order to secure their desired limited edition releases, which in most cases will be instantly highly collectible. The records being sold were available in every colour imaginable, including picture discs, whether it be 7”, 12” or other formats such as 10”. It’s certain that the 22nd April has been marked in those folks’ diaries ever since the list of exclusive vinyl releases were announced for the annual event. Independent record shops from right across the UK came together in order to celebrate their unique culture. Not only that, but thousands more shops celebrated the day around the globe in what’s become one of the biggest annual events on the music calendar.
Springfield, MO | Fans line up outside Springfield record store for ‘Record Store Day’ finds: Dozens of vinyl record lovers camped out Saturday morning outside Springfield’s Stick it in Your Ear, hoping to get an exclusive deal. Record Store Day is an annual event to unite fans and support independent record stores. A big part of the draw is for records only on sale during the event or have never been released. “The main thing about small business is a community,” said Eric Milan, owner of Stick It In Your Ear. “We live here. I mean, this is our life just as much as our customers. And then, for me, a small business to me is more about the type of service that you’re getting.” Some, such as Tori Freeman from Ozark, Mo., arrived at 10 p.m. on Friday. She waited for Taylor Swift’s ‘Folklore’ album. “This album is very emotionally deep,” said Freeman. “And I have a deep connection to this album, so it’s very important…“
Melbourne, AU | Melbourne’s vinyl obsessives in a spin over Record Store Day: A sleek group of 20-somethings carrying stacks of vinyl along Brunswick Street normally wouldn’t spin heads in Fitzroy, but the sheer numbers on Saturday might just have been a record. Usually held on the third Saturday in April, Record Store Day is an opportunity for vinyl lovers to descend on their local store and hopefully bag a hidden gem. Long-time Melbourne DJ Ethan Hill, also known as DJ Manchild from the PBS Radio show The Breakdown, celebrated the event at his newly opened bar, Old Plates. DJs at the venue spun eclectic vinyl all day from a vast collection. Some selections were fresh out of a shipment of rare records direct from West Africa, which weighed in at about 230 kilograms. “The African diaspora has really grown in Melbourne in the last 10 to 20 years,” Hill told The Sunday Age. “It’s good to be able to explore kind of different sounds that actually exist in Melbourne, but people might not know or might not have heard yet.
La Crosse, WI | Vinyl lovers turn out for annual Record Day: The third Saturday of April is a big day for those who like their music on vinyl as Record Day is celebrated around the world. In La Crosse, vinyl enthusiasts started lining up outside Deaf Ear Records as early as 6:30 a.m. hoping to nab one of the albums released specially for Record Day. Lauren Dochnahl said she got in line around 7:30 a.m. She had her eyes on a special release from Taylor Swift. “I’m here for Taylor Swift’s limited edition “Folklore Long Pond Studio Sessions,” she said. The album was recorded as a special for Disney that was pressed on vinyl just for Record Day. In recent years vinyl has made a resurgence, at first thanks to audiophiles who preferred the sound of music through the needle on a vinyl LP, but industry leaders say sales have increased even more as young people, like Dochnahl, discover the more traditional format. Like others of her generation, Dochnahl said she started collecting vinyl a few years ago after finding the experience much more satisfying.
Fort Wayne, IN | Record Store Day celebrates independent shops with special vinyl releases: Record shops and music lovers around the world celebrated all things vinyl Saturday for the 16th annual “Record Store Day.” Several special-edition album releases marked the celebration including Taylor Swift, Billy Joel, Carole King, The Rolling Stones and Madonna. Fan favorite record stores in the Summit City include Wooden Nickel and the newly opened Welcome Back Records on Broadway Street also celebrated. “It just really brings together people who have, no matter what kind of music you’re into, we all have a common interest in having something physical in our hands,” Welcome Back Records owner Morrison Agen said. “That we can hold in our hands that we can take home forever and ever.” If you go to recordstoreday.com and put in your zip code, you can see the full list of partcipating stores near you.
Knoxville, TN | Knoxville celebrates Record Store Day with Lost and Found Records: Some of the gems vinyl lovers had a chance to snag include Taylor Swift’s “Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions” and Stevie Nicks’ “Bella Donna Live 1981.” Thousands of stores across the country took part in celebrating Record Store Day Saturday, including Lost and Found Records. Hundreds of people came out to hunt for some exclusive records, learn about other shops and organizations in the city and share their love of music.
Manchester, UK | Vinyl enthusiast camped outside shop for 20 HOURS ahead of Record Store Day: Record Store Day first-timer Daniel Bedford arrived on Oldham Street at 11.45am – yesterday! Record collectors and music lovers have descended onto Manchester’s ‘vinyl valley’ in their droves this morning for the annual Record Store Day event. And one eager fan camped out overnight outside Piccadilly Records in order to secure an exclusive release from his favourite artist. Daniel Bedford, 20, started the queue outside the Oldham Street record store at 11.44am on Friday, April 21, in anticipation of the store opening at 8am this morning, Saturday, April 22. The shopper queued all day, slept out all night and beat all of the Taylor Swift fans to the front to get his hands on a copy of the Loyle Carner Yesterday’s Gone album, released as a limited edition picture disc for the annual event. The-20-year-old, originally from Birmingham, said it was his first time attending the Record Store Day event. He told the M.E.N: “I subscribed to Piccadilly Records newsletter and I got an email that said they had the record I was after and the email also said the queue may start on Friday around midday so I got there just in case. I thought a couple of Taylor swift fans would be before me. I thought they would be ready and waiting but I found myself alone.
Hattiesburg, MI | ‘Nothing that compares’: ‘Record Store Day’ sheds light on world of vinyls: “You have something that you’re able to hold in your hand, that’s yours and probably most importantly, it can’t really be taken away from you,” Mik Davis said. A manager at T-Bones Records and Cafe in Hattiesburg, Davis said National Record Store Day is one of the most successful days of not only the business, but of showing the community the world of vinyl. “There’s just something amazing about vinyl and then we began to lose it in the 80s, like we were saying,” T-Bones customer Thomas Pittman said. “It really did feel like you were losing a piece of your life. “You would look at your vinyl record and you might have already bought a CD to replace that on tv, but it just wasn’t quite the same.” Hundreds of records lined the walls at T-Bones, each one offering a different perspective and sound like no other. “With records, it’s kind of a different sound than what you would get from streaming it through Spotify or listening to it through a speaker,” T-Bones customer Nature Rucker said. “On records, it’s not bass heavy. You can really hear the details in the music.”
Oxfordshire, UK | Oxfordshire vinyl shops sell out on Record Store Day 2023: Vinyl shops in Oxford and Witney saw their biggest queues ever – with some customers camping overnight – as they celebrated Record Store Day. Truck Store in Cowley Road and Truck Witney took part in the international annual event on Saturday along with around 260 other independent record shops across the UK. The event, which was conceived in 2007 to entice music lovers back into record shops, is marked with limited edition releases, in-store events and live concerts in shops up and down the country. Gary Smith, who owns both stores, has taken part in the event since it first began. He said: “Back in the beginning, it was just a few records on a little table and it’s just grown and grown. “We had the biggest queues yet. But we managed to make sure everyone was happy and got what they wanted.” The most popular releases this year were The 1975 – Live With The BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and Taylor Swift’s Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions. The first queuer at the Cowley Road store arrived at 7:30pm on Friday evening – and spent the night without a tent – while Witney’s first customer came at 3am on Saturday.
Portsmouth, UK | Record Store Day: Music-lovers line up outside Southsea’s Pie and Vinyl to get their hands on prized albums: Punters were lining up outside the door of a Southsea record shop to get their hands on treasured albums. Pie and Vinyl in Castle Road celebrated Record Store Day yesterday (April 22) by welcoming music-lovers and having lots of exciting products on offer. Rock band Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs were also doing a signing session for fans before their gig at The Wedgewood Rooms. Some were up at the crack of dawn. Steve Courtnell, who has owned the independent shop for 11 years, told The News: ‘It’s been really great. It’s a real reward for the amount of work that goes into it. ‘The demographic has been fantastic, much younger, which gives it more of a future. It feels like having a birthday when you see all of your customers at once. ‘They’re your friends and that’s why it feels so special. Today has been our most successful Record Store Day.’ Younger customers were seen scanning the albums and picking out their favourites.
Roanoke, VA | Roanoke ‘Swifties’, vinyl fans line up for Record Store Day at The Vintage Vault: Emily Clark claimed the first spot in line 11 hours before Record Store Day officially started at The Vintage Vault Saturday morning. Clark, a city employee and Roanoke resident, considers herself a Swiftie, or a superfan of pop culture icon Taylor Swift. She was at the independent record store to purchase Swift’s ‘Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions,” a special vinyl release exclusively for Record Store Day. Sitting in a camping chair with a bag of supplies nearby, Clark was the first of several other Swifties and record fans in a line that snaked up to the second level of the Crafteria building in downtown Roanoke. Clark wore a pastel colored knitted sweater with the words “Taylor’s Version,” a reference to the artist’s efforts to rerecord early albums in order to own the rights to her own songs. The fashion choice complimented the spirit of the day in which “people who make up the world of the record store — the staff, the customers, and the artists — to come together and celebrate the unique culture of a record store and the special role they play in their communities,” according to RecordStoreDay.com.
