VIA PRESS RELEASE | With vaccines on the horizon and a few events being pencilled in for later this year, Record Store Day organizers around the world look forward to the future, but recognize that in 2021, celebrating independent brick and mortar record stores is still best done in the Drops format introduced so successfully in 2020. RSD Drops will take place at participating record stores, globally, on June 12 and July 17.
Throughout the past year, record stores have found creative, flexible ways to operate under changing regulations and conditions, with tremendous support from their local communities. The ongoing worldwide pandemic makes it impossible to predict the status of any stores or locations in the next few months, and brings with it many unexpected side effects, including production and distribution issues that continue to disrupt record store supply chains.
The decision to once again shift the “Record Store Day energy”—usually focused on in-store performances and crowds and the world’s largest single-day music event—to focus on revenue generation for these local independent businesses, as well as for the artists, labels and distributors who play a major role, allows the largest number of stores worldwide to participate. The Lists of specially created titles coming to record stores as part of the RSD Drops dates will be launched soon.
About Record Store Day | Record Store Day, the organization, is managed by the Department of Record Stores and is organized in partnership with the Alliance of Independent Media Stores (AIMS), the Coalition of Independent Music Stores (CIMS) and promotes independent record stores year-round with events, special releases and other fun things. Record Store Day, the global celebration of the culture of the record store, takes place annually. The worldwide pandemic in 2020 required the creation of RSD Drops dates in 2020 and in 2021, RSD Drops will take place on June 12 and July 17 at record stores worldwide.
