The Ghost of Record Store Days Past

Today was Record Store Day (RSD). This used to be an exciting holiday for me, but that moment seems to have passed. I am OK with that, though I am glad to hear that my friend Shawn had a successful RSD at Forever Changes, and did it without the benefit of any exclusive releases.

The original intent of RSD, 15 years ago, was to alert the world that endangered independent record stores still existed. I headed to the legendary Princeton Record Exchange that day. From what I remember, it was crowded but not overwhelming. There were few if any “RSD exclusive” releases, just a bunch of record geeks gathering in one of their favorite haunts. I spent my entire time at PREX hunched over its dollar bins.

RSD is different now. Vinyl is back and major labels make sure RSD is filled with pricey and extremely limited edition releases that some people are going to buy and immediately post on eBay for twice what they paid for them. Not cool.

In recent years, I’ve lost interest in RSD. I don’t have the expendable income for the new releases, so why fight the crowds? And anyway, if you want it to be, every day can be Record Store Day, at least in your mind, and on your turntable.

~217~