Record Store Day is Saturday, April 18. More than 200 exclusive releases will be available at participating independent stores. [1] This is the paper's reminder that it is not tomorrow — but that for vinyl hunters, the weekend starts when stores announce their queuing policies, which is typically Thursday night.
The release list spans genres and eras with the eclectic confidence that has always defined RSD: the Rolling Stones mini turntable from Crosley, Olivia Dean, Elton John, PinkPantheress, Peter Gabriel, and dozens of limited reissues and one-time pressings that will sell out within the first hour at most stores. [2]
The vinyl revival is, at this point, not a revival — it is a settled format. Physical record sales have grown year-over-year for eighteen consecutive years. The consumer who buys vinyl is not primarily a nostalgist; they are a person who wants to own the music, interact with it physically, and have something that does not disappear when a streaming service drops a catalog. In a moment when other certainties have been unreliable, the record has held its value.
Record Store Day amplifies this logic. The experience of standing in line at 7 a.m. outside a store in your city, talking to other people who care about the same things you care about, then handing $40 over a counter for a gatefold LP you will keep for 30 years — this is not convenience culture. It is its opposite, and it is evidently what enough people want that the event has survived a decade of predictions of its irrelevance. [1]
April 18. Find your store.
-- CAMILLE BEAUMONT, Los Angeles