The Problem with Record Store Day

I've usually been a big booster of Record Store Day. I always go to small record stores, used record stores and pawn shops when I look for music, and I know where all the decent stores when I go to other cities. Heck, I even bought a t-shirt back in 2010 from the Record Store Day website, and I'm wearing it as I write this article. But, since the rise of RSD and vinyl sales in general, I fear that the event is taking away the joy I feel from the event and killing the stores that the day was created to help.

The problems are many, and, while Record Store Day is still a great idea, the problems have come together to start to significantly affect the day itself. First, there's the glut of bad vinyl on the market. As vinyl has started to blow up in sales again, there's been a real explosion of dubious and overpriced records being released. Check out the release list for this past year's event.There's 7" singles from electronic bands, old science fiction movie soundtracks, coloured vinyl 7"s of long released singles, and a shocking amount of classic rock. There's even a lullaby album of Grateful Dead songs. All of this is often priced at 2-3 times what it would cost you normally, depending on where you are picking up the music. It's also all in limited edition, very small publishing runs of under a couple of thousand copies.

This, in turn, has led to rampant speculation on the records.Because the records are so rare, collectors who want them and are willing to pay for them will pay huge prices to get them. People bought up the records and started reselling them on eBay for trumped up prices. If you're an independent record store, you're likely getting only 1-2 copies of the promos, those will be priced normally (say $25-$35 bucks or more), buyers get them then resell them online for ten times that much. There was even reports of a store selling their material for high prices before they even had the records in hand!

There's the issue of the quality of the vinyl too. Neil Young recently commented about how vinyl is a fad and has become a fashion statement. He also said that the music on vinyl isn't any better than what's on CD, since the vinyl is just a copy of the CD audio. And since vinyl has a lower dynamic range than CDs, it sounds worse. I could go on and on about the difference between CD and vinyl, the loudness wars and such, but safe to say that CD audio on vinyl is always going to sound worse than the CD itself. I've also heard that coloured vinyl, which a lot of RSD releases are pressed as, sounds worse than normal black vinyl, though the debate is still going on. Also, Neil Young seems to be going a bit off his rocker lately with his Pono player, claims that the higher resolution of the files there will be appreciated more than standard digital files, despite science saying no human ear could tell the difference.

Then there's how the day pushes out the independent artists that really need the exposure, which is my biggest problem. When the CD came into vogue, record companies stopped making vinyl records. Vinyl pressing plants were closed and less vinyl was pressed. Now, with vinyl coming back onto the hipster radar, more is being pressed. But look at the release list again. Notice all the big older names on that list? That's what's being pressed: lots of Beatles, The Kinks, Grateful Dead, Rolling Stones, lots of bands who have already sold millions of records and don't really need to sell many more. Furthermore, most of the records being released are already in ample supply and in print, so the only real reason to own them is to say you have a picture disc or limited release vinyl version of them. They're collectors items, rarely sold for their value as music, but as items of interest, designed to be put into a tight vinyl sleeve, put into a box and stored away to accrue value. Due to this, time for small labels and independent artist to press their records is limited, and, in fact, is being pushed back for months. And these aren't limited releases like the RSD records, they're regular releases for these labels, which is how they make back their money. It lead to the closing of Mammoth Cave Records, one of Canada's most critically celebrated indy record labels. Because they couldn't get time into pressing plants, and they had no desire to release music digitally, they had to close up shop:

"Since we started, music fans went from 'collecting' to 'downloading' to 'streaming.' We are a record company, not a digital music servicing company," the label wrote. "We love records, we don't love playlists. And the nonsense about the 'return of vinyl' has come at the cost of the people who have been keeping it alive all these years." 

Sadly, Record Store Day is killing records.

This reminds me a lot of the comic book implosion of the 90s. Back in the early 90s, there was a big surge in printing small print runs of special covers, gimmick covers and other kinds of unusual comics. Some of these comics ended up being super valuable, like Superman #75 (which was the Death of Superman), which came packaged in a sealed bag with a poster and black arm band. A lot of folks bought these comics and stored them away, or resold them for twice the cover price or more. Series were relaunched with a #1 issue with special covers, or printed with multiple variant covers, or sealed in bags. There were shake-ups in the stories as well, shifting them in radical directions for the sake of increased sales through controversy. Older comics were also being sold at record prices. All this led to collectors running into the market, buying up comics, then storing them away hoping they would become valuable. But, the comics in the 50s and 60s had smaller print runs, weren't collected and often ending up forgotten in attics, to be discovered decades later. The comics of the 90s were abundant and everyone was collecting them in mint condition. After a couple of years of this, the comics were worthless to collectors and the medium had been destroyed for readers.

For me, music is about enjoying listening to it, not collecting it. Having the record in your hand, putting it on your turntable, listening to it and enjoying the pops, skips, warbles and wobbles is what music is all about. I've also much more enjoyed records on CD rather than vinyl due to the compact nature of it, while still having the artifact quality to it. You can still hold it in your hand, look at the artwork, read the liner notes. There's the satisfying feeling of "I own this" to it, that doesn't exist in a digital file on  your computer, phone or iPod. CDs also sound better to me as well. But, there's some music you just can't get on CD, which is where vintage record collecting comes in. I don't see much point of buying a new record for three times the price of the CD when I can have the CD. The thrill is digging through a box of records, going into the back of a used book store, and pulling out a long forgotten record that hasn't been heard in ages. And paying a few bucks for it to boot! And then putting it on your record player, not putting it in a box in a dust resistant sleeve never to be heard ever.

In my opinion, as with the 90s comic implosion, the quicker the record collector, the collector that does their collecting for financial gain, and especially ones who do it on the backs of music fans, the sooner this kind of collector leaves the hobby, the better. Record Store Day started with the best of intentions, but has turned into a lumbering marketing gimmick for major labels, and a cash cow for speculators. Records need to be put back into the hands of music fans, of small record labels and of independent bands, or the same thing will happen to vinyl that happened to comics in the 90s. As an interesting side effect to this, there's been a huge upswing in DIY labels and independent artists to begin releasing cassettes again, leading to an upswing in sales. Tapes are cheap, their plentiful and it's very easy to record onto a blank cassette and mass produce them.

Like William Gibson said, "The street finds it's own use for things."