Well it's been quite a year. We've had a serious virus ravage the world, businesses and restaurants all over the nation are going out of business, we will have a new president in Joe Biden, and oh yeah Vinyl has hit a new high and is in demand more than ever in it's resurgence. Just this year Vinyl sales surpassed cd sales for the first time in 34 years. And with the amount of record stores across the nation both brick & mortar and online it is showing. That brings me to Record Store Day. Record Store Day was conceived in 2007 to bring together a culture of music enthusiasts and independent record stores around the world to celebrate and spread the word about records and record stores themselves (it is now considered a holiday almost like a second Christmas). It still embodies that spirit today while also releasing some of the most exclusive titles of the year in vinyl. That brings me to this year in RSD. Normally RSD is celebrated around the 3rd Saturday in April and again on Black Friday. This year was much different. RSD this day was originally set for April 18 and then was pushed back to June in the hopes that Covid 19 would have died down, but this did not happen. And for the first time ever RSD was divided into 3 different days over 3 months. This made sense in the hopes that it would get smaller groups of people over those days rather than one huge day with a large crowd.
I went to two of them this year and it was a lot of fun and exciting. Both times I got up at 4am, which I thought was actually not that early, so I was very shocked when it turned out that I was first in line both times. This is not usually the case. I've been to plenty of RSD's and it always seemed like there was someone there who was earlier. I know someone who sits in line at a different record store and gets there at 11pm the night before. So it can get crazy. While I was there I found that it was about an hour or so later when the next people showed up in line. I have made quite a few friends and keep in touch with these people to find out what they are listening to from time to time. But anyway we sat around talking about vinyl, funko pop, and comics for hours to kill the time. I tend to go to a local store called Spin Me Round Records at the Palmer Park Mall, and they don't open until 11a so you tend to have to wait a while, but the reason I go to this one is because I know they get a good selection of vinyl and all the ones I'm looking for at least. One thing that never thrills me about this particular RSD store is that they have a band come in far too early to play to many tired people who just want to get in and get out. Overall it is a great experience and one that everyone should have at least once in their life. I found it to be really safe even though the crowd was just as large. Everyone was about 6 feet apart and were wearing masks. So I expect the same for RSD Black Friday which takes place this upcoming Friday November 27.
To check out my picks for RSD Black Friday click the link below:
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