Beth Ray Writes

Record Store Day is nearly here and I wanted to share my thoughts of why I find it such an exciting day in the world of music.

Record Store Day is the one day of the year where over 260 independent record shops all across the UK (and in America) will have hundreds of exclusive vinyls which are released especially for the day. Some are exclusive to Record Store Day, some are early releases, some are re-releases with bonus tracks and some have brand new artwork that are all released especially for Record Store Day.

On RSD customers will have to visit their local independent record shop, as it’s not possible to pre-order or reserve any of the releases beforehand, so it has become common to see many people queuing outside their local RSD shop hoping to be in the queue early enough to purchase their favourite vinyl!
Many customers won’t mind the queueing part of the day as the whole event provides a huge sense of community, with many record shops hosting local artists to perform on the day and some even provide hot drinks for those waiting in the queue in the morning.

I experienced my first RSD last year, I queued up VERY early in the hope I would be able to buy my desired records. I had my thermals on, my word-search magazine to help pass the time, a camping chair and lots of snacks. I loved meeting other music fans in the queue, all of us sacrificing our sleep in the chance of buying a rare and exclusive vinyl. My favourite part of the whole day was the mystery of which vinyl everyone was queuing for. No-one would dare declare which vinyl they were hoping to buy because releases are very limited to each shop, so you ran the risk of losing your favourite vinyl to someone else in the queue. Which some fans may find quite stressful, but I found it to be even more exciting trying to guess which vinyl everyone was hoping to buy. There was also a wide range of music fans, from older fans, to younger, to vinyl collectors and to those who were at the very beginning of their vinyl collector journey. It was so much fun chatting to everyone and hearing about their different music tastes and their music collections.

So as Record Store Day 2024 is approaching, keep an eye on the socials of Record Store Day UK and your local record shop to see what titles they will have in-store. I’m going to be posting some more content to give you more of an insight into RSD and what vinyls i’ll be hoping to buy!

Beth x