Tuesday 20 April 2010: Organisers of Saturday's
(April 17's) Record Store Day have revealed that sales doubled over
last year's event with many indie stores reporting their best day
of trading yet.
Scores of stores reported early morning queues as music fans lined
up to buy the more than 100 exclusive items produced especially for
the event, led by Blur's first new recording for seven years,
Fool's Day, which was available on a special one sided 7"
single.
Record Store Day UK coordinator Spencer Hickman said, "Record
Store Day is absolutely the best way to celebrate record store
culture around the world . It has been amazing to see the genuine
public warmth and excitement created by the event. In just its
third year RSD has become the UK's biggest music event after the
BRITs and Mercury Music Prize."
Sales figures from the Official Charts Company show sales of
singles were up 466% on the previous week and 96% on last year's
Record Store Day, reflecting the strong bias towards singles among
the RSD exclusives. Album sales were up 8.9% on the previous week
and 11% on last year's Record Store Day.
And Hickman, the manager of the Rough Trade East store in London's
Brick Lane, said, "If anything, these figures understate the huge
upturn in sales. We had 800 people queuing when the store opened,
and we were so busy in many cases we didn't even have time to scan
the barcodes. Percentage- wise we were up 633% week on week and
340% up year on year."
More than 150 UK indie stores took part in Record Store Day.
R.G Morrison from The Drift Record Shop in Totnes, Devon said,
"We were up about 300% on your average Saturday".
Sandy McLean from Avalanche, Glasgow said, "We had our second
highest takings in the 13 year history of this shop. Only
once have we taken more money - on Dec 23rd 2003, when people still
bought CDs for prezzies."
Rose from Coda Music in Edinburgh said "What a fantastic day.
Sales were up 150%."
Clint Harris from The Heavy Sounds in Nottingham reports that,
"Sales were up 250% on last year's Record Store Day."
Despite the very positive feedback on Record Store Day 2010,
organisers have expressed disappointment at the number of people
who bought RSD exclusives only to re-sell them at a profit.
Kim Bayley, Director General of the Entertainment Retailers
Association which supports RSD said, "We are not surprised at the
number of eBay pirates out there, but we are disappointed. These
exclusives were created as a thank you to genuine fans. It is a
shame when people hijack collectibles like this."
Hickman confirmed that three record stores have been banned from
future Record Store Days for diverting stock from regular
sale.
"The whole point of Record Store Day is to highlight the close
relationship between indies and music fans. Any stores which abuse
that relationship have no place in Record Store Day," he said.