Hi Everyone,

Congrats to all on the success of Record Store Day! There were tons of great releases this year but also, it felt good to be able to return to the celebration of indie record stores that is the heart of Record Store Day. I have compiled many of our CIMS recaps below so lots of great stuff to read.

In other exciting news, I am thrilled to be working on one of my other favorite indie retail events… Record Store Day Summer Camp! The only conference especially for indie retail will be returning in person to our home away from home, New Orleans, LA in August. I am attaching a link to a survey that you may have also seen elsewhere, but if you are a store, a label, a distributor that is interested in being a part of this event, please take a few moments to fill out this super quick survey: http://bit.ly/RSDSUMMERCAMP2022

Okay now here is some happy RSD recap reading from our stores and of course the charts.

Andrea

Andrea Paschal
Executive Director
Coalition of Independent Music Stores
ThinkIndie Distribution
3738 4th Terrace North
Birmingham, AL 35222
Phone: 205.595.1932 x.208
Fax: 205.595.1938
Email : andrea@cimsmusic.com
cimsmusic.com
#cimsmusic

Music Millennium - Portland, OR

Hello Everyone -
Record Store Day 2022 was the 2nd best day in the history of Music Millennium. The 2nd best Record Store Day we ever had too.
When I arrived at 5:30 there were about 8-0 people in line. The first two arrived at 10am Friday morning. They both met in line during
RSD about 5 or 6 years back. One is more of a hippie and the other one more towards goth. They hit it off and make plans every year to
wait in line together…..the power of music. By the time we opened up at 8am, there were more than 250 music fans in line. The weather
was cool at about 50 degrees but clear of the rain we saw most of the week and the day warmed up to the mid 60’s.
We made 200 gift bags and handed then out in line before we opened. We also gave the first 300 a special Music Millennium poster that our
store artist Hayley Cassatt designed….it was a big hit as we had promoted it all week on social media. The Dogfish Brewing posters were well
received also. We gave away granola bars and coffee starting at 6:30 and let a few of those in line use our restrooms.
Hayley also painted this design on our front window with more detailed information.

With COVID at a low in the past 2 years, it felt more like a pre-COVID RSD. We let regulate the customers into the store a bit more than
we did pre-COVID, just to give it bit more space. Titles flew out the door and in the first two hours we did about 35 % of our day. Most asked
about title all week was from RSD Ambassador Taylor Swift. We received so many inquiries that we decided to message out that we would
have have an “Enter To Win” to get a chance to buy the single and get a Taylor Swift Ambassador button and the runner ups would each receive
a button while they last. They had all day to enter. We had somewhere between 150 and 200 entires. I can tell you that some of these fans had
never been to our store before. This morning I had a call from Hawaii looking for the single. I pretty much assured him that all the stores in
the country were out.

Our lines in the store started winding down 3 1/2 hours into the day but by that time, over 400 people had came into the store to shop. By noon
we were able to open the store to regular shopping. The afternoon and evening saw solid RSD shopping but it also saw many people just come in
to support us, buying non-RSD vinyl, CDs, DVDs snd lifestyle items. For those in the industry that may not know it, new CD sales are growing.
Younger people (15 to 25) are buying CDs. Some vinyl customers that have been hooked with physical goods are going with 2 formats due to the
supply chain issues, not wanting to wait for the vinyl to show up on the shelves again.And used CD sales are up due to the amount of new titles that
have been taken out of the catalog over the years. This would be a great time for labels to reconsider looking at their catalog titles that are out of print
or just available for MOD and reintroducing them into their catalog.
Our business was about 15% higher than RSD 2019, pre-COVID. We did not do any special events this year like we have all years pre-COVID.
Had all RSD titles made it for the 4/23 date instead of getting bumped to the 6/18 date, it would have been a record day. The titles that sold through
were a larger percentage than in previous years. Most were due to allocation but some, I did not order enough. Sell through rate was very good.

There were a number of tiles that did not perform as well as we would have thought like Blur, the two Bowie titles, Allman Brothers, Santana, Gojira
and Elton John but I think we will see some of those sell down this upcoming week.

Thanks to all of you that helped contribute to making this RSD a grand success. And to all of you that provided some fun items to put in our RSD
bags….big thanks. And to Michael, Carrie, Eric and Andrea, thanks to all four of you for your efforts throughout the year to make this day happen.
We know there is a lot of work to make this day possible and we really appreciate it. Love those Dark Horse RSD shirts!

Looney Tunes - West Babylon, NY

Good Morning,

WHAT A WEEKEND!!!!

Record Store Day was another tremendous success this year! We could not be happier.

We finished the day with one of the top 3 days in our 51 year history! WOW!

We started the day at 8am to about 4000+ people in line and the line did not stop for hours. We had our first customer line up at 7:30pm Friday night….What was the #1 record he wanted you ask?…The Wallows..Which we had 40 of and sold out right away.
We went down the line and gave out free bagels and coffee to everyone on line. We love our customers! It was so nice to see so many familiar faces.

Once the doors opened at 8am, it was crazy! People had their lists and were ready to shop! Some of the best sellers included…

Childish Gambino
Rex Orange County
The Wallows
The Doors
Joan Jett
The Cure
Bill Evans
Alice In Chains

Everyone was in great spirits though out the day!

This year we had our own beer made just for the occasion. With our friends at 27A Brewery, we made a Looney Tunes Lager! All the profits from the beer sales went to our favorite charity, Long Island Cares. Long Island Cares is an amazing organization that helps feed those in need on Long Island and was started by the great Harry Chapin. We are happy to announce we raised $428.

At 3pm, we had Larry Jaffe the author of RECORD STORE DAY the book do a cool Q & A and sign some autographs! We are happy to announce that we sold 70 books this weekend! Thank you Larry for coming by!

We also did some great sales on CDs and Turntables. Both did amazingly well. Remember guys CD SALES ARE UP ALSO!!!

For the Taylor Swift release we decided to give out drawing tickets. Every single person that wanted the Taylor release got a free ticket. There was not cost to enter. We collected names all day and then on Sunday drew winners. These people then came back Sunday to purchase the Taylor release. EVERYONE was really excited about how we chose to do this. It went super smooth, and it helped us draw in some fans that had never been to our store before!

We could not have had such an amazing day without some help. So here are our acceptance speech thank yous!!

Thank you to Andrea, Carrie, Michael and Eric for all your hard work on RSD. It's really amazing how much effort you put in on our behalf, and we could not be more grateful. Thank you to all the labels and distributors for putting out some great releases and helping us with our orders. Thanks to 27A for putting out a killer RSD beer for us! Thank you to Ken Glaser and Rob Jara for helping us with the largest single order in our history and making sure we received our product timely and in perfect shape! You guys rock! Alliance truly is a wonderful partner to all indie record stores.

And a very special thank you to our entire staff. Jamie and I can not thank you enough!! We love you guys.

OK WHOS READY FOR JUNE 18!!!!

We are very blessed!!
Karl Groeger
President

Record Archive - Rochester, NY

RSD APRIL 23 PART 1

Greetings! Our first person in line arrived at midnight! He was patiently waiting for Allman Bros & Grateful Dead! We handed out numbers at 8:30am and by the time the store opened at 9 am there were 200+ shoppers!

We marked the 15th anniversary of RSD with free cookies (see pics) & coffee for the morning gatherers-- then free hots at noon! Zweigles of course (staying local) perfectly grilled by The man, the myth, Dick Storms the Record Man!I

Live music by Thurlow and John Payton Project kept the party going right up until our closing time of 7 pm. The best DJ in the land Dino Kay from Fickle 93.3 kept the crowd informed of all the happenings. Our popular “ prize wheel’ always had a line for a free spin to win a Dogfish Head poster, or Taylor Swift pin!
Patrons, ate & drink their way through the bins of used $1 records and the bounty of limited RSD titles.
Best sellers included:
Childish Gambino
Taylor Swift
Cure
Offspring
Joni Mitchell
Replacements
Future
U2
Allman Brothers
Voivod
Lumineers

We were pleasantly surprised with a 13% increase over the first RSD last year on June 12, 2021.

“So nice so nice let’s do it twice” is our motto for June 18th. Mark your calendars as Record Archive will once again throw another incredible RSD Celebration!

Many thanks to everyone once again who made this possible!
From the artists themselves who see the value of the independent record store, to the brain trust of RSD (Carrie, Michael, Eric & Andrea) to our marvelous musicians, remarkable staff, and especially our loyal patrons--- thank you, thank you thank you!
Cheers~
Alayna

Park Ave CDs - Orlando, FL

Wrap-Up: Record Store Day 2022 @Park Ave CDs

event: Record Store Day 2022 @Park Ave CDs
dates: Saturday, April 23rd 2022
location: Park Ave CDs, 2916 Corrine Dr, Orlando, Fl, 32803
sales reporting: MRC
event marketing: social media, pacd newsletter, local media, app

SOCIAL MEDIA:
Facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/451117846501765
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/parkavecds
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ParkAveCDs
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@parkavecds

MARKETING:
pacd newsletter/guide: https://conta.cc/3vGqtaV
charitable contributions: Second Harvest Food Bank of CFL & One Heart For Women & Children
attached: screenshots, video, photos of event — Facebook Photo Album
🎥 TAYLOR SWIFT LOTTERY - Highlight Reel
🎥 RSD 2022 Highlight Reel

OVERALL SALES:
- RSD 2022: up 12% over 2021 Drops
- Sell through: 70%
- Sunday: up 15% over 2021 Drops

THUMBS UP & THUMBS DOWN:
up: Our crew! Especially considering this was the first proper RSD event most of our newer staff had experienced/worked.
up: The RSD crew of Carrie, Michael, Andrea and Eric for the coordination and execution.
up: Our customers and supporters.
up: Our Taylor Swift Lottery was a blast, went smoothly, and no one cried (sad tears)!
down: The list prices continue to go up while the margin goes down.

titles we wish we had more of: Bell Bit Devoe, Charles Mingus, Cold War Kids, Glass Animals, Joss Stone, Kittie, Muffs, Opeth, Rick Astley, Taylor Swift

titles we thought would have done better: Alice in Chains, Allman Bros, Czarface, Dillinger Escape Plan, Donna Summer, Elton John, Erasure, Everlast, Rockabye Marvin Gaye, Sepultura, Weyes Blood

SUMMARY:

Hello friends!

Hope everyone had a fun and eventful RSD weekend!

PACDs is happy to announce that RSD 2022 was a success! Like most, this was our first attempt at pulling off all the bells and whistles of RSDs past. Not since COVID have we brought in vendors, food trucks, charities, etc. and we couldn’t wait to bring back some of those outdoor festivities that make the day that much more exciting and memorable.

Overall Saturday was BUSY from 8am-11pm. Just like with the RSD Drops we utilized the same raffle/appointment system for early access time slots from 8am-1pm and then we opened to the general public from 1pm-11pm. Our customer base prefers the reservation system as do we. Customers simply brought their PACDs’ RSD 2022 Menu filled out and then we check them in while the staff grabs everything on their list. This system continues to work well for us, but we did experience a slight delay when we had quite a few longer lists in the early morning hours. When 1pm hit we had a pretty good amount of walk-up shoppers lined up and ready to get in. The line thankfully never grew too long and that kept everyone’s wait times down.

With our RSD 2022 shopping time slot reservations being completely booked from 8am-1pm, we had about over 370+ people that showed up with their menus in hand, and then at 1pm we began taking walk-up RSD shoppers. We were really happy with the turnout and only had a few no-shows throughout the day. Leading up to RSD we made sure to communicate to our customer base that a good number of titles had been bumped to the RSD June Drop date or TBA. This helped us effectively remove anyone from the reserved shopping times that might have only wanted one of the June titles.

During the early part of the day, 8am-2pm, we had some local businesses/vendors (WPRK, Foundation Presents, Orlando Girl’s Rock Camp, Kick Bright Buttons & Vintage) and food/coffee stands (Cholo Dogs & Totally Coffee) that setup in our parking lot. We were also excited to invite back our friends at Enemy Ink to do some live screen-printed shirts and posters! On top of all of that we held our annual food drive for our local food bank Second Harvest of CFL.

At 5pm we began checking in folks for our free-to-enter Taylor Swift Lottery that was scheduled for a 6pm start time. We ended up having to push things back due to the overwhelming number of Swifities that showed up! By the time we started the line extended all the way to the other end of our plaza, with about 200-250 fans eagerly waiting for their chance to win. We also had local charity One Heart For Women & Children on site accepting used clothing, belts, shoes and other donations. As the Swift fans waited in line we handed out some free Taylor Swift stickers and let them know we would have to shift our plan from inside to outside for the drawings. It ended up working out really well and all the fans were patient throughout the entire process. As we selected our winners, we witnessed a range of emotions and reactions from the fans — with many screaming, jumping, crying or all of the above! The winners from each separate drawing had the chance to purchase either the Taylor Swift ’the lakes’ 7” or the ‘Portraits Of Her’ compilation. After we selected winners for both sets of drawings we let everyone know we’d now move to giving away the Taylor Swift RSD Badges/Buttons. During this whole process we took a few opportunities to converse with the crowd and also educate them on RSD, Taylor Swift’s relationship with indie record stores and why we celebrate this special day!

As always, there were several surprises as far as which titles sold out early and which titles were hardly touched — all of which have been included in our wrap-up below. Childish Gambino, Wallows, Foo Fighters, Rex Orange County, Mariah Carey, Sara Bareilles, and Red Hot Chili Peppers were the some of the hottest titles of the day.

Overall it was a fun day for everyone involved and we were so excited to celebrate a proper “Record Store Day” this year! The one thing I’m sure we were all nervous about was how the Taylor Swift lottery might go, but we were more than happy with how the event went. Also, sales overall for this RSD weekend bested our previous record set in 2019! This was the most financially successful RSD event we’ve had in all 15 years, and the vibe and spirit of this event was on par with the best of them. The following morning we kept the ball rolling with our online sales starting at 8am.

As always, thank you so much for everything you’ve done to help us and all the indie stores this year! We look forward to the RSD June Drop and we hope to see you all soon at Summer Camp!

Thanks!
- Josiah, Sandy & the entire PACDs crew

Easy Street - Seattle, WA

I still get a little nervous pulling up to the store. When u have $100k+ investment going into these, u tend to second guess yourself. It’s the ultimate music gamble and your throwing everything u got at it. I didn’t expect to be at the store til 1 am the night before. I forgot what a full RSD looked like. Needed double the space. No shipping issues, whew. Other than Taylor, we felt pretty good about our fill and even the allocations. We usually have 3 registers going at the front counter, but we couldn’t get the third one to fire up. Slowed us up a bit, but we made up for it by giving items away in line and getting on the mic talking up titles. Also, our cocktail bar and café helped picked up some of the slack.

With this being our first RSD in 2+ years without a mask mandate, it removed some of the safety concerns and protocol we’ve been adhering to. A lil more stress free! Our best RSD was back in 2019, we were 25% down from that, but that was also a very NW driven RSD. This was our best one since then however.

Twist & Shout - Denver, CO

Twist & Shout’s RSD 2022 Recap & Top Sellers
I’ve been here for every single Record Store Day (with only one actually landing on my actual birthday – until 2024, probably), but this was my first as the store’s owner and it was a great one – good, enthusiastic crowd, the weather was agreeable (if a bit windy and not exactly warm), and despite all the chaos that goes into making RSD happen, we got at least a little of everything we requested. Things went as smoothly as we could have hoped – helps that I have a very practiced crew to make it all work, and all thanks are due to them for making it run the way it did! Also, some special thanks need to be given to AEG for bringing bagels to the hungry crowd, Thump Coffee and Blue Pan Pizza for caffeinating and feeding our hungry crew, and to former Twister Frankie Brack for his fantastic psychedelic poster art!

We had our first fans in line here before opening on Friday – a couple of friends who drove down from Laramie Wyoming to make sure they would get their T. Swift singles! – and by the time we closed Friday it was eight people. But by 6 in the morning when I got here, the line was well over a hundred and was halfway around the building, which felt like a normal Record Store Day to me. Swift and Black Pumas were among the first titles to go, but as of today we’re sold out of almost exactly half the titles we brought in. Top sellers were: Foo Fighters, Childish Gambino, Grateful Dead, The Cure, and a tie for 5th between Joni Mitchell and Stevie Nicks. Many of our jazz releases sold out completely on Saturday – both Bill Evans releases, Art Pepper, Mingus – all were gone by midday, which alongside all the high profile rock/pop, hip-hop, and other releases just speaks to the diversity of the folks who will show up for RSD if interesting titles are there.

We had a very strong day, coming in at about 81% of the high-water mark that was 2019’s single-day total (or 72% of 2021’s combined total; and we beat all three 2020 RSD Drops dates combined) – but we still have the June RSD Drops date yet to come and I fully expect to beat both 2019 and 2021’s totals when that date is added in, especially given the number of folks who asked for June titles this past Saturday.

Going forward, it would be great to return to a one-day spring event and a Black Friday event – too many different events dilutes the message of Record Store Day and is confusing for customers (as evidenced by the folks standing in line for June titles, even ones that had been announced as June titles from the get-go), and titles that get delayed could easily be rolled over either to Black Friday or simply to RSD Essentials Friday releases. I love RSD and understand the need for maximizing its potential, but as an event, it’s best to keep it as direct and simple as possible. Use the branding for other purposes, definitely, but I still think one in April and one in November is the best system we’ve hit on – no need to fix what ain’t broken.

-Patrick Brown

Record Exchange - Boise, ID

How nice it was to have a party again – and set a couple of records in the process.

First in line for the first April Record Store Day at The Record Exchange in three years was 11:44pm Friday. The customer went to the Soft Kill show next door at Neurolux, then walked about 100 feet to our entrance and unfolded a canvas chair in the chilly night air (Boise dipped into the 30s overnight). The same customer set our previous record of 2am on Black Friday 2021. He was one of 200+ customers who filtered through the store by 9am on RSD Saturday, helping us on the way to a new one-day sales record, eclipsing the previous record we set on RSD 2019 by 10%. New vinyl accounted for a whopping 83% of our overall sales on Saturday (compared to 74% in 2019).

The Swifties were among those who showed up in full force on Saturday to enter our drawing to win a chance to purchase the coveted Taylor Swift exclusive. We messaged the drawing – in-store only on RSD, free to enter, one entry per customer – about a week before Record Store Day and only had two vocal complaints on socials. The fans we interacted with on Saturday were friendly and understanding, and it appears that most of our winners were true fans and not flippers. All of which was a relief.

Overall, the vibe was fun and festive, a return to the RSD energy that filled the store in the Before Times. A big part of this was the live music. We hosted two in-stores – a Thursday RSD weekend kickoff with a Boise band (Distant Family) celebrating a vinyl release, and an intimate Sunday after-hours performance by Curtis Stigers, whose new album “This Life” was released earlier this year during the winter Covid surge. We packed the store with 200 masked Stigers fans, all of whom purchased the album to receive a wristband to the show. Out on the sidewalk Saturday, we put up our canopy tent and welcomed back Boise musicians to entertain customers throughout the sunny, 60-degree day. Radio Boise, a nonprofit community FM station, had a table outside as part of its spring fund drive. Our local craft beer partner Woodland Empire Ale Craft once again offered $1 off pints with RSD receipt.

Taylor aside, there was a lot of excitement for both familiar RSD faces (the Cure, the Doors, the Stones, Grateful Dead, Alice in Chains, etc.) and new ones (Childish Gambino, Rex Orange County, Wallows). We noticed a lot more younger fans this year and it was nice to see so many releases geared toward their tastes. Sell-through was 65%, with 125 sellouts among the 266 titles we had in stock at the start of the day.

Allocations we really felt were Glass Animals (we got 2), Red Hot Chili Peppers, Bell Biv Devoe, Kittie, The Damned, Opeth, Charles Mingus, Bill Evans, Wipers, Rick Astley and the Lumineers. The only big swing and miss on our end was under-ordering the Ramones box set.

Below you will find our Top 50 exclusive sellers and some photos from the day. Thank you to all of our reps, partners, CIMS staff and RSD crew for getting behind Record Store Day’s big return and providing months of support leading up to our stores’ key annual event. We’re already looking forward to June.

Thank you,
Chad Dryden
Co-owner / Marketing Director

Cactus Music - Houston, TX

Hello all,

Here's our wrap-up for RSD 2022 which we consider a great success for many reasons. Most noteworthy is that, with this year's RSD we feel that we have taken a great step in restoring our RSD celebration to a pre-pandemic level. We genuinely hope that other shops experienced the same.

We decided to continue our tickets for line reservations which began with the first drop of 2020. Customers have grown accustomed to this method and it keeps anxiety to a minimum as record fans have a sense of when to arrive, what their place in line will be and tempered expectations for opportunities to purchase coveted items. Safety is a concern and our system doesn't allow for camping overnight. We opened at our usual time which is 10am and had an enthusiastic crowd of 500 or so lined up and escorted to the RSD product table in 25 person segments. Many enjoyed the Black Vinyl Blend coffee provided by our sponsor, Katz Coffee. We feel that it is important to keep our store shoppable for the many customers and new visitors who want to have an experience on RSD. Our orderly and manageable line in the store lets us create the best possible experience and to set the hook for new visitors. Once again, we saw strong afternoon traffic and sales that almost equal the morning hours as customers who visited other stores searched for items that they missed.

With the metrics for Covid 19 plummeting to unprecedented levels in our county, we were able to host our first in-store performance in over two years. Strolling Bones recording artist, Tody Castillo, performed a full set with his band to the delight of our customers. With his two previous self-released titles, Tody is one of our best selling local / regional artists ever and his superb new album, Old Rodriguez is on track to continue that trend. With 120 ish in attendance, it felt like old times.

Our raffle for the Taylor Swift 7"s raised $2750 for The Way Home Adoption which serves children in Houston who are aging out of the foster system. They are an amazing charity that helps children 11-17 with what could be their last chance to find a family and it is a cause that is close to our hearts. We picked names live at 8pm and the winners were positively over-the-moon about their prize. Presenting an opportunity for Swifties to do a good deed was effective in helping to diffuse the panic/anxiety bomb that had been ticking for weeks and we all relieved and pleased at how it turned out.

Some important details:
- Sales were up 2% from 2019 and it was our highest volume day ever. It is important to note that, while this is a remarkable benchmark, it is not in line with our steady growth that we are currently seeing.
- We experienced painful and severe allocations on many RSD products. With an unprecedented number of sellouts, including many before noon, we were unable to meet the demand for music lovers in Houston. As Houston's flagship RSD store, we are stocking these titles for RSD followers throughout Houston and not just our customers. We only order what we think we can sell at our store during RSD. We feel that the numbers produced on these products need to increase to meet market demand which has surged dramatically in the last three years.
- Our overall sell through for the weekend was 70% of the pieces that we purchased.

Thanks to everyone who helped us schedule in-stores, provided us with marketing funds, giveaways, enter-to-win prizes and other cool stuff. Your support is and was greatly appreciated. We look forward to another RSD in June.

Best only, Q

Streetlight Records - San Jose and Santa Cruz, CA

Greetings, Everyone--

We’re finally coming up for air after one heck of a great RSD! Both Streetlight locations had great sales and lots of happy customers, including some ecstatic Swifties. We had a lot of positive feedback from the customers and staff alike. The energy in the stores was electric and this one goes down in the books as a big win!

Our San Jose store had its best day ever in Streetlight’s 45-year history, up more than 10% over RSD 2019, which was the previous record holder. San Jose’s first day sell-through on the exclusives was 82%. We kept our appointment system in place from the Covid years, at the request of the customers. Over 200 confirmed appointments this year, with a very low no-show rate, plus about 60 more waiting in line for the completion of the appointments. We did a drawing for the opportunity to purchase the Taylor Swift 7”, which ended up working out well.

Our Santa Cruz location also had a stellar sales day. We went back to the old overnight line-up system and the dedicated Swifties were out in numbers! First day sell-through on exclusives was 60%.

Many, many thanks to all our partners for making this happen. A lot of people all over the country worked hard to make this happen and your efforts really paid off!

--Paige

The Long Ear - Coeur d'Alene, ID

Here's our recap against RSD #1 2021

Total Sales +49%
Vinyl +50&
CD sales +42%
Plus profit +29%
Customers +43%
Sell through (titles only, not pieces) 61%
Slow sellers:
Coolio
Alice Cooper
Golden Smog
Handsome Boy Modeling
Lil' Wayne
Rolling Stones-Hot Rocks#2

Top Sellers
Taylor Swift
Alice In Chains
Wallows
Childish Gambino
Offspring
Mariah Carey
Willie Nelson
Kirk Hammet
Foo Fighters
Lou Reed
Pixies
Rex Orange County
Cranberries
Joni Mitchell
Devo
Replacements
Stevie Nicks
Kacey Musgraves
Voivod
Everlast
Art Pepper

Thanks for your continuing efforts for our success,
Terry

Waterloo Records - Austin, TX

Greetings!

Record Store Day 2022 at Waterloo Records was great! We had ~200 folks
lined up around the block for our 3hr early opening at 7am. Then by
8am when we were able to get everyone inside the store, our first
hour's total was 305 music lovers, with yet another 100 folks inside
by 9am! The first 2 guys in line showed up at 12;30am and 1:30am. The
skies were clear and the weather was moderate, with just a touch of
humidity.

The first 50 shoppers got free Waterloo drawstring backpacks, while
the first 8 folks topping a $200 purchase, scored 1 of our 8 RSD22
cloth bags. All of the other RSD swag + free Rambler sparkling waters
were available as folks exited the store, with the exception of the
Taylor Swift buttons, which myself and 2 others here selectively
handed one out to obvious 'Swiftys'. On the subject of Taylor, we held
a free raffle entry from 7am-7pm to win the opportunity to purchase
the ambassador's Lakes 7'. Nearly 700 folks entered the TS drawing,
and the winners were all ecstatic.

Our RSD sales this year were 2.5% higher than our pre-Covid 2019 RSD
sales, which made it the 2nd best sales volume day of our store's 40
yr history! RSD 2018 still holds the #1 slot, but there were ~200 more
titles that year, and when we add in the expected sales from the
upcoming June 18th drop, we expect 2022 to take the top sales volume
event Hrown.

On Sunday we listed most remaining titles for purchase online through
our Broadtime website,and made 60+ RSD sales to our customers far and
wide.

Big thanks go out to everyone again that made this day happen: the
artists, managers, labels, distributors, one-stops, sponsors, 1400
indie record stores, Carrie, Andrea, Michael, Eric and of
course the very talented crew here at Waterloo Records!

Plan 9 - Richmond, VA

Wow, it really felt like we'd gone back in time a little for this RSD. The vibe was more like years past- early arrivers, long line, really good vibe, plus the addition of some enthusiastic first timers!

Gave away a pile of concert tickets to many of those in line thanks to our local venues. With a few exceptions, we felt pretty good about our fill. Sell through about 70% as of Monday.

And finally, it was our best single RSD $ ever!

Top sellers include Grateful Dead, Childish Gambino, Joni Mitchell, Lou Reed, Replacements, Stevie Nicks, Taylor Swift.
Thanks to all the movers and shakers who made this possible!!

Jim

Electric Fetus - Minneapolis, MN

Electric Fetus April RSD Recap

RSD 2022 was the third biggest day ever for our music department! Our biggest was RSD 2018 when there were multiple Prince titles/events that made the store insanely busy.
Something new we offered for this year’s RSD were over 600 signed records from: (Huge credit to JIm Novak for this idea and planning it)

Animal Collective
Atmosphere
Bonobo
Cactus Blossoms
Hippo Campus
Hurray for the Riff Raff
Charlie Parr
Royal Blood
Dave Mason
Snail Mail
Soul Asylum
Spoon
Adia Victoria
The Wombats
Hatchie - Giving the World Away packaged with an autographed poster
Sting - The Bridge packaged with an autographed Las Vegas postcard

I cannot overstate how hugely successful this was—500 signed records sold in two days--AMAZING!
For this one we organized this more similar to pre-COVID RSD:

Food truck in front of the store for the lunch hours
DJs and bands from 10:30-5
Goodie bags to first customers in line
“Special” used records in the used/collectables sections

We did have a separate line for RSD titles in the back of the store, and kept all RSD in our garage to help with traffic flow—I think it helped a bunch and we’ll probably keep RSD separate going forward.
#1 in the RSD line arrived around 2pm on Friday, and we had some pretty gnarly weather overnight—thunderstorms and high winds—yuck. When I got to the store a little after 7am we had two lines—roughly 100 in the RSD line around the back of the store and almost that many in front to get a crack at the aforementioned signed records and special used ones. By 4:00pm we handed out 750 numbers for people in line for the RSD titles in our garage. Customers could ring out at a till we set up in the garage or continue through the back door to enter the main store and ring out there.
We got the word out on our social media earlier in the week that the Taylor Swift 7” single would not be for sale on Saturday. Instead, anyone who wanted to buy one could enter a drawing in person at the store and we would draw names on Monday. Winners could then buy one copy.
Overall fill on our RSD orders was right around 90%--pretty normal. Everything arrived on time with only a few damages—pleased with logistics this time around.
Sell-through was also pretty in-line with historical at around 75%.
Huge thank you to AMPED who made enough Childish Gambino to cover demand for this title. We are noticing younger and younger customers joining the RSD fray. Lots of “kids” buying Childish and Wallows, then grumbling that we were out of Rex OC, Glass Animals and Future. Even with the grumbling I love to see new people coming to the store! Please keep offering up titles for younger customers—it’s not all old white dudes anymore—really!
Wish we ordered more:

Cranberries
Alice in Chains
Joni Mitchell
Wallows
Future

Really wish we weren’t cut on: (these sold out in less than an hour)

Art Pepper
Blue Velvet
Glass Animals
Kittie
Rex Orange County

Really didn’t need all we ordered/got on:

The Doors
Kirk Hammett
Echo & the Bunnymen

It’ll be really interesting to see how June does for us—we are definitely excited for Prince!
Please let us know if you have any questions, and thank you for helping support our biggest day of the year (and third biggest EVER)!

Aaron Meyering

Homers - Omaha, NE

Homers RSD 2022 recap

Our 2nd best day ever. 2nd to RSD 2019
weekend was just slightly down from RSD 2019 weekend
It took almost 3 hours to get everyone into the store
yet all customers were pleasant and patient

Our biggest and earliest line ever. We served donuts, coffee and breakfast burritos
to those waiting in line. We created a line just for Taylor Swift
and we think we accomplished getting those pieces into the hands of
fans and not flippers.

Sell-through was very high compared to the last couple years. About 65% on
Saturday and 75% as off Tuesday a.m.. Sold amazing numbers on
Childish and Wallows. Jazz and hip hop continue to out-perform. Some heritage
artists that always have a piece each year should consider taking a break
to re-ignite demand

Placed substantial reorders with One Stops on Monday

-Mike Fratt/Homers