CIMS WEEKLY CHARTS: WEEK ENDING 4/20/23 + RSD '23 WRAP UP

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Howdy Everyone,
 
I have to say how overjoyed I was this week with all of the phone calls and wrap-ups from our stores with the details of how RSD 2023 went. There were some amazing, best-day-ever stories, and when you are talking about best-day-ever in 40- 50 year histories… that is really something!

I want to say thanks again to everyone that was a part of making last weekend a success.
 
I have done a mighty round-up of what the CIMS stores had to report so please find that below as well as the charts.
 
Thanks,
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

Waterloo - Austin, TX

Greetings fellow vinyl nerds!
Wow, RSD ‘23 was another one for the record books! Yesterday Waterloo Records experienced our busiest day in the 41-year history of our store.  The combination of vinyl nerds, both old and new, plus hundreds of Swifties made for a day like no other. Sales were up 25% over the 2 combined RSD ‘22 drops, though I must admit, that without ‘you know who’ we would have only been up ~ 3%.
 
Our first guy in line arrived Friday evening about 7:45pm, before our 1hr early RSD prep closing at 8pm. Twelve hours later Saturday morning at our 8am opening time, we had 540 very eager folks in line, or nearly double our store’s fire Marshall capacity. It was 10:45am before we got everyone in line inside the store, which totaled 729 music lovers. They were followed by a very steady stream of customers throughout the entire day and evening.
 
We featured multiple ticket ETW drawings for 
upcoming Austin concerts, and had FREE Beatles Revolver slip mats for high dollar RSD purchases. With the breadth and depth of this year’s titles, it proved easy to make high dollar RSD purchases. That said, we unfortunately still had 29 titles, or nearly 10%, with no sales yesterday. On the other hand, we sold out of 109 titles, or ~36%, so perhaps we were a little too cautious after the less robust early sales on Black Friday ‘22. However, we had a 101% ROI yesterday, with ~33% of our original buy-in left to sell.
 
But I’ve saved this story for last. Against the wishes of most of my talented staff, I chose to bring in 1,000 copies of former RSD ambassador Taylor Swift’s live folklore 2LP set. Her Swifties, both young and old, came out in force, and went home to listen, (though some maybe not?) to the 748 copies purchased! So thanks Taylor, first for all your music, and for nurturing your fans to love and support the music makers that enrich their lives.
 
Big thanks go out to everyone again that made this day happen: RSD ambassador power couple, Native Texan Amanda Shires & Mr. Shires :), the contributing artists, managers, & labels, the distributors, one-stops, sponsors, 1400 indie record stores, Carrie, Andrea, Michael, and Eric. Most of all, big thanks go out to the very dedicated and talented crew here at the best damn record store on the planet, Waterloo Records, serving the best music lovers on the planet, in-store and online.
 
John T Kunz

Looney Tunes - West Babylon, NY

The line at 8am! https://www.youtube.com/shorts/bxG7i7NeZKY
 
Wow….what can I say….
 
THANK YOU TO ALL OUR CUSTOMERS AND FRIENDS FOR MAKING THIS PAST RECORD STORE DAY THE BUSIEST DAY IN OUR 52 YEAR HISTORY!!
 
Please read that last sentence again…. We just had the busiest single day since my father Karl Sr. opened our doors in 1971. 
 
We are so very grateful to you all. Where do I start?
 
We jump started the weekend off with a fantastic SOLD OUT instore concert by Waterparks and ended the weekend with an amazing performance by Ryan Cassata. Thank you to the bands and labels for playing our store and really putting on two fantastic concerts.
 
Record Store Day on Saturday was incredible. The line started forming at 8pm the night before! By the time I arrived at the store at 7am we had over 500+ people on line! It just seemed to go on for ever! It went down our building around the entire parking lot down the street all the way to Montauk highway and then made a left toward the front of Pet Co! We have never seen a line so long for anything ever. Usually we can get everyone in by about 10am. But this year we opened the doors at 8am and the line continued outside until about noon!! The check out lines were all around the store and almost back out the door!! We had our usual free bagels and coffee. We cant believe we ran out so soon. 
 
Even though it was really INSANE at times in the store. EVERYONE was just in just such a good mood ALL DAY LONG! It really was just so much fun talking to everyone about music all day long. So many old and new friends shared their stores about their love of music and our store. 
 
We ordered more product then we ever had in our lives for this event and it helped! We stocked 289 releases. Some titles we only got a fraction of what we ordered and they went fast. We still have stock on about 90 releases. 
 
TAYLOR SWIFT….wow….we ordered 300 copies and we thought that was A LOT! We ran out by 1:30pm wow!!! AMAZING. We wish we ordered more…but its just hard to tell. 
 
There were 18 release we ordered more then 100 of that we SOLD OUT before the end of the day……just insane we can’t believe it. 
 
We released another beer this year with our friends at 27a Brewery and it was delicious and a lot of fun to do. Jamie designed the artwork this year! 8 concert ticket giveaways all day long from our friends at The Paramount in Huntington and Club Loaded Presents. Thank you guys for the giveaways. 
A VERY VERY BIG thank you to my staff that worked their butts off. 
 
AND MOST OF ALL thank you to our customers and community for supporting our little record store. We love you guys….
 
Until next time.
 
Karl and Jamie Groeger 
Owners of Looney Tunes Record Store 

Music Millennium - Portland, OR

Hello All -
I arrived at 5:25am to a line that was already over 100. Our first person showed up at 10am on Friday. A regular for Record Store Day he had just 3 titles on his list. The Grateful Dead, Jerry Garcia and Elton John. He did have his van and was able to get a few hours sleeptime in the evening. There was a drizzle of rain all night but by our 8am opening time, it had stopped and the weather for Saturday was the  best we have had this spring. I handed out the Dogfish posters to first 75 and followed up with giving muffins out to all that were there along with a free coffee station by the entry way. I then gave away our store artist Haley Cassatt’s created poster.At 7pm we had reinforcements and we gave away 300 gift bags with various fun things, each having a pair of socks compliment to Sock It Too Me, vinyl, CDs and other  that we were able to get from the labels (thankyou all!). Everyone in line were so appreciative. After a few more sweeps in line to give away bags and posters, wehad at least 350 people in line by opening time. 
We have everyone come winding through the store single file, with an opportunity to walk by each RSD release. Many end up grabbing 
more than what they had on their list as they slowly walk through the store and we find a space for them to get rung up at one of five cash 
registers in operation. Hat’s off to Todd Johnson from the Orchard for helping us get the gift bags out to all in line as well as being a 
cash register traffic monitor, giving me the sign when a register became open to send more people over to get checked out.
 
We had a kid called the Traveling Typist out in front of the store all day. He would type free poems on an old typewriter as well as have 
another typewriter available for others to type on. Fascinating to the younger generation for sure, who were all more in the post-type-
writer era. He collected a good amount of tips in his empty typewriter case.
This became the biggest business day in the history of Music Millennium. Taylor Swift was a game changer this year and many of those 
fans wanted an item or two more including the 1975, which was very underproduced, Maya Hawk (we should have ordered more!) and
various other titles. We ordered 300 Taylor, received 300 Taylor and sold out of Taylor by 1pm, 5 hours into the day. The phone rang
all afternoon asking if we had more. This release and the quantity made is an example of making a cool RSD piece for an artist that has
a strong fan base. Not just a variant of a previous title but material the fan base has not able to get before. Taylor is the biggest artist on the
planet right now but there are other artists that could crush with a cool unreleased piece of music. This year’s list of releases may have been 
the strongest ever though and other than a few items like John Lennon, Steve Austin, 1975 cassette, Porcupine Tree, Broken Social Scene
and a few others, we were able to get most of the titles we ordered. We sold out of a great deal of titles by the end of the day but customers
were able to shop a great selection of titles all day….and we made many people happy.

Homer’s - Omaha, NE

Record setting day at Homers

biggest day in history, up 20% over 2019 and 2018
biggest line in history, over 3 blocks long, 
last in line entered store in 2pm hour
RSD represented 57% of total store sales
sell-through was an astonishing 75% by Sunday night,
which probably indicates we under-ordered
sales activity on 239 titles
best sellers include-
T Swift, Larry Lovestein, Pearl jam, Tori Amos,
Black Keys, Billy Joel, Elton John, J Isbell,
Cure, Van Halen, Stevie Nicks, Grateful Dead,
 
Pixies, Dolly Parton, Eric Carr, Poe, 
no sales activity on 64 titles
used sales were up almost 50% with big spikes
in used vinyl and used tape
Our 250 Taylor Swift lasted til 7pm Saturday
as usual we offered coffee, donuts and breakfast
burritos and custom tees and bags for purchases
over $150

Mike Fratt 

Record Archive - Rochester, NY

Welcome to another glorious RSD Wrap Up from Record Archive!!!
Biggest crowd awaiting our door opening at 9 am. First arrived at 1 am. What was supposed to be 80% chance of rain, but ended up only being gray skies and 60s! Woot! Line went down the sidewalk, around the building. Managed to get everyone safely in with over 500+ people in the store. Once in, we started the entry into the RSD shopping area in our Backroom Lounge. In previous years, we have moved the crowds through by noon. This year- it was 3 pm before everyone had their chance to shop the RSD crates!
It is no surprise that Ms. Taylor Swift was the MAIN driver for robust sales! I was happy to report that we didn’t run out until 2 pm, so all our hardcore fans got most of their needs met. Thank you to all those who made this possible. We could not have asked for a better artist right now!
 
Customers were greeted with free coffee & donuts at 7:30 am. Then while waiting in the store they were given custom made RSD, RA & Our fabulous Ambassador cookies!
Many cool prizes were given away via our Spin-the-Prize-Wheel manned by my daughter Eliza! Beatles slip mats & tees; RA swag were well received.
Steve fired up the grill at noon and proceeded to give away 500 local Zweigle Hot dogs! Can you say White Hot? 
Top local DJ Dino Kay was here promoting all the happenings!
 
Live music kicked off at noon by my business partner Dick Storms with his ‘Stormy Valle’ blues band, followed by Hey Mabel at 2 pm and final act Brian Lindsay Band took the stage at 4. Of course, Dogfish Head (and many other beers) were poured. We also featured 2 samplings from local crafters Naked Dove and 42 North.
We were thrilled to be chosen a Marshalls Headphones Ambassador this year- featuring and promoting Marshall  ( yes the Amp company) consumer goods.
 
Dogfish Head Brewing  graciously gave us a Turntable to giveaway- which we were so busy, we are keeping the promotion going for a bit longer.
We featured our annual RSD RA Exclusive T-shirt as well- and sales were crazy!
 
Even with 4 checkouts, lines were long all day!  $1 Records, Buy 1 get 1 FREE on all Used DVDS, and Mystery Bags of CDS, DVDs, Toys, & LPS were grabbed by all!
My crew did our best to keep it all moving- this was truly the largest crowd in history.
 
Now onto the details:
Overall store sales were up 45% over 2022!
Biggest Single Selling Day in Record Archive HISTORY! ( Remember we started in 1975- so many of you reading this,  were not around yet!)
 
Best sellers included:
Taylor Swift
Pearl Jam
Jason Isbell & Amanda Shires
Billy Joel
Rolling Stones
Grateful Dead
Jerry Garcia
Tori Amos
Jazz Dispensary
Things I wish I had more of: Wish I could swap Peppa for Bluey! LOL Of course TS, 1975, Pearl Jam CDS, and always Grateful Dead.
As I look at our inventory, I am thrilled to say we had an 85 % sell through!!
 
I am grateful to EVERY ONE Who made this day possible!! Especially my family & my staff- who do this every day and support me in every way.
With love,
Alayna 

The Long Ear - Coeur d’Alene, ID

Our in-line customers were about twice the normal total I'm sure do to the Swifties which we sold out in about the 1st 1/2 hour. 
Overall sales were up 36.7 %
Vinyl up 33%
CD's up 10%
customer count up 25%
Plus profit up 88%  (love it)
Record setting day for our store. Glad to have only one RSD this year, keeps it more special. Lots of happy customers & much better fill than in years gone by.
It just keeps getting better & better!
Terry & Deon 

Electric Fetus - Minneapolis, MN

Record Store Day 2023 was the biggest day in Electric Fetus history—going back 55 years! 
 
The weather didn’t really cooperate—several people spent the night through below-freezing temps and strong winds, and we only got up to 37 degrees on RSD—nasty.  Even so, when I got to the store around 7:30 there were well over 150 people in line.  Line person #1 arrived before noon on Friday.
 
At 8am we started handing out numbers (store opened at 9) and we got to 350—more than double the “usual” amount.  We ran out of numbers at 1,000, which we hit by mid-afternoon, so after that we just had a separate line for RSD titles.
 
We set up three main draws for early birds in different locations:  RSD titles that were only accessible from the behind the store in our garage, the hoard of primo Used records on our new arrivals wall, and two endcaps of signed records in the department.  And when we opened at 9am the store started hopping for nine straight hours until we closed at 6pm.
 
Prior to this year our biggest day ever was RSD 2018, when RSD coincided with the second anniversary of Prince’s death and the Celebration at Paisley Park.  RSD 2023 beat RSD 2018 by “only” 6%, but 2018 was buoyed by non-music items from our Gifts department due to the visiting Prince tourists.  Looking at just our Music department RSD 2023 crushed 2018 by 27%--unbelievable! 
 
For the first three hours we were selling more than 100 Taylor Swift records PER HOUR.  We started with 425 copies and sold out around 3pm.  We could have easily sold another 100-150 on Saturday.  Greg Norton from Hϋsker Dϋ signed records at the store in the morning, which drove their Tonite Longhorn LP to #2 for our RSD titles, and Dave Pirner from Soul Asylum’s DJ set in the afternoon drove their MTV Unplugged to #4.  And local favorites The Cactus Blossoms were #5—we are lucky to have some great Minneapolis artists on this year’s RSD list!
 
No live bands at the store this year!  We went with DJ sets from local musicians and celebs, and I think it was great.  The bands were often too loud and dissuaded customers from shopping the sections near the PA—I think we might go the mostly-DJ route next year too.  
 
Our two signed records endcaps were also huge performers for us—for non-RSD titles eleven of our top 20 were signed records from:

  • Tennis 

  • Unknown Mortal Orchestra 

  • Everything But the Girl 

  • Margo Price 

  • Aoife O’Donovan 

  • Snarky Puppy 

  • Low Cut Connie 

  • Foals 

  • Poliça 

  • Fruit Bats 

  • Dawes 

 
Thanks to all labels who help us get signed records—they are bringing people through our door every day, and especially RSD!
 
Sell-through by EOD Sunday for RSD titles was 81%--too high!  Even taking out Taylor sell-through was 76%--Swifties drove more foot-traffic that I expected!
 
I was surprised by how many titles completely sold out—if only had I known…   …and on a related note—it’s great that two of the three one-stops sent remaining inventory emails this morning, so I have some of these sellouts coming back in.  
 
 
And we would have sold a ton more of these if they weren’t allocated:

  • The 1975 vinyl and cassette (our orders were cut by 90%--customers almost got violent over these—there was some jostling and I had to use my “Dad voice”)

  • Larry Lovestein 

  • Wilco 

  • Orville Peck 

  • Duran Duran 

  • Joan Jett 

  • Macho Man 

 
Here are the titles that didn’t perform close to expectations:

  • Paul McCartney 

  • Blur 

  • The Doors 3” records 

 
Thanks for your support to make RSD 2023 our biggest day ever!
 
Jim Novak 

Streetlight Records - San Jose/ Santa Cruz, CA

We are so pleased to announce that it was another record-breaking (pun intended) RSD for Streetlight! Our San Jose store had the best ever sales day in its history and was up over 17% from last year, the previous #1. First day sell-through for San Jose was 87%, indicating we could have ordered more on some key titles, but we’ll take it! Our Santa Cruz location also saw a great bump in sales this year, up over 12% from last year. First day sell-through for Santa Cruz was 59%, with stellar sales the following two days, as well. Below are Top 20 sales for RSD titles for each store.
A huge thanks goes out to the organizers of RSD, with special recognition to Carrie, Andrea, Michael and Eric! Big buckets of thanks to all the labels, distros, artists and management. And a heartfelt THANK YOU to the incredible staff at both Streetlight locations and our amazing customers!
 
Paige Brodsky
Store Manager, San Jose 

Twist and Shout - Denver, CO

Pat Brown walks the line -> https://www.instagram.com/reel/CrVpWIvrYou/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Em Beihold video -> https://www.instagram.com/reel/CrXPVCkRBde/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Twist & Shout’s RSD 2023 Recap

Spring weather in Colorado is a fickle thing – 80 degrees one day and snow the next is not at all unheard of. So when after a very pleasant early week the predictions for RSD turned toward snow, we braced for the worst. Turned out to not be too bad – but then I didn’t have to sleep outside in it! Regardless, our customers showed up hardcore, with a regular customer arriving first in line about 4:30 PM Friday (he wanted the lone Lennon box set we received – and got it), followed not too long out by a group of four women there for the T. Swift release. There were about a dozen people there when I checked back in the blowing snow at 10:30 PM and when I got to work around 6AM – snow still falling from the night before – the line was halfway around the building, about 150 people deep, all bundled for the weather. And after we opened at 8AM they kept on coming for the remainder of the day – it didn’t let up until we closed after I split, twelve hours after arriving, in what turned out to be our best Record Store Day in the history of the store.

The big sales story of the day was obviously Taylor Swift. We played a little conservative with our numbers – though we doubled the initial order in the weeks leading up to RSD and thought we’d be able to sell our remaining copies in the weeks to come. Turned out we probably could’ve had three times as many as we did and still sold out on Saturday – every copy was gone just over two hours after we opened the doors. We had sold out of five titles 15 minutes after the doors opened, about a third of the titles we’d brought in by 11AM, and nearly half by 3PM. Top sellers outside of T. Swift were Grateful Dead, Beach House, Pearl Jam, Jerry Garcia, Jason Isbell/Amanda Shires, Medeski Martin & Wood, Allman Brothers, Rolling Stones, Black Keys, Miles Davis, Dolly Parton, and the Nuggets box set – most of which were also completely sold out by midday. And though we sold at least some of almost everything, a handful of titles didn’t move as we’d hoped – we ordered decent numbers on Blitz Vega, Jerry Harrison, Hawkwind, the Miles Davis tribute band M.E.B., and Rich Kids, but their fans seem to have stayed away in droves.

This year we had a pair of special guests who helped sales for us as well. Debora Iyall, lead singer of Romeo Void, happened to be in town so she stopped by the store to say hello, meet a few fans, and sign all our copies of Live From The Mabuhay Gardens: November 14,1980(both the RSD LPs and the CDs that had come out the day before), while up-and-comer Em Beihold, whose debut vinyl EP Egg In The Backseat came out on RSD, dropped by to make a quick video for her fans about the record being out, which in turn boosted people looking for it from us both in store and online once we put
them up for sale there. But if there’s one overarching story to this year’s RSD, it’s that we sold through more, and more quickly, than any year in memory – and we sold at least some copies of nearly everything; even most of the “stiffs” above moved a couple copies.

Ultimately, it was our best single-day RSD event ever, up about 5 ¼% from the previous high-water mark in 2019, and second only to the combined totals of last year’s RSD and June Drops date. The weekend overall was also our best-ever, beating 2019’s weekend by 5 2/3%.

If I had one complaint – hard to do in our best-ever year, but here it is anyway – it would be the level of allocations. This year we were allocated on more titles and more deeply than any year in memory. It definitely hurt us on a few – the two Sparks titles, Wilco, and (no joke) Macho Man Randy Savage (0 copies!) come to mind – and overall we ran out of stuff. Obviously there’s an upside to a great sell-through percentage, but when a third of our RSD stock is gone only three hours in, I just wonder what we would’ve been able to do had we not been allocated on things (and if we’d quadrupled instead of doubling our T. Swift order)! It would be interesting just for our edification to know the reasoning behind these – were more stores participating so the allocations had to be spread over a larger group; were smaller titles pushed aside at pressing plants to ensure that everyone got the Swift they needed; or were other factors at play? I don’t know what it would change, but I’m curious how things came down regardless.

Lastly special thanks need to be given to my incredible staff – everyone worked extra hard in the weeks leading up to RSD, as well as the day itself, and it went off without a hitch. Thanks also to AEG for bringing bagels to the hungry crowd, Blue Pan Pizza and Santiago’s and Greg & Terry Burns for feeding our hungry crew, and to former Twister Frankie Brack for his fantastic Colfax poster art! And another nod goes to Debora Iyall and Em Beihold for taking the time to come down to the store (and to their people for making it happen)! And one more – thanks also to our industry partners at the one-stops for getting us all our product in a timely fashion and in good condition!

Patrick Brown 

Cactus - Houston, TX
 
Hello,

Here's our wrap-up for RSD 2023 which was tremendous fun.

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 distributed 500 tickets to customers and began serving up the RSD goodness at 10am.  We escorted vinyl fans to the RSD product table in 25 person segments which kept the store accessible to customers and new visitors who simply wanted to shop or just visit a store on our unofficial holiday.  We heard nothing but positive feedback regarding our system and were delighted to have a customer tell us that it is as efficient as the drive through at Chick Fil A.  We felt that, with the diminished health concerns, that we would see many people who had not participated in RSD in a few years and that proved true.  In an effort to create a great experience for our reconnected RSDers and all of the Taylor Swift fans, many who had not been to our store, we decided that it was best not to present in-store events and avoid overcrowding.  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.
 
Taylor Swift was our most newsworthy RSD release again this year. We felt good about our order of 400 units, but quickly realized that it was not nearly sufficient.  We sold out around 4pm, but could have sold  that many more before close.  It was amazing to see hundreds of passionate music fans visit our store for the first time and I expect that many are already making plans to visit our store again.  
 
Our sponsors, Katz Coffee served our Black Vinyl Blend to the early birds who waited in line.  Our partner, The Saint Arnold Brewery provided delicious beverages to shoppers including their new music-themed Banger IPA.  Refreshing Topo Chico was available throughout the entire day.  We were able to offer great prizes including turntables, gift packages from Warner Records, and many, many concert tickets from Live Nation, House of Blues and 713 Music Hall including coveted tickets to Beck, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Madonna and more.  Fans were especially excited to enter to win passes to a screening of Hi Fidelity with John Cusack.  We greatly value the support of these brands and their appreciation of RSD.
 
As a special gift to our customers on RSD, we created a high quality art print which features a record store themed drawing commissioned from our dear, departed friend, Gerard Baldwin.  Gerard was an artist at Jay Ward Studios and the director of Hannah Barbera during the studio's prime where he created The Flintstones, Captain Crunch and The Smurfs.  The image is also featured on this year's commemorative RSD shirt, is visible on our socials and will soon be available for sale on our site.  Fans were delighted to receive this unique piece which is framed with ease and we're certain that it will find a spot on their wall.
  
Some important details:
- RSD 2023 set a record of our highest volume day ever which is remarkable.  When compared with the combined sales from the RSD Drops of 2022, sales are flat. That is not remarkable.  It was somewhat disappointing considering the expected impact of this year's Taylor Swift sales. This is the second year with minimal or no growth and it would appear that the event has reached a plateau of sales at our store. This sales trend is out of step with our steady growth that we continue to see.
- We experienced severe allocations on many RSD products, more so than last year which was impactful.   We saw a greater percentage of sellouts than last year, including many more before noon and we often felt that 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 feel that the numbers produced on these products need to continue to increase to meet market demand which continues to surge dramatically as well as the added participating stores.
- Our overall sell through for the weekend was 80% of the stock that we purchased with the entirety of the remainder being underperforming titles.
 
RSD 2023 at our store was truly a celebration of record store culture and a wonderful time was had by all. 
We look forward to RSD2024,  Best only, Q 

The Record Exchange - Boise, ID

Wow.
 
We knew what to expect (Swifties), but we also did not know what to expect. Downtown Boise these days resembles one large construction site, and just in time for Record Store Day, both of the blocks adjacent to our corner lot were closed to vehicle traffic. We are literally surrounded by construction, and all of the street parking around the store, all of the convenient ways to reach us, are gone for the time being. Also, the forecast called for mid-30s overnight and a high of 58 during the day, a bit chillier than Boise is used to for RSD.
 
Thankfully, gratefully, our people still made it here. And by the time we were done with the line around 10:30am, exactly 433 customers had entered the store. And they just kept coming in. A typical RSD for us has started with a line of 200-250 that we get through by 9 or 9:30, followed by a bit of lull, then a steady afternoon. This year, the traffic just never stopped, and we ended the day up 52% over 2022, beating last year’s RSD total sales by 1pm and setting a new all-time store sales record in the process.
 
First in line got to the store at 9:15pm Friday – another new store record. And for the first time, we had legit tents set up outside the store. Several of these customers, of course, were here for Taylor Swift (which sold out before 2pm), but that wasn’t the only story of the day. The thirst and excitement for this year’s exclusives was evident, not only in the discussions we had with customers throughout the day but with our 87% sell-through rate, and the 170 sellouts by Monday morning (thanks in part to robust online sales Sunday). New vinyl overall accounted for 82% of our overall sales on Saturday. Wow again.
 
We started the weekend on Thursday with an in-store performance by Boise hardcore legends State of Confusion, who reunited for a weekend of shows and the reissue of their second and most well-known album. We also kicked off a few four-day sales running through Sunday, including 20%-25% off new turntables, 50% off new and used video and 20%-50% off select lifestyle items. We sold a ton of turntables, including some to young customers getting their first table. Saturday night, we held our first offsite RSD event, an after party at Spacebar Arcade (a downtown arcade bar) featuring five vinyl DJs, including three of our staffers.
 
Taylor aside, the fast-movers and hot titles included The 1975, Larry Lovestein, Stevie Nicks, Beach House, Pearl Jam, Miles Davis, The Cure, Grateful Dead, Sonnyjim, U2, Van Halen, Wilco and The Black Keys.
 
Allocations we really felt were The 1975, Sonnyjim, Wilco, The Black Keys, Bluey, the Donnas, Duran Duran, Orville Peck and the heinously under-pressed Macho Man Randy Savage.
 
Thank you to everyone involved in assembling one of the best RSD lists yet and to all of our reps and partners for a huge show of support leading up to our biggest event of the year.


Catherine Merrick, Glenn Newkirk, Chad Dryden and Erica Sparlin Dryden
Co-owners
The Record Exchange
owners@therecordexchange.com

Easy Street - Seattle, WA

Surprise! Taylor not #1. 
75lbs of bacon, 500 cups of coffee. Big ups to our longtime coffee partner Caffe Vita. We also had local legends Rainier Beer (“so good they named a mountain after it”) buying beers and throwing swag. 
 
Legendary photog Charles Peterson debuted his latest public showing in and around the shop and cafe. Iconic photos up close and personal …and for sale. Charles was on hand to say a few words about the exhibition. He’s a man of mystery and storied legend so was very cool to see him having a great time and mixing it up. 
 
This was officially our busiest day EVER ! Sunday went well too. No hiccups with online orders either, thank u Jon Berger and Chris at TRAK….and of course our staff picking, packing, and taking calls. We did 12% above our 2019 RSD, which had been our previous best. 
 
Jeff Ament from Pearl Jam made an appearance the day before and gave a look thru and unboxing of their RSD piece “Give Way”. Indie record store fan favorite and PJHQ Ten Club GM Tim Bierman got on the mic and thanked all for coming out and gave inside details about the release. 
 
We’ve had a spring Patio Sale going on out front with 10,000 used records & 7”ers, 5 for $10. We replenished for RSD and had fresh meat for the cratediggers. 
 
Can we talk The Rockfords? Many of u outside of the PNW might not know much about this one…and I wouldn’t blame u. This was a record that slipped out 20 years ago, a bit of a local supergroup. One and done record. It was a side project that Mike McCready (Pearl Jam) did after Mad Season and between his PJ releases “Yield” and “Binaural”. Local indie/riot/songstress Carrie Akre (Hammerbox/Goodness) joined up along w working musicians and Mike’s childhood friends/Shadow bandmates (pre-Pearl Jam) the Friel Brothers and Danny Newcomb. They had a local hit “Silver Lining” that was played on local rock stations throughout 2000-01. All members were busy with other projects so there was never a tour, only a couple shows…and never released on vinyl. 4 bonus tracks were added from a long lost EP. 
 
Gordon at Real Gone does such a great job with his pressings and packaging, another beautiful piece. Gordon used to run Collectors Choice. Much respect to him and Erik Freeman at AEC for believing in this piece and walking it up the RSD ladder.   
 
The Rockfords were scheduled to perform at 7pm. Not only did we have 400 ppl in line at 7am, but by 5pm…we had another 400 in line for The Rockfords. We closed up at midnight. Thanks everyone for all that u do. No duds. No scrubs. 
 
Instores from the previous week(s) helped get the word out too; Syml, Sandrider, Dave Hause, Waterparks, and Boygenius listening party. 
 
Staff killed it, Adam personally received every piece. Kevin had a beautiful Mudhoney window on display and a Metallica billboard up. Maria did a great job w our socials. Andy and the vinyl crew had killer rarities on display and got us lined up for the flow. Nate, Sophia had us ready to go. Mary kept us all in order. Café and bar was full throttle! See below. Staff was stellar! 
https://www.facebook.com/EasyStreetRecords/
https://www.instagram.com/easystreetrecords/

Park Ave - Orlando, FL

SOCIAL MEDIA:
Facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/722030196157339
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/parkavecds
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ParkAveCDs
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@parkavecds
 
MARKETING:
pacd newsletter/guide: https://conta.cc/40y6EQl
charitable contributions: Second Harvest Food Bank of CFL & FL Access Network
attached: screenshots & photos of event — bit.ly/RSD2023Photos
 
OVERALL SALES:
- RSD 2023: up 70% over RSD 2022
- RSD 2023: sell through: 72%
- Sunday: up 175% over 2022
- RSD Weekend Overall: up 104% over 2022
 
THUMBS UP & THUMBS DOWN: 
up: Our crew! Considering this was our biggest day in the history of the store, we couldn’t have asked more of them.
up: The RSD crew of Carrie, Michael, Andrea and Eric for the coordination and execution.
up: Our customers/supporters and the many brand new patrons of the shop.
down: The list prices continue to go up while the margin goes down.
 
titles we wish we had more of:  Macho Man Randy Savage, The 1975, Sonnyjim & Purist, Orville Peck, The Midnight, Art Blakey, The Black Keys, Duran Duran, Garbage, Joan Jett, Laufey, Stevie Nicks, Porcupine Tree, Violent Femmes
 
titles we thought would have done better:  Peppa Pig, Kittie, Sunn O))) & Boris, Galt MacDermot, Björk, Blur, David Byrne, Captain Beefheart, Jerry Garcia
 
Hello friends!
 
Hope everyone had a great weekend  :)
 
It seems that each Record Store Day only gets bigger and bigger, with more new faces and first-time vinyl buyers coming out in droves year after year. This RSD was no exception, and RSD 2023 proved to be an overwhelming success! Of course we anticipated big crowds with releases from Taylor Swift, The 1975, Pearl Jam, Beach House, Mac Miller, etc, but nothing could have prepared us for the amount of people that turned out this weekend.
 
The typical RSD Saturday keeps pretty busy with long lines until about 3-5pm, but this year we had a long line wrapping around the building until past 7pm. Just like with recent years, we utilized the same raffle/appointment system for early access reserved shopping times from 8am-1pm and then we opened to the general public from 1pm-11pm for walk-ups. Our customer base still prefers the reservation system where they shop via our PACDs RSD Menu, as it keeps wait times down. This year we increased the amount of reservations per time slot as we knew the overall demand was going to be higher. In the end we filled every reservation slot for a total of 600 people from 8am-1pm. Once everything got rolling, the reservations were working well for us, but at some point we really started to get busy and the line outside started to wrap around our plaza. When 1pm hit we had several hundred people waiting in line that continued around the plaza and into a local school parking lot — easily the longest line we’ve ever had in the history of PACDs. 
 
Meanwhile outside, from 8am to 2pm, we had some local businesses/vendors (Foundation Presents & Kick Bright Buttons & Vintage), food/coffee stands (Cholo Dogs & Totally Coffee) and voter registration (People Power For Florida) that setup in our parking lot. We also had our friends at Enemy Ink setup outside as well doing some live screen-printing for this year’s RSD 2023 t-shirt. This year’s limited RSD t-shirt, print and tote bag sales all raised money for the Florida Access Network, our local state organization that works to build pathways for abortion access by advocating for reproductive justice, funding abortion care, and providing logistical support. Thanks to everyone’s support we were able to raise $2,670 for FL Access Network! On top of that we held our annual food drive for our local food bank Second Harvest of CFL, with over 922+ lbs of food donated by the end of the day — significantly more donations than last year’s food drive. We also had a surprise visit from our local State Representative Anna Eskamani, who gifted the shop a commemorative plaque in tribute to Record Store Day and to all the independent record stores in our community. Such an awesome moment!
 
As always with the RSD exclusive release, 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. Taylor Swift, Larry Lovestein, Pearl Jam, Beach House, Maya Hawke, Bluey, Stevie Nicks, Wilco, The 1975, Grateful Dead and dodie were the some of the hottest titles of the day. Also, huge thank you to Carrie Colliton (RSD) and Dan Cohen (Nonesuch) for helping coordinate a last minute LP-venue-signing with Wilco for their RSD Exclusive 'Crosseyed Strangers: An Alternate Yankee Hotel Foxtrot’ LP. It was already such a cool piece but that extra touch really got the fans excited for RSD and even surprised a few in the process.
 
Overall it was such an exhilarating (also exhausting) and unforgettable day! Thankfully we all got some rest before Sunday when we began selling RSD 2023 titles via our web-store for in-store pickup and mail orders. Just as with in-store sales, we saw a huge increase in online sales compared to last year, with sales overall for this RSD weekend besting our previous record by 104%. This was the easily the most financially successful RSD event + weekend we’ve had in all 16 years of participating. All that being said, we’re already looking for new ways we can improve the overall experience for our valued customers, neighbors and staff. 
 
As with every RSD, we can’t thank you all enough for everything you do for us and for all of indie retail! Special shoutout to Eric at AEC for treating the staff to some of our favorite local donuts — it kept everyone fueled up and smiling throughout the weekend! We’re already looking forward to the next event and we hope to see you at Music Biz, Summer Camp or in the bins soon :)
 
Thanks!
Josiah, Sandy & the entire PACDs crew

CIMS WEEKLY CHARTS: WEEK ENDING 4/21/22 + RSD APRIL 2022

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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

CIMS WEEKLY CHARTS + RSD DROP #1

in

Hi Everyone,

As you all know, we celebrated the first of two Record Store Day drops this past weekend. I always enjoy reading the recaps of how our stores celebrate and their accounts of the weekend, so today I thought I would compile some of those for you here. Of course, as always, charts below.

Enjoy!
Andrea

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Karl Groeger-Looney Tunes (West Babylon, NY)
Has everyone had a chance to catch their breath? We finally have! What an amazing 2 weeks.
Lets jump right into it………

1) Did you know its Looney Tunes 50th Anniversary this year!!! We hope to host a major celebration this summer/fall. Call us to discuss how you can be a part of it. THINK BIG!!

2) We are back to doing instore performances and autograph signings. We had our first 2021 event last Friday with 300ent artist….WATERPARKS! What an incredible event. I can not thank Ryan MacTaggart and the 300ent family enough for such a fantastic event. With the help of Ryan we did a few things with the band….first we did an incredible online campaign to sell their indie exclusive LP which lead to sales of 300 lps. Then we hosted the band for a live performance and autograph signing. Which drew over 750 fans that lead to sales of 750 CDS!!!! WE HAVE SOLD OVER 1000 UNITS OF THIS RELEASE!! Did you hear that?….. One little old record store just sold 1000 units of something. WOW! Call me to discuss how we can rock your bands with our instore performances and autograph signings! We have a full PA and we can even record your event!

3) RECORD STORE DAY JUNE DROPS #1…
We arrived at the store at 7am to see almost 500 people online. WOW it may have been the largest line for a RSD we have seen. If you know our store….The line went all the way down our building, around our parking lot, and down to Pet Co on montauk highway! WOW. The first fan lined up at 11:30pm Friday night. We started the day as we do with all RSD days…FREE Breakfast for all! Our sales were fantastic. We did 65% of the total of all 3 RSD drops from last year. With most years we usually get allocated on about 20% of the titles. This year we got allocated on about 75% of the titles. That was a real bummer and hurt sales. Example we ordered 70 grateful dead box sets and only got 17. With a list price of $140 thats about $7500 we lost. And the list goes on. We could have sold another 100 Lady Gaga easy! We wish we had more of a LOT of the titles. Forcing us to only purchase titles from the onestops raised our prices to the consumers also, so that is a concern. BUT the flip side of that is all the one stops (Alliance, All Media Supply and Ingram) did a FANTASTIC job shipping the product on time and in perfect shape. We really have to thank the team over at Alliance Entertainment. Ken Glaser, Rob and Wes always go above and beyond to help is with everything. Over all it was a FANTASTIC DAY! Traffic was strong the entire day. Special thank you to Andrea Pascal, Carrie Colliton, Eric Levin and Michael Kurtz for their incredible job with RSD this year. We could not do it without them. And thank you to all the labels that worked with us on co-op RSD programs. It really helped us get your titles noticed and sold through. Is it JULY YET?

Top 10 Best Sellers for RSD
1) Lady Gaga - allocated and sold out
2) Tom Petty - allocated and sold out
3) Price - allocated and sold out
4) Rage Against the Machine - sold out
5) Elton John
6) Doors - sold out
7) Thrice
8) Steely Dan - both titles sold out
9) 21 Pilots
10) Iggy Pop

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Paul Epstein- Twist and Shout (Denver, CO)
Record Store Day - June 12, 2021 at Twist and Shout!
I’m still confused about how to bench this day. If I compare it to 2020, we did about the same amount as all three drops put together. If I compare it to 2019, 2018 or 2017 we did significantly less than any of those (our three biggest days in store history). However, and this is the way I’m leaning, if I compare it to half of any of those years, then this will be the start of our best two-day run in store history. Any way you cut it, it was a wonderful, heartening day for customers and staff. We opened at 8 AM to about 200 people and it was both a rush and a gut-check to have over 100 people all walk into the store at once. Quickly, things turned happy, and people started buying with abandon. The crowds lasted throughout the day, and the vibes remained sweet and strong. With Bob Weir playing 4 Colorado shows at the same time, there was a strong Dead undercurrent and the Olympia Theatre box set flew off the shelves in minutes. So many strong titles-Prince, Biggie, Petty, Flaming Lips, Ariana Grande-it was a good drop and people were so ready to experience this great ritual again. I’m grateful for so many things this year. We made it through the pandemic nightmare with no employees getting sick, we have rebuilt the business to be even stronger than it was when we were forced to close, we have created a meaningful pre-order and online sales pattern and most importantly, much of the fun has come back to the community. People are happy again, and the store hums with that familiar buzz that comes only from standing shoulder to shoulder with other like-minded record nuts. Thanks to all our partners in the larger music biz - the folks at RSD, and most of all the community for sticking with us for these last 331/3 years. Did I mention that RSD was our 331/3 anniversary? Beat that!


Terry Currier- Music Millennium (Portland, OR)
Hello All-
RSD Drop #1 was a grand success yesterday. We opened at 8am to a crowd of about 250 and had a crowd of 100 at 6am when I arrived. We did a hybrid
of pre-COVID Era procedures along with COVID era procedures. We eliminated doing time slots and just regulated people into the store to create social
distancing.We had a local dairy, Alpenrose, give out complimentary chocolate milk along with giving away 50 certificates from Oatley for an oat milk drink
at a local coffee shop called Kopi. We gave out gift bags to the first 100 people, Dogfish RSD posters to the first 50, as well as a copy of the RSD poster that
our store artist Hayley Cassatt had made to the first 300. Our first 2 customers showed up before 4pm on Friday. These two are regularly the first in line and
look forward to seeing each other and hanging out with each other overnight. Though it is raining today and it rained on Friday, the weather was perfect for
RSD and waiting in line.

The store was closed to regular shopping till after Noon, when the line for RSD finally dissipated. We then went back to regular shopping and increased our
store limit from 15 people to 20. Till then, there was usually 30 to 40 people in the store, walking the rows and seeing all the RSD titles displayed before they
ended up at a cash register to check out.

At 2pm we had a signing with Portugal. The Man around their Friday street release “The Oregon City Sessions” . All 6 members of the band attended and we
did the signing in front of the store. We gave everyone that came a free 4 ounce serving of Staccato Gelato gelato, of a special flavor created by the band with
the gelato store……fresh strawberries from Oregon City, coconut, hint of mint and rosewater. It was a hit with the customers, the band and our staff. And the
band was really stoked with the store being named “10 Greatest Record Stores In America” by Spin yesterday as the photo they used was our marquee that had
the Portugal. The Man signing info on it.

The titles for RSD Drop#1 were strong and many sold out, some quite early, mostly due to allocations. I wanted that 1 Richard Hell we got out of 11 ordered
but it went to a worthy customer that had wanted since midnight.And yes, there were titles I had wished I ordered more of ,like the 2 Steely Dan titles. It was a
great mix of customers because of the diversity in the the title mix. Thanks to all the labels that came through with some really great titles. Our customers and
us can’t thank you enough. And thanks for making this all happen in a time of upheaval during the COVID era. And to those who came through with great swag
like record bags, t-shirts and other find items, thanks very much. Our day was about 60% of what our RSD day was in 2019, pre-covid. Our staff was prepared
and did a great job setting up and helping customers and getting people though the cash registers in quick fashion. And our customers were so thankful for all
the treasures they were able to secure in the store. Nothing like see and hearing a customer’s glee when he picked the last Styx album up off the rack in late afternoon.

Now to the top sellers for the day:

Full length vinyl:

1- Prince - Truth 44
2- Lady Gaga - Chromatica 40 (sold out)
3- Rage Against The Machine - Battle Of Mexico City 40
4-Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers - Angel Dream 40
5- Elton John - Regimental Sgt. Zippo 27 (allocated, sold out)
6- Thelonious Monk - Palo Alto: The Custodian’s Version 25 (sold out)
7- Ariana Grande - K Bye For Now 25 (sold out)
8- Haim - Gasoline 25 (sold out)
9- Grateful Dead - Olympia Theatre, Paris 25 allocated, sold out)
10 - Joni Mitchell - Joni Mitchell Archive 23
11 - Freddie Gibbs - Piñata: 1984 Version 23 (allocated, sold out)
12 - Kela Kuti - Open & Close 20 (sold out)
13 - Ella Fitzgerald - Original Grooves 20 (sold out)
14 - Sublime - Sublime Meets Scientist 19
15 - Steely Dan - Two Against Nature 19 (allocated, sold out)
16 - Soul Slabs Vol. 3 18
17 - Al Green - Give Me More Love 18
18 - Wipers - Youth Of America 18
19 - Echo & The Bunnymen - Live In Liverpool 18
20 - Doors - Morrison Hotel Sessions 18
21 - Sword - Age Of Winters 18 (sold out)
22 - Tune-Yards - Whokill 17
23 - Steely Day - Everything Must Go 17 (allocated, sold out)
24 - Mudhoney / Meatpuppets - Warning/One Of These Days 16
25 - Flaming Lips - Soft Bulletin Companion

Singles (3”, 7”, 12” and EPs)

1- Czarface - Meddle With Metal 10 (sold out)
2 - Twenty One Pilots - Location Sessions 9
3 - Jim Croce - Don’t Mess Around With Jim 9
4 - AC/DC - Through The Mists Of Time 9
5 - Supergrass - Going Out 9 (sold out)
6 - Motorhead - St Valentines Day Massacre 9
7 - Band Camino - 4 Songs By Your Buds 7
8 - Nubya Garcia - Source / Our Dance 5
9 - Joe Strummer - Junco Partner 5
10 - Super Furry Animals - Ice Hockey Hair 5

Turntables
Beatles - 8 (sold out, 8 piece limit)

Thanks again for all the support. Looking forward to RSD Drop #2
Best regards,
Terry

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Justin Johnson- Darkside Records (Poughkeepsie, NY)

I never doubted that this was going to be a great RSD Drop, but I also wouldn't have predicted this outcome. Saturday was actually a year to the day since we re-opened our doors to the public since the pandemic began and while we didn't roll out all of our usual RSD fanfare, the results of the day still prove that the day really is about the music, the artists and the stores being celebrated and discovered by our communities.

We have a fairly regular crew who tend to make up the beginning of the line each year. They're people who have met in line for years now, and continue to meet each week on our Monday night #UsedTues live video on Facebook. To step back for a second, it's pretty humbling to think that the only reason most of the people know each other, keep in touch and have become real friends, is because of our store and all the amazing effort you labels, distributors, reps, admins and everyone else put into making these days happen. They probably have never considered who you are or what you do, and maybe the same from you to them, but just know that from behind your spreadsheets and emails you're actually bringing real humans together and giving them even some small joy. That's pretty awesome of you. Store that away somewhere for when you may need it next.

Our first person in line was 3:57pm on Friday, a new best time for us! He's was one of our regulars who drove down from Albany (hour and a half away) and camped out overnight. By the time I left the store around 10:30 Friday night, the line had already swelled to 15 dedicated souls. When I arrived back at the store around 8am, the line was wrapped around all sides of the building and wrapped back around towards the beginning of the line. RSD ouroboros. From the time we opened our doors at 9am to the last person who was waiting in the initial line outside, we had reached almost 2pm.

One of the most noticeable parts of the day was just how many new faces we saw. Of course so many of our regulars came out too, but if I had to guess, I'd say 50% of the people in line were new to us. We've always done RSD menu style, with the releases tucked away with us and everyone comes up to the counter to place their "order". I've never had to tell as many people that's how it works as I did this year, and they all seemed delighted that it was so organized and smooth. We had more inventory than ever and so many people who came later were delighted that their must have release was still there waiting for them. If you're curious, you can check out our Menu here.
The flow of people in and out stayed steady all day long and it felt like the usual lulls in the afternoon were less noticeable. There were always 10-20 people milling about, digging through the bins and bringing their stacks up to the register.

We always like to raise some money for a local cause each RSD, and this time around we chose the Dutchess County SPCA. Dontations for free ice cream from our friends at Ben & Jerry's of Albany + raffle tickets for the Warner Records prize pack we received to give away garnered $600 the puppies and kittens! We also partnered with our favorite local coffee shop The Poughkeepsie Grind to to keep everyone caffeinated.

The earliest titles with the highest demand included Ariana Grande, Haim/Taylor Swift, Linkin Park, Lady Gaga, Shrek Score, Alkaline Trio, Warren Zevon, and The Wipers. There were many other titles that we had lower quantities on that also sold out quickly.

A few titles we were surprised to see slow movement on, such as The Cure pic disc, The Who, Rolling Stones 10", Iggy Pop, and Elton John, among a few others. I can say with confidence though, that despite having brought in more stock than ever before and having a slightly lower initial sell through rate than I am used to, I feel a great amount of confidence with our stock of remaining exclusives to keep performing in our bins.

The demand for vinyl as we all know has exploded as people found a new hobby during their time in isolation. It's evident not only on these big days, but on the days of the week that now look like what weekend days used to be. And the weekend days? It's all hands on deck since we've reopened and Sundays have tended to be our second busiest day of the week. We're here for it and ready to keep pushing on. The challenges we all face with just getting product aren't going away anytime soon, so we're buying most major catalog and some new releases with an eye on the end of the year and beyond. I know that new releases are sexy, but catalog vinyl is the tortoise in this race that's going to keep us moving towards the finish line. Thank you all for the bigger runs on RSD titles this year, and let's keep pushing them up because we're ready to keep going bigger and making more happy customers. Bring on July 17th!

Many thanks to all the labels, distributors and reps who worked to give us great product to produce these awesome results. These days aren't possible with all of your efforts and we're truly thankful for all of you. If you have any more specific questions, please feel to reach out directly.



Jim Bland- Plan 9 (Richmond, VA)
Plan 9 RSD 1st Drop 2021
 
After things opened up, we bailed on the lottery early on, let folks know they could line up when/as they wished.
Had about 75 in line at 8:30. Limited 20 in store at a time to shop RSD titles only.  The flow went very well, customers 
appreciative of the way we handled things,and were totally cooperative as usual. Late-comers kept falling in line but we were able 
to open the store to full-on shopping by noon.  Busy all day.
 
Surprised by some titles that didn't sell thru (or we over ordered)- Conor,Devo, Jeezy, Wipers.
Under ordered  Adriana Grande, Lady Ga Ga, lost many potential sales on G Dead, Police, Prince, Linkin Park, and more.
As we all have been grumbling, in most cases the quantities available have long lost any real correlation to demand.  
 
Overall sell-thru was an unprecedented 85%- so we should've ordered more?!
Sales were 67% 2020's total, 78% of 2019. 


Mike Fratt- Homers (Omaha, NE)
Homers RSD 2021 Drops #1

We had the usual crowd with most arriving in the 8am hour

Weekend was very strong and Drops #1 was about 61% of 
combined total for all 3 Drops in 2020. Day was bigger than any of 2020 Drops days

Heavy allocations probably carved off two to five thousand 
in business for Sat/Sun. A title should not be allowed in RSD 
if pressing is under 1500, if not 2500.

Sell-through sits at 60% right now. 
over ordered, Stillwater, Neon Christ, Gruntruck, IDKHTFM
Flaming Lips, Devo, Cure(fans are tired of pic discs)

under allocated (we ordered more but got less)-
all hip hop titles, linkin park, police, g dead, 
lady gaga, haim, 
 
under ordered
ariana grande, prince, dirty heads, jim croce


Matt Vaughan- Easy Street ( Seattle, WA)
SEE: EASY STREET VIDEO WRAP UP HERE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrHpILgPwgM

We finished up the chunk of our year-long remodel the night before RSD. It was great to finally clean the shop up and see what we accomplished. For many of our customers they hadn’t been in since pre-Covid, so I think they were pleased to see we made some improvements. We are now 2 levels vinyl. We have a full selection of rock tees, an Easy Street merch area, and a hi-fi wall of turntables. We painted floor to ceiling, inside and out. We fixed our windows near ceiling so they can open, better airflow, tore down some walls to expose the brick and mortar.  CDs are more presentable…we even added 2 bins last month. Huh, wha?
…..and oh yeah, we opened our cocktail vinyl bar in the vinyl mezzanine. This might be what we are most excited about. It was a tricky and painstaking process….having a bar with booze in a retail environment, where kids are running around, but we must’ve paid off the right person. Health dept and liquor board signed off on us just days before RSD. Kinda blew folks minds to be able to have a Bloody Mary (“Proud Mary”) while shopping for records. Blew mine.
We are still at Phase 3 here in Seattle. That is scheduled to be lifted on June 30. We removed all plexi from our counters the night before RSD.  
As for RSD sales, we did about ½ of what we would normally do pre-Covid, but it’s better than the ¼ we were doing last year’s RSD’s.

We had some serious stock and shipping issues. It finally happened to us. About 60 of our WEA/Universal titles were lost. Tom Petty, Black Sabbath, Doors….we never got any of those, nor will we. We did get a shipment in around noon. It had about half of the rest. Made for a stressful 24 hours for sure, but thankfully Erik Freeman at AEC was following up and getting us updates. It was a challenge. Had it not been a Covid year, I’m not sure our customers would’ve bought our excuses. For those with high anxiety, we directed them to a handful of local stores. Thankfully, we are the first ones open, so it did give the night owls the opportunity to hustle to another store in time.
Titles like Replacements, Donny Hathaway, Stillwater, Police, Monk…we had only got a fraction of what was initially confirmed, so numbers here definitely less than expected.
Thankfully, we got our Gruntruck, 100 are still out on a truck somewhere. We hosted a signing with the band. For many here, Gruntruck wasn’t on your radar, but to Seattle fans, this one meant a lot to us. As the acclaimed author Charles Cross said on the hype sticker “this is the band Seattle wouldn’t let you have” or as legendary producer Jack Endino said, “Gruntruck Push should’ve been 10x platinum”. If anyone that likes that late 80’s/early 90’s Seattle sound (u know what I’m talkin bout), this might’ve been the purest example of it, although heavier than most. They are legends here in Seattle, especially West Seattle. I wrote an article about the band leading up to the release. If you are at all curious about the early inception of Easy Street and all that, it’s in there too, coincides.https://www.revolutioncomeandgone.com
Looking forward to July 17 ! We’ll also be celebrating our 33 1/3 Anniversary at some point this year.

7”     
  1   MUDHONEY / MEAT                                                    40
  2  HAIM                                                                               30
  3  WICKED AS IT SEEMS ( RICHARDS,KEITH)                 10
  4  RUBY SESSIONS (RSD)  GUN CLUB                              10
  5  SAINT OF LOST CAUSES   EARLE,STEVE                      5
  LP
 1            PUSH                 GRUNTRUCK                             175    
  2            TRUTH                PRINCE                                      50     
  3  BATTLE OF MEXICO        RAGE AGAINST TH              45    
  4  LIVE AT KILMAINHAM   FONTAINES D.C.                    40
  5   HERE COMES THAT WEIR LANEGAN,MARK             40
  6  PEARL                JOPLIN,JANIS                                       20
  7   YOUTH OF AMERICA     WIPERS                                 20
  8  OPEN & CLOSE         KUTI,FELA                                    20
  9   LIVE VOL. 2: ATLANTA POLICE                                    20
10  METEORA              LINKIN PARK                                  20
11    FIRE (40TH ANNIVERSA U2                                       15
12   BEAUTY PROCESS - TRI L7                                          15
13   FUNKY KINGSTON       TOOTS & MAYTALS               15
14   LIVE AT MASSEY HALL  TEARS FOR FEARS               15
15   REGIMENTAL SGT. ZIPP JOHN,ELTON                      15
16  OLYMPIA THEATRE, PARIS GRATEFUL DEAD            15
17   SOFT BULLETIN COMPAN FLAMING LIPS                15
18   JUNCO PARTNER (ACOUS STRUMMER,JOE            12
19  DON'T WORRY ABOUT ME RAMONE,JOEY              12
20 ST VALENTINES DAY   MOTORHEAD                           12
21  MOTHER MARY /   UFO                                               12
22  K BYE FOR NOW   GRANDE,ARIANA                          12
23   AT KNEBWORTH 19 PLANT,ROBERT                         12
24   PLEASURE'S ALL YOURS REPLACEMENTS                12
25   TWO AGAINST NATURE   STEELY DAN                     12
26  ACID INCENSE AND BAL JEFFERSON AIRPL              10
27  SOUL SLABS VOL. 3                                                      10
28  PINATA: 1984 VERSION GIBBS,FREDDIE &               10
29   GOONIES (SCORE) / O. GRUSIN,DAVE                     10
30  FOOL (ANDREW WEATHER WARPAINT                    10
31   CHEREE               SUICIDE                                            10
32   HYPERSPACE (2020)    BECK                                       10
33   STILLWATER DEMOS     STILLWATER                         10
34   SUBLIME MEETS SCIENT SUBLIME                           10
35  EVERYTHING MUST GO   STEELY DAN                      10
36   HAVING A PARTY: SUN  HAVING A PARTY:              10
37   NO GODS NO MASTERS   GARBAGE                         8
38   LOVE & POISON        LONDON SUEDE                      8
39   FACE DANCES          WHO                                           8
40   WHO KILL             TUNE-YARDS                                  8

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Chad Dryden- The Record Exchange (Boise, ID)
Hello all,

The first 2021 RSD Drops release date at The Record Exchange was a smashing success.

By 11am, three hours after we opened, we had already eclipsed our average gross sales for the three 2020 Drops. We ended the day with an 82% increase over the average 2020 gross and at 61% of our total gross for the three 2020 events.

We opted once again to organize limited-capacity shopping blocks for the morning, which ran 8-10am. Customers were required to enter a lotto before the event to determine their time slot, and we had 220 people sign up, shattering our previous high of 160. Masks were required all day, as we had promoted the time blocks with the requirement in place and did not want to abruptly change that, even though we would have otherwise lifted the requirement prior to Saturday. On Sunday, we shifted our policy to no masks for vaccinated customers and masks recommended for non-vaccinated customers.

Following the time blocks, we settled into a steady day of business that peaked mid-afternoon and progressed from point A to point B without a lull in traffic. The energy in the store was great, and most customers left satisfied with what they were able to purchase. Allocations, of course, did result in some disappointment, and several titles, most notably Linkin Park, The Police, Alkaline Trio, Beck, Warren Zevon and Pepper, disappeared immediately. Our sell-through rate for the day was 63%.

Other early sellouts, strong sellers and surprises: Tom Petty, Rage Against the Machine, Haim, Prince, Ariana Grande, Lady Gaga, Twenty One Pilots, Elton John, Grateful Dead, Steely Dan, Tears for Fears, The Sword, The Cure, Janis Joplin, Toots and the Maytals, Sublime, Dirty Heads, Al Green, The Notorious B.I.G., Czarface/MF Doom, Joey Ramone, Kenny Dorham and Oneohtrix Point Never (all titles).

Surprisingly slow sellers: The Flaming Lips, Freddie Gibbs/Madlib, Shrek, The Goonies, Kenny Loggins, Def Leppard, Electric Wizard, The Hu, Opeth, Stillwater, Conor Oberst and Chief Keef.

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Alayna Alderman- Record Archive (Rochester, NY)
Greetings! Busy Busy Busy! The day started with 200+ in line before we opened the doors at 9 a.m. Per usual we offered free coffee and donuts to all our loyal RSD Customers! We also held raffles while folks were waiting and gave away a new Record Archive out door chair!
  
We handed out numbers until 12 noon time slot. (150 people shopped in 10 minute blocks, 15 people at a time) this set up keeps everyone happy, smooth, stress free and so damn organized that many got everything on their lists! Having a 13,000 sq foot store affords us the luxury of keeping the RSD product In the Backroom Lounge therefore allowing patrons to buy everything else in the store simultaneously!
We opted for no food trucks or live music for the first Drop.
We will be featuring only 1 band after 3 pm on the second drop with a food truck around lunchtime.
The Bar was open the whole time and we were happy to release our collaboration with local Heroes Brewing for a tasty pina colada sour!
A portion of the proceeds went to a local ‘school of rock ‘called Camp ROC Star!
Our Spin the Wheel was super popular once again! Who doesn’t love free stuff!
Best sellers:

  1. Lady Gaga

  2. Rage Against the Machine

  3. Linkin Park

  4. Ariana Grande

  5. Steely Dan (two against)

  6. Tom Petty

  7. Elton John

  8. Steely Dan (everything)

  9. Prince

  10. Notorious B.I.G.

Things we wish we had more of: Grateful Dead, Jazz Dispensary
Linkin Park, Ariana Grande & DAMN Shrek soundtrack!!
Things we have plenty of and are surprised…
Tom Petty, Prince, Dirty Heads, Flaming Lips, & Rolling Stones.

Overall very pleased with the day- we are almost 70% of the total of 2020 3 drops so I think we are off to a great start!!
As always we are forever grateful to all who made this event possible. I am so proud of my crew as it functioned as a well oiled machine and a crazy fun party at the same time!
Cheers,
Xo
Alayna
 
Looking forward to July!

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CIMS WEEKLY CHARTS: WEEK ENDING 10/22/20 + RSD DROPS WRAP UP

in

Hi Everyone,
 
This past week we wrapped the last of our RSD Drop events. I hope you have been checking out the awesome recaps that the stores have been sending out for each, but I wanted to provide you with a CIMS-wide wrap-up for the event as a whole. As you are reading the info below, remember this is meant to serve as a summary of all three days and to give us a comparison of RSD 20 vs RSD 19.
 

  • Most stores were open about 10-12 hours on the drops day with hours varying by store. Some concentrated their RSD efforts to the morning hours, curbside, etc., and left the afternoon for regular shopping, while others kept the full days open for shopping the titles.

  • Sales by Unit were up on average about 3% from RSD 2019

  • Sales by Dollar were up about 18-20% from RSD 2019 with at least one store (shout out to Homer’s) beating their RSD 2019 -- their biggest sales record ever!

  • The thing that I was very happy to see, which I am sure everyone else reading this will also be happy to hear, is that our sell-through overall on 2020 RSD titles were excellent. The average for our stores was about 80%. Online selling capabilities and the ability to market these titles across 3 special event days really contributed to the success here.

  • The stores wished they would have had more of….wait for it…. Fleetwood Mac! But also: Miles, Mingus, Billie Eilish, Grateful Dead, Neal Casal, Allman Brothers, Skid Row, Freddie Gibbs, and Judas Priest


Top Albums at the stores across all three drops (not ranked)

  • Fleetwood Mac- The Alternate Rumours

  • Billie Eilish- Live at Third Man Records

  • Gorillaz- D-Sides

  • Tyler the Creator- Cherry Bomb

  • Miles Davis- Double Image: Rare Miles from the Complete Bitches Brew Sessions

  • Paul McCartney- McCartney

  • David Bowie- I'm Only Dancing (The Soul Tour '74)

  • Gorillaz- G-Sides

  • Bone Thugs-N-Harmony- Creepin' On Ah Come Up

  • The Who- Odds & Sodds


Top Singles across all three drops (also not ranked in order)

  • Lennon/Ono w/ The Plastic Ono Band- "Instant Karma! (2020 Ultimate Mixes)"

  • Jimi Hendrix- "Message To Love (Live)" / "Changes (Live)"

  • Pink Floyd- "Arnold Layne (Live 2007)"

  • Beck- "No Distraction (Khraungbin Remix)" / "Uneventful Days (St. Vincent Remix)"

  • John Prine/Kelsey Waldon- "The Kentucky Sessions"

 
Even though stores were more limited in what they could do “event-wise” this year, they still went above and beyond to make the day feel special for their customers offering takeaways, giveaways and promotions, special used product in the mix, prizes and of course, hand sanitizer!
 
There were different opinions among our stores (emphasis on the Independent in CIMS) about how many and when the drops occurred, but the overall feedback was that our approach (though notably more work across the board) was a success. It accomplished our goal of making these days more manageable at the store level (crowds management, buying, credit limits, etc…) and making our customers feel safe while keeping the excitement for the releases.
 
Universally it would have been preferred to be able to space these dates out a little bit so that we were not so close to our Black Friday event, but we are all doing the best we can to roll with the punches of 2020.
 
I am so proud of our stores for all of the creativity and hard work they put into pulling off these events.  I remain grateful to everyone that plays a role in bringing these products and this event to life, especially Michael Kurtz and Carrie Colliton, two people that really embody that motto of ours that “Record Store Day is Every Day”. Here is looking forward to a fantastic Black Friday.
 
 
Thank you all for your continued support,
Andrea
 
Here are the charts:


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

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CIMS WEEKLY CHARTS: WEEK ENDING 9/24/20 + RSD DROP #2

in

Hello Everyone,
 
Last Saturday marked our second RSD event and I am happy to say it was another successful event for our stores. I think the only downside for most were the allocations and cut orders on a few titles where there was just a lot more demand from the stores and their customers than supply (I am looking at you Fleetwood Mac). From the numbers I have gotten reports on, after RSD Drop #2 the stores were on average at about 76% of RSD 2019 sales which is great news!
 
This week I have included a few of the wrap-ups from our stores:
 
Twist and Shout
Record Store Day Drop #2 - September 26, 2020 at Twist and Shout
A little hard to describe this second RSD drop. Financially we did 88% of the August drop’s total with about half the number of titles. The customers still seemed pretty psyched. Our sell-through was strong. On the other hand, there was palpable exhaustion visible amongst the staff. The workload is similar, but the emotional payoff of the huge crowds and sense of event is lessened by the health and safety strictures we are forced to implement. This is nobody’s fault. This is the unprecedented time we are living through. Everyone’s exhausted by something right now. Hard to complain.
 I remain grateful to the labels and RSD for making this happen - it is overall helpful and heartening. Doing something special for record store employees - like a really cool exclusive shirt or 7” just for employees - would be a super nice gesture for someone to do. All these good people working for us are on the front lines of the music industry, putting the best face on the bands, formats and experience of being in a physical record store. (Maybe advance copies of the Tool LP - Ha!) 
The Allman Brothers were our big winner this time - but I’ll bet we could have sold 10 times as many Biggie if we’d had them. Customers really seem to dig the controlled nature of our system - unless they get a late time slot, then attrition starts picking up. But that’s really the nature of RSD - the stuff is limited and as we all know, there is no sales aphrodisiac like scarcity.
Thanks to everyone who helped make it happen.
Paul Epstein
 

Record Archive
An absolutely gorgeous day in Rochester NY- can you say 80 degrees in September? 
The lines were about 100 people when we passed out our timed shopping tickets. ( 8:30 pass out)
 
1 Food Truck, 2 live bands, " Spin the Wheel" For fun prizes, local celeb DJ Dino Kay on the mic, as well as rocking the Bar were all part of the scene. We are far more organized 
Noticeably quieter and may I say that there was not as much enthusiasm in this month's list. We also discussed (internally) that due to current NYS Guidelines we cannot 
" promote live music performance- it must be incidental to the dining experience." SO....
 
Now the numbers:
Sell through 75%
Best Sellers:

  • The Wall 

  • McCartney 

  • Fleetwood Mac- wished we got more!! damn allocations 

  • Britney Spears 

  • Brandi Carlile 

  • Doors 

  • Garcia 

  • Replacements 

  • Primus 

Not so highly coveted or shall we say I was thoroughly covered with: black crowes, hendrix, tove lo, rolling stones
 
Since this is so difficult to compare, I have looked at our first 2 drops combined and am happy to say we are at 81% of RSD 2019.
The Sept drop was slower than August, only about 70% of what we did. However, sell-through was great~
All good, forever grateful to all those who made this possible! THANK YOU~
 

The Long Ear
Overall very successful RSD drops. Sell through around 75%, which is excellent for us. We ordered more carefully this year when orders were due last March due to the virus, so pleased with the results. Although sales were down a bit, profits were up. Customers had a great time & observed our safety precautions. Looking forward to RSD#3.
Take care & thanks for all of your efforts on our behalf, Terry
 

Easy Street
Again, we did about ¼ the biz as we’d normally do on RSD, but with that being said, it went way better than anticipated. We’ve had a range of local problems, wildfires, protests, and our West Seattle Bridge is still closed off to the rest of the city. 
 
Being here in Seattle, one of the original COVID epicenters, we are still only in Phase 2, so health and safety have to be our first priority. We didn’t encourage browsing and had some sections of the store closed off. 
 
We did a lot of Instagram/social stories throughout the day. https://www.instagram.com/easystreetrecords/
 
We had 98% sell-through, no previous RSD had we ever been in 90% percentile. Our orders were pretty conservative though. We could’ve certainly used more McCartney, Bill Evans, Notorious BIG, Currensy, Allman Bros, Meat Puppets, Tegan & Sara, but we’re not in a position to be taking chances right now. Before anyone gets their bustle in a hedgerow, just know we ordered 3,000 copies of the Brandi Carlile title…we wish we could’ve gotten em all. A Brandi + Soundgarden RSD project is about as mouthwatering a title as we could ever imagine here in the NW, especially at this store. Brandi is coming off 3 Grammys and is absolutely adored here at Easy Street and throughout Seattle. Also, as some of you know, Chris Cornell and his family had lived a few blocks from Easy Street. We hosted release parties for every Soundgarden record over the years. Chris was the first person to ever sit at our coffee bar. He had a beer instead of a coffee… if u were curious. This title holds a very special place in our hearts and was recorded at our friend's studio, London Bridge.   
 
We posted all remaining stock online at 7 pm after we closed. There’s really nothing left. Thank u Broadtime, it all worked out, whew. 
 
Next month, we’ll see how Seattle is fairing health-wise and what the state regulations are, but for now, we’ll continue to fix up, paint, and remodel the store during all this craziness.   
 
Appreciate you all inspiring us. We see you.
 

Music Millennium
 Hello All - 
It was an interesting day for RSD Drops 2. Our first person in line showed up about 8 pm Friday night. Same person who was our first person for RSD Drops 1. We had put some canopies out on the sidewalk early Friday evening due to the heavy rains all week. Luckily for all that came, the rain did not arrive during the night. 

I arrived at 5:30 am Saturday and handed out time slots to those in line. It was surprising to only see 30 people in line, 40 less than RSD 1 at the same time. It took till 7 am before we had that other 40. We again let 30 people in every 30 minutes and managed to have 5 minutes to spare to do some cleaning and sanitizing of the counter, pens, etc. Everyone snaked through the store and walked by every release from RSD Drop 2 as well as what we had leftover from RSD 1. There were people who had not made it to RSD 1 and we sold a fair number of the leftovers. Last time we gave away time slot tickets up to 2 pm and we kept store to RSD shopping only. This time we only gave time slots till 11 am, 3 hours into the day. 

We planned on opening the store to full shopping at 2 pm but made the decision to go back to a limit of 10 people in-store shopping shortly after 11 am. I think it really helped the day out but created lines outside of 15 to 30 most of the rest of the day till 7 pm. We stayed open to 10 pm, up from our COVID hours of closing at 7 pm. This week we will expand to staying open till 8 pm.

We did not hand out gift bags or our traditional coffee and muffins due to COVID. Everyone was happy just to be able to get a chance to pick up some if not all the coveted titles from this Drop. Though we normally have live music events, we did air a live stream at 3 pm with Arlo McKinley, the last artist John Prine signed to his Oh Boy label. 

Our sell-through was just over 70% for the first day and I’m sure we will see that go up with today’s business over 75%. Very happy with that. Our business was about 37% of RSD 2019 and 88.5 % of RSD Drops 1. We were happy with that as we were hoping for at least doing 30% of RSD 2019, based on the
amount of titles we had. 

Titles the did not perform well were from Nahko & The Medicine Show, Ellie Goulding, Rolling Stones, Group Love, Son Volt and Batman & Robin. 

Thanks to all of you in the industry that made these releases and helped make RSD Drop 2 possible. We and our customers are looking forward to RSD Drop 3 on October 24th. Special thanks to Michael Kurtz, Carrie Colliton as well as Andrea Paschal and Eric Levin for all you do to make this happen… especially making well thought out decisions in changing the structure to RSD in the year of COVID. 

Here are the top sellers for the Day:

Full-Length Vinyl
1- Replacements - Complete Inconcerated Live  35
2- Fleetwood Mac - Alternative Rumours  33 (allocated - sold out)
3- Bill Evans - Some Other Time: The Lost Sessions 30 (sold out)
4- Allman Brothers - Fillmore West 1-31-70   27
5- Doors - Soft Parade: Stripped  27
6- Paul McCartney - McCartney  25
7- Roger Waters - Wall: Live In Berlin  25 (sold out)
8- Let Fields - Let’s Get A Groove On  20 (sold out)
9- Wilcovered - Wilcovered  20 (allocated - sold out)
10- Primus - Suck On This  20
11- Mark Snow - The X Files: The Truth 20 (sold out)
12- Britney Spears - Oops I Did It Again  15
13 - Dinosaur Jr. - Swedish Fish 15
14- Boy Next Door - Door, Door 15 (sold out)
15 - Jerry Garcia - Very Best Of Jerry Garcia  14
16- Tegan & Sara - Tonight In The Dark 12
17- Various Artists - Dance Craze 12
18- Various Artists - Behind The Dykes 12 (sold out)
19- Screaming Jay Hawkins - What That Is!  11 (sold out)
20- Screaming Jay Hawkins - Because Is In Your Mind  11 (sold out)
21- Coolio - Gangsta’ Paradise 10 (sold out)
22- Ramones - It’s Alive II  10 (allocated - sold out)
23- Queen & Slim  Soundtrack 10 (sold out)
24 - Hackers Soundtrack 10 (sold out)
25- Johnny Thunders and Wayne Kramer - Gang War! (sold out)

12” Singles and 7” Singles
1- Brandi Carlile - Rooster Says 60 (sold out) 
2- Unrighteous Brothers - Unchained Melody 20 (sold out)
3- Jimi Hendrix - Message To Love 20
4- Black Crowes - Jealous Again 9
5- Jesse Dayton - Texas 45 RPM Showdown 5 (sold out)
6- Mike Watt - In Quintessence 5

 
Schoolkids
We had an amazing day, up 17% for the weekend. 10% on Sat, and another 7% today. The amazing news is that both August and Sept have been two of the best months we have had in years.  Sept being the best, not counting RSD we have had the best Sept since 2015 and up about 23% from last year. This is just counting instore sales, our online sales are up too I don’t have the figures yet to give a % but it's strong.  We expect a big online day tomorrow. The momentum is strong right now. 

We have turned a corner and we are going to finish this year really strong.  I feel a complete renewed sense of energy.
-Stephen


Homer’s
We had about 75 waiting to get in. Good weather.
Good sales. After the 2 events, we are at 81% of last year's sales, so right on track to duplicate last year. Sell-through is at 64%. Under ordered jazz and hip-hop releases. Bought Garcia, McCartney, Waters, Black Crowes and Replacements heavy as we believe these will continue to sell, so overall, sell-through is very good. Only 6 titles with no sales and sold about two dozen of RSD Drops #1 titles. I believe customers prefer these less frantic events and RSD should have a discussion about whether there should just be the two events or whether we should consider a different approach. Not sure why we were allocated on Fleetwood Mac when the sticker says 16,000 were pressed, but that was #1 bestseller.

Others include:
Brandi Carlile
Replacements
McCartney
Doors
Primus
Unrighteous Brothers
Garcia
Britney
Bill Evans
 

Streetlight
Greetings, Everyone!
 
Both stores had another successful RSD Drops Day last Saturday. Everything went smoothly with our social distancing protocols at the Santa Cruz location and our appointment system in San Jose. Here are the vital stats:
 
San Jose's sell-through first day was 93% (we're at 85% of last year's RSD totals thus far)
Santa Cruz's sell-through first day was 77% (we're at 99% of last year's RSD totals thus far). 
 
Bestseller lists are below for each store. Things we could've sold all day long: Primus, Fleetwood Mac, McCartney, any of the Rap/Hip-Hop titles. 
 
We're quite happy with the results and looking forward to next month's event!
 
--Paige
 
SJ Best Sellers
 603497848300  ALTERNATE RUMOURS    FLEETWOOD MAC  
 603497848256  SOFT PARADE: STRIPPE DOORS           
 603497848263  COMPLETE INCONCERATE REPLACEMENTS 
 821229000189  FILLMORE WEST 1-31-7 ALLMAN BROTHERS 
 888072155817  HACKERS / O.S.T.     HACKERS / O.S.T 
 194491759063  SUCK ON THIS         PRIMUS          
 602508677519  MESSAGE TO LOVE / CH HENDRIX,JIMI    
 602508538506  WALL: LIVE IN BERLIN WATERS,ROGER    
 603497848270  IT'S ALIVE II        RAMONES        
 823134906211  LET'S GET A GROOVE O FIELDS,LEE      
 4050538596199 MARCH OF DIMES       WILLIAMS,HANK  
 602508464720  MCCARTNEY            MCCARTNEY,PAUL 
 880882396015  VERY BEST OF JERRY G GARCIA,JERRY    
 602508728297  STEEL WHEELS LIVE (L ROLLING STONES  
 
SC Best Sellers
 603497848300  ALTERNATE RUMOURS    FLEETWOOD MAC 
 194491759063  SUCK ON THIS         PRIMUS        
  888072157613  COSA NUESTRA         COLON,WILLIE 
  602508677519  MESSAGE TO LOVE / CH HENDRIX,JIMI    
  607396701919  UNCHAINED MELODY / Y UNRIGHTEOUS BROTHERS
  602508538506  WALL: LIVE IN BERLIN WATERS,ROGER   
  603497848256  SOFT PARADE: STRIPPED
  603497848263  COMPLETE INCONCERATE REPLACEMENTS    
  603497848270  IT'S ALIVE II        RAMONES        
  821229000189  FILLMORE WEST 1-31-7 ALLMAN BROTHERS 
  767981174419  HI TIDE GROOVE       VARIOUS ARTIST      1
  096802280283  SOME OTHER TIME: THE EVANS,BILL     
  602508464720  MCCARTNEY            MCCARTNEY,PAUL  
  638302585514  WELCOME TO THE RECOR DEATH PIGGY
  8055515231694 LIVING IN DARKNESS   AGENT ORANGE    
  602508738548  JEALOUS AGAIN        BLACK CROWES   
  823134906211  LET'S GET A GROOVE O FIELDS,LEE      
  664425144512  GOD'S SON            NAS                   
  020286230649  MEAT PUPPETS         MEAT PUPPETS    
 

Dearborn
 RSD drop 2 was a huge success. We were about 5 times busier than a normal Saturday in September. Sales were down 15% from RSD drop 1, but I attribute that to fewer titles. We did wish lists and pulled RSD product for our customers. Everything went pretty smoothly and our customers were very happy. Selling product on our website at 1:00 helped move some product too. 
 
Sales for drops 1&2 are very comparable to RSD 2019. If drop 3 sales are strong I believe that sales will be up 3-10% for the combination of all 3 drops vs RSD 2019.

-Kevin LeAnnais
 
 
Strictly Discs
Drop 2 was 81% of Drop 1
Drop 2 combined with Drop 1 represents 76 % of RSD 2019
 
We have gone the menu route and we fill orders and customers checkout outside as long as we have a line which has worked very well. We've definitely seen an uptick in mail order pieces which isn't represented in the above "front door" numbers. 
 
I am very thankful that we can start selling online the afternoon of the drop dates; that has been a real lifesaver. Especially with so much uncertainty about future restrictions as Wisconsin and Madison are seeing a bit of uncontrolled Covid spread.
 
Allocations this month were a real factor with HARD cuts on much of the WEA product. AEC also continues to be slow with shipping (i.e. I received the Yardbirds RSD title today)
 
  
Lou’s
 RSD Drop #1 + RSD Drop #2 = 14.9% higher that RSD 2019. Yea!

 
Rhino Records
 Sales were about 10% down from Drop #1.
Staff felt releases were not as exciting.
We had 15 or so titles sell in the 25 to 50 range in Drop #1.
The biggest title for us was 26 of The Wall in Drop #2.
Felt like I was cut/reduced on the Fleetwood Mac.
Similar to the Wall and other titles.
Split my orders equally between AEC/AMS except where they were AEC direct titles.
Biggest Suprise– Britney Spears!  Sold out of 15 in the first hour and we really are not a POP store.
 
Numbers-wise, if Drop 3 comes in around the same it will equal One Record Store Day from THE PREVIOUS YEAR.
And then I had 2 stores and were open for 14 hours a day for each store.  2019 is 1 store for 9 hours.
I consider that great and am very thankful that RSD is playing out this way this year.  I would almost like to see something once a quarter
 
-----------------------------------
 
Thanks again to everyone that plays a part to make this event possible.
 
Here are 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

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