Lost in music: What the rest of the music industry can learn from Record Store Day
This Saturday, as is the case every April, record shops around the UK, America, Canada and Australia will be participating in a celebration of analogue music. Record Store Day has become a pivotal moment in the calendar year as fans and artists look to the day excited for re-releases and limited edition runs of otherwise unavailable vinyl. There is a true beauty buried at the heart of Record Store Day, but that beauty isn’t necessarily what people think it is, and it’s something that the entire music industry could learn from.
When you ask someone why they think Record Store Day is important, the answers vary but continue to play into a specific theme. They will talk about how vital physical music is, the close relationship it gives you with your favourite artist as you drop the needle, the fact that it’s tough to make a living as an artist these days and buying physical media is one of the best ways we can support each other. All of these are valid reasons, but there is something else.
In a talk with Far Out, Sybil Bell, the founder of Independent Venue Week, spoke about her adoration for Record Store Day and how it inspired her. “I ended up buying a venue with somebody, not the greatest business person in the world, but we ended up buying Moles… It was when I was in the thick of running Moles that I became aware of just how invisible venue owners and operators were, yet how reliant on the industry the spaces were.”
As venues closed around her and the music industry suffered, she looked for lifelines to save event spaces but found nothing. “All I could really see to acknowledge the people that were doing this work was venue competitions, but they just don’t sit well with me; I think they’re so outdated. The idea that one venue is better than all the rest across a year is not the mindset I’m about.”
When looking at the music industry, one event in particular stood out to Bell, as it embodied what she wanted to do for music venues. “My experience was then and still is very much that venues like to collaborate and work together, and I looked at the Record Store Day model, and I thought, well, why don’t I replicate that but for venues? Why don’t we create a moment in the calendar where we can just shine a spotlight and celebrate them? And that was the rationale behind it, really.”
“Even back in 2014, venues were not having the easiest of times, and I made a very conscious decision to make sure that our remit was to be very positive and celebratory. That doesn’t mean that we’re not aware of, or, you know, compassionate about the challenges the venues face, but there is something about just having a moment, a deep breath, in amongst all the doom and gloom, just to say, ‘Just go to a gig!’”
What Bell touches upon here is the true beauty of both Independent Venue Week and Record Store Day. There are a number of issues that face the music industry these days, the majority of which boil down to income, but there are other daunting factors, such as how the creative world adjusts in one run rabid by AI and how artists can distribute their work in a way which is self-sustaining while not being exploitative. Record Store Day is aware of the issues and isn’t afraid to discuss them, as the difficulty with making it as a musician in the modern day is brought up frequently; however, it isn’t a plethora of negativity and a plea for money in the face of that negativity.
Nothing about the event feels like you are giving to charity, because you’re not, you are buying a vinyl from an artist you like on the only day that said vinyl will be available. The whole point of Record Store Day is that it’s a celebration, and it remains one of the only events in the music calendar that is proactive instead of reactive.
Too often in music, we see campaigns of “Save the …” and “Don’t let them stop …” As a fan, it can often feel like you are fighting an uphill battle, constantly waiting for your legs to give way. It becomes a case of, “Look what is happening to this thing that I love,” emphasising the beginning of the sentence rather than the end. We become so bogged down in that which surrounds music that we look past just how much we love it, and that’s why we need to be proactive in showing that love.
There are always going to be things to worry about within the music industry; in the same way, there are always going to be things to worry about in every industry, but it is essential we still take the time to celebrate it, even amongst those worries. Record Store Day personifies this perfectly, a day in the calendar where listeners can enjoy the music they love amongst like-minded people.
Music as a whole could learn from it, as rather than wait for the good times to be over and beg for people to try their best to bring them back, let’s celebrate them while they’re happening. After all, isn’t that what it’s all about?
