Record Store Day Is Coming!

That’s right, this year’s Record Store Day will be held on April 20, 2013. You can find a complete list of all the free goodies available at this year’s event here. Although there’s nothing on said list that immediately leaps out to me as something of interest for horror fans, we still recommend that you participate. Why miss on out some free goodies and special sales (on both music and movies)? Our fans will be pleased to hear that we’ll be continuing our tradition of offering some free spooky music downloads on the big day as well.

Lately, it seems to have become fashionable to poo-poo Record Store Day. While I can understand not liking how it’s become more focused on big name artists and some of the exclusive releases aren’t free, I find the claims that it was orchestrated from the start by major record labels since they don’t want to switch over to downloads to be particularly irksome. I could buy that if it had been all major bands featured from the start, but that just doesn’t work considering what I’ve seen since I first started following the event in 2008. Considering the usual ham handed manner in which big businesses go about trying to come off as a grassroots effort, I find it hard to believe that something as smooth as the way Record Store Day was handled was orchestrated that way. Since most of the big labels are connected to movie studios, then why didn’t they try doing “Video Store Day” as well? Although there is a movement to get such a day established on the same level as Record Store Day, it’s clearly the product of an independent video store in Canada.

Also annoying is when the people expressing the above opinions say that we should just let record stores die off, rationalizing that the employees will be able to find jobs elsewhere. Yeah, because worked out real well for people in Michigan once the auto industry there went kaput, didn’t it? People seem all too eager to forget that the closing of brick and mortar retail stores effect far more than the employees of said store. I’m not just talking about the various music and movie distributors taking a big hit, either. Physical media replicators, the people whose job it is to sell discs to stores and the people who physically transport merchandise across the country all suffer if your local music store closes. And considering that audio dramas are popular enough among truckers that companies rent ad space at rest stops to promote them, I’d imagine they would also lose money (and potentially have to let people go) as well. It’s a great big cycle of suck and we can’t afford to let it happen, especially in today’s economy. So when the 20th rolls around, be sure to get out there and support your local record store!