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Record Store Day 2023

by 142 Comments

22/04/2023

RSD is back to one day this year and the list looks a bit more interesting than 2021/22’s. I might buy something for a change.

The Red & the Black, the Catherine Wheel, Nuggets, Suede demos… hide my credit card!

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Comments

  2. Carter USM – 30 Something on Picture Disc … hmm, must resist
    (but I probably won’t – is 5 copies of the same album too much?)

    The Music of Mr Benn – quite niche

  3. Rich Kids – Ghosts Of Princes In Towers

    “Exclusive for RSD 2023, the original album will be newly remastered”

    It needs it – Mick Ronson just turned the faders up and pressed record, not really produced merely recorded

  5. As commented on Rigid Digit’s post, I’ll be after Macca’s Red Rose Speedway and Jonathan Goes Country. But I can’t be arsed to queue. I’m sure they’ll be in the overflow bins on Monday.

      • Half speed masters = snake oil

        Wilco is interesting but I have the (Uncut) CD, Pogues might be good and acoustic Steve McQueen interests me too. Trying to buy less these days though

        • Not quite snake oil… Half Speed Mastering was developed to cut Quad LPs (which required wider bandwidth for the ultrasonic carrier frequency) in the 70s and US audiophile label Mobile Fidelity used the kit after.

          Most of the ones I have sound fab, limited by the quality of the master tape sound (Disraeli Gears sounds pretty shit) but you’re not going to hear the difference on a Crossley record player.

          There do seem to be an awful lot of them nowadays, Miles Showell must be very busy (or sub-contracting the work to a team).

          • I will stick to my UK original of RRS and the double LP remastered and resequenced version that came out a few years ago. I have doubts that the new version will suddenly sound better than either of these 2

        • Not that I have any plans on purchasing any vinyl, is that acoustic Steve McQueen the Prefab Sprout one that was the extra CD on the 2007 reissue ?

          (I couldn’t see it on the list in the link above)

          • Yes, it is the bonus CD. I think it is on the US/Canada RSD list this year, it was on the UK RSD list a few years ago.

            Last year’s US RSD World Party mini-album, which I did not buy on expensive import, is on this year’s UK RSD list.

        • I suspect the Pogues will be the same extra tracks that were added to the reissued CDs some years back, so maybe not 100% necessary if you already have those. If you don’t, it’ll be very necessary as they were incredibly good during that period.

      • …and the live Nico…

        On reflection, this is all theoretical wittering and pie in the sky – only two record shops on the island, they are both tiny and neither are taking part.

        • My First RSD by Fitterstoke.

          Well, I was wrong. Sound Records, a small shop in Douglas, took part.
          I had to go for a look, of course. The guys behind the counter said it had been busy during the morning (RSD will have some novelty value here).

          But sadly: no Mr Benn, no Quatro, no Baker-Gurvitz Army…and no live Nico. Partly my fault for wanting more…er…esoteric items (the guys hadn’t ordered a copy of everything available). So I bought a second-hand copy of Coxhill/Miller/Miller/Coxhill and went home.

          FIN.

  9. Prompted by the list, I gave that Donna Summer live album a whirl. She brings it. Take out Don’t Cry For Me Argentina and use those six minutes to extend the ridiculously short Bad Girls medley and I’m in.

  10. Two things struck me as I scanned the list. Firstly, how little there was, Taylor Swift aside, that might be of interest to many younger punters. Secondly, as someone who is much older, how little there was on the list that I was interested in, let alone ‘ needed’.

    It seems a little odd that the record industry isn’t doing more to capitalise on the desire of pop fans to buy vinyl records. After all, Swift sold the most vinyl of any artist in the US last year and Harry Styles the second most. The Beatles trailed in a very distant third. One might have thought this was also exactly the sort of new customer one might be trying to entice into record shops.

          • Vinyl is still very niche. How this explains or doesn’t explain what product appears every RSD is maybe or maybe not relevant. It is as Toyah would have it a mythtery.
            Last year 5.5 million vinyl records were purchased in the UK. That’s a fair amount but it’s dwarfed by CD sales of 116.8 million and both are a mere gnat bite when compared to streaming as a first choice for accessing music. It’s difficult to see vinyl records ever becoming the primary source for accessing music ever again and although it’s popularity has undoubtedly grown in recent years it looks like it will remain very niche for evermore. A situation of course which should be of absolutely no real consequence to anyone other than hobbyists who will still be able to get their vinyl fix anyway.

            • … so that’s Manchester City winning 21-1 at Arsenal, not 3-1.
              And just think how many outlets have stopped selling CDs in the last five years.
              Thousands and thousands of potential customers have been fazed out of the marketplace.

            • No those figures are completely wrong. Both sold around 100 million quids worth (vinyl winning). You are comparing quantity of one (vinyl) with revenue from another (CDs). More CDs will have been sold but certainly not 20 times the number.

              Record Store Day is a thing because vinyl is more collectible and unique. CDs are just digital files on a disc, normally with much inferior artwork.

              https://news.sky.com/story/vinyl-sales-overtake-cds-for-the-first-time-in-35-years-and-the-best-sellers-might-surprise-you-12775770

              • Those are industry figures.
                You are comparing unit sales against revenue. If the discussion is about popularity amongst the general public in the UK then CD remains by a considerable margin far more popular than vinyl simply because far more CDs are purchased than vinyl records. Vinyl is more expensive hence the difference in revenue figures. You’re quite correct vinyl is more desirable to those in the hobby but amongst the general public convenience and price are far more important.

                  • Yes I apologise. I misread the figures on UK sales of CD by units. Nevertheless CD still outsells vinyl by a considerable margin as is explained by John Darko below. I don’t dispute that vinyl is a more attractive proposition to hobbyists but that attraction is not of any consequence to most people who value other things over a collectable object.

                    • I am a bit pissed off because I talked myself into buying Revolver on vinyl. Don’t get me wrong – I still have all my records collected over 60 years and play many of them and enjoy them. I have a good deck and they sound fab and most are in good nick. I mostly went over to buying CDs around 1990.

                      Previous Beatles deluxe sets I have bought on CD, but Revolver didn’t have the bluray and was also bloody expensive, so I bought the 2 disc version. The CD box has come down, but the vinyl set remained stubbornly high, however I had a modest windfall and thought I’d treat myself, reasoning that I already had the CD version of the remix and the mono in the CD mono box set, and reviews had said that the vinyl sounded great.

                      Christ on a bike, it’s pretty awful. The mono LP is quite noisy in places between tracks, as is one of the Sessions disc. There is also a weird noise at the end of one of them. The stereo LP sounds inferior to the CD version.

                      So…I feel mugged off.

                      As an aside, this 180g nonsense is twaddle. I have loads of albums that sound great and are nowhere near 180g.

                    • Yes, @Dai I did clean it.

                      Oddly, I bought more vinyl today. 99p for an Alan Price double album ‘Performing Price’ from 1975 in Oxfam. I was amazed to see the condition – I don’t reckon it had been played, or at least not often. Plays perfectly without any surface noise, scratches or clicks or pops.

                    • @NigelT the Revolver vinyl box was a bit below par compared to previous Fabs boxes. Abbey Road’s half-speed mastering guru, Miles Showell, got Covid just when it needed doing, so he only did the stereo album cut, the other discs were farmed out to other mastering engineers.
                      Then Optimal couldn’t press it in time, so they gave it to bloody GZ, purveyors of such lousy Quality Control that getting a decent disc out of them is coined “the GZ lottery”.
                      That’s like taking your F1 car to KwikFit for a tyre change.
                      I bought the single LP version and it is fine, once it had a good scrub to get the GZ crud off.

              • A large proportion of the difference between the retail cost of vinyl and CD is production, storage and distribution costs. Also I imagine the cost of waste in vinyl production must be a lot more.

                I wonder how profitability between the 3 formats compares. I’m not talking profit per unit sold but profit overall per album to the originating label.

                As I mentioned somewhere else on the blog, IMO the 3 majors will not be bothering themselves directly with vinyl for long. The market’s just not big enough and the overheads are too high. They’ll be licensing their product to physical copy contractors instead, for fixed runs of product and fixed periods of time. Let the contractors deal with the inherent problems. Probably goes for CD too in time.
                Digital is by far the most profitable format. Let Amazon, Apple, Spotify, Tidal etc. deal with streaming’s energy consumption, bandwidth and storage problems. For big multinationals it makes good accountancy sense to go digital-only

                • The vinyl market is currently too big for all the remaining pressing plants and is growing. There are long lead times for manufacturing, obviously RSD contributes to that

                  • The industry got caught on the hop there. More pressing plants are supposedly on their way. Not enough people with the necessary skills and also not enough vinyl of good quality.
                    It won’t be major labels who will be opening and running the new plants, though.

    • Not going to watch a 13 minute video at 6 in the morning. Does it say CDs sold 20 times as many as vinyl records which was your original assertion?

          • This is what the film said:
            CD sales in 2021 in Germany v. Vinly = 5 to 1
            CD sales in 2021 in U.S. v. Vinly = 1.25 to 1
            CD sales in 2022 in U.K. v. Vinly = 2 to 1.

            My gripe is that the whole thing is a self-fulfilling prophesy.

            If you do not give people the opportunity to buy something, they can’t buy that something!
            Those CD figures in the U.K. would be higher, and vinly sales even less impressive in comparison, if shops which sold CDs five years ago still sold CDs. If they did, I’d buy some CDs.

            • CD’s haven’t been made illegal. Still easily, readily available to anyone with an internet connection, or within a bus ride of an HMV. CD sales died because of streaming, not because Tesco’s found a better use for the space.

              • No they are not illegal but they’d sell considerably more if they were available on the High Street.
                Anyway, clearly CD sales didn’t die. Didn’t you read the stats? They are outselling vinlys 2 to 1 (5 to 1 in Germany).

                I have always doubted the vinly outselling CDs line, usually with the phrase – “Jimmmmiiiieeee Rec-kon” – and these stats back me up. I was, oh what’s that phrase? Oh yeah, “right, all along.”

                • No you weren’t.

                  Check link above vinyl outsells CDs in US, at least first half of last year.

                  “But the most exciting statistic for many is the continuing rise in vinyl sales, which have been climbing consistently since 2006. The number of units shipped rose 15.7% over the same period last year — from 18.8 million to 21.8 million — and dollar value is up from $460.5 million to $570.2 million. CD sales continued their slow downward slide, going from 18.4 million to 17.7 million and $204.3 million to $199.7 million.”

                  But hardly anybody is interested in either these days. CDs sell about 5% of their peak I believe, that’s because of streaming, not because WH Smiths aren’t stocking them, they don’t stock them because nobody was buying them in the stores. Heard of Spotify?

                  • My last offering on this.
                    Personally I couldn’t care less how others access music, whatever brings people joy is a good thing whether that’s via an LP, a CD, a download or a stream. It’s the joy of listening that matters the rest is just a means to that end. Peace out. ✌️

                    • Me neither, but there are so many complaints about record store day that it gets tiresome. I am sure if a CD store day was feasible they would do it. A large part is coloured vinyl or picture discs and releasing stuff already available in CD box sets, so that’s very vinyl specific.

                      I buy both, but mainly vinyl for new releases, but that’s about 2 or 3 a year these days.

                • https://www.statista.com/statistics/276188/album-sales-in-the-united-kingdom-uk-by-format/

                  Maybe not dead, but there’s not much of a pulse. Between 2008 and 2016 units sold fell by almost 2/3rds. The BPI report CD sales in 2021of 14m – so a bit over 10% of what they were in 2008.

                  From the BPI
                  “Compact disc has been showing a decline in demand for 17 years now, as fans first began switching to downloads in the Noughties and for over 10 years have had access to music via streaming services. The drop-off in CD sales has reduced from 27% annually between 2018 – 2020 to just a predicted -12% in 2021, with sales boosted by CD-friendly releases from superstar artists such as Adele, Ed Sheeran and ABBA. This suggests that reducing demand for the format, which is nearing its 40th anniversary, may be bottoming out thanks to a core group of baby-boomer and newer fans that remain committed to the audio format. ”

                  17 years of decline on the bounce. And that’s because there aren’t enough boomers to make it worth most retailers stocking them, it’s why cars now come equipped to stream but without a cd player. They aren’t ever going to sell “considerably” more unless the internet gets confiscated.

                • Re. @deramdaze »… but they’d sell considerably more if they were available on the High Street….They are outselling vinlys 2 to 1 (5 to 1 in Germany).«
                  Retail is an important part in the quoted numbers from Germany. Due to legislation on book pricing and other regulations there are still plenty of record shops in Germany – not only in high streets but in small villages, too. In Berlin there are currently three big, multi-storey megastores with about 75% of available space stacked with CDs.
                  And the German record industry has a very effective distribution network – if you don’t want to use quality mail order shops like JPC or Bear Family (with solid packaging and free shipping) you can always phone the Record Emporium in your town and they’ll have anything you order in usually one or two days. And there’s no hassle with DHL guys or »you can collect your parcel at our logistic center«.

                • The vinyl outselling cd’s is a line from the industry who hgave a vested interest in seeing the demise of cd’s. Same thing applied to books when Kindles came out. Newsflash book sales in UK are at a record high.

                    • I suspect now they’d like to see the end of physical media, in any form. Certainly if it’s them expected to manufacture, distribute and market it.
                      Digital is the easiest of easy money if you’re the rights holder.

                    • @dai because the mark up is much higher all round. Cost to a shop is roughly £14 – sell it at £27 to £32 which is about the average and you have over 100 percent mark up.

            • I stream Tidal and I buy CDs. Plenty of artists sell CDs directly or via Bandcamp if buying from the likes of Amazon or HMV doesn’t appeal.
              I like most diligent music consumers mourn the passing of so many brick & morter outlets but that is as it is. I’ve given a fair bit of thought to purchasing a deck and investing in LPs once again but lack of physical space in a one bedroom flat is a concern and of course there is the expense so I have resisted the temptation and in all honesty I’m not unhappy about that. I find lossless streaming and CDs meets my needs perfectly well.

    • in my business CD sales are very much on the up. Of course they’re never going to be what they were in 1999 – very little is, including my hairline – but my feeling is that they are the healthiest they have been for a very long time. What’s interesting is that it’s no longer just grizzled old blokes buying them, but a definite and marked increase among younger people, in roughly the 15-20 year old cohort. My theory is that the vinyl revival gave them a taste for physical but they have now been priced out of that market.

  12. Tubular Bells original 1971 demos getting a release on a vinyl edition. I know these are on Spotify etc, but previously the only way to get them was to buy one of the heftily priced Tubular Bells special box sets. So would be nice to own a physical copy.

    Is it only on the day you find out the price of these things?

    • Wouldn’t mind getting the Nuggets 50th, but having only started getting back into vinyl last year, have no idea of how to go about doing so.

      Do all participating shops get a certain number of each release and sell them on a first come, first served basis?

      Or can you order stuff in advance and collect it on RSD itself, or maybe even order it on the day and pick it up later

      • Some stores get stuff, others don’t. they won’t know what they have until a day or two before. And you can’t reserve, take a sleeping bag and queue there all night if you want something very rare !

        • Sorry, there’s nothing much these days that would make me querue for five minutes, never mind camp outt.

          I’ve only ever queued up for something overnight twice in my life. Both times, IIRC, in the winter of 1973 and for gigs at the Birmingham Odeon.

          One of these occasions was for Rod Stewart and the Faces (gig proved well worth the effort despite the clocks going back the night we queued). The second time was for the Allman Bros who cancelled their early 74 tour because of the OPEC crisis although I did get to see them at Knebworth along with Van M, Mahavishnu Orchestra Mk II, The Doobie Bros, SAHB and Tim Buckley that summer. Not bad for £2.50

    • Anyone know what time it is best to start queuing? Are we talking 5 in the morning or say 7, 8? I don’t suppose my desired prize (the Mike Oldfield) will be too sought after, but I don’t want to waste my time.

      • Best to check with the shop – I think my local shop is handing out tickets (and free vouchers for the next-door café) from 7am and opening at 8am.

        I might meander down there after lunch. I haven’t ordered/requested anything but the S/H sales bins are always good.

      • For Mike Oldfield you should be queuing now! Oh sorry, thought you said Taylor Swift. In my experience it depends on the store, the most popular ones that will have loads of stuff will be busy (show up an hour or two before opening) however find an out of the way place and you can arrive when it opens , but they may not necessarily have what you are looking for.

      • Well I queued from 8am and there were about 60 or 70 folk ahead of me in the queue. Waited two hours and by 10 I had my lovely Mike Oldfield album. Very nice it us to. A nice morning all round.

        Many people were buying armfuls of records: I was surprised there weren’t more restrictions (I thought there would be a limit of 3 per person or something). But I could tell I was safe with my choice of purchase. Not many Mike Oldfield fans in Glasgow I think.

  13. There are a few on my wish list

    Amorphous Androgynous – Tales of Ephidrina
    Delines – The night always comes
    Liminanas and David Menke – Thatchers not dead
    Nuggets 50th Box
    Pogues – Stiff Records b sides

  14. Always interesting to see what gets released for RSD. I never bother to buy, though. My interest doesn’t stretch that far.
    I only ever seem to buy CDs and the VERY occasional vinyl offering at gigs.
    Can’t remember when I last set foot in the HMV in my local shopping mall. If it’s still there.

  16. There was a reference earlier to vinyl being favoured by collectors. I guess collectors is probably the appropriate word, since I recall surveys suggesting that 50% of vinyl never gets played. In that sense half of modern record shop vinyl is arguably the qequivlaent of selling those toys or bears that people never take out of their packaging. In any event, if it never gets played it probably doesn’t matter what it sounds like 🙂

    And yes, I will remain critical of RSD whilst it continues to gobble up so much production capacity and distorts the market and release schedules for the rest of year.

    • I’ve never understood the ‘buy a record and don’t play it’ thing.

      I get that a 12″x12″ artwork on the wall is much better to look at than a 5″x5″ CD sleeve, but (a) vinyl is expensive, especially RSD releases (b) have these people never heard of posters? (c) high-res artwork is available via a Google image search, so print your own.

      That said, I do have a number of not-yet-played records on my TBH shelf. People in glass houses, etc.

    • My 16 yr old daughter does 90% of her listening on Spotify, however if she really likes an album and she wants a physical version then it is vinyl. She has no interest in CDs. And, yes, she plays the records

  17. The online record stores i peruse have been full of RSD 2022 releases on sale all year

    It’s a good concept but it’s just too much of a rip off to buy on the actual day. If reasonably priced vinyl was sold all year round they’d make so much more £££££

  18. The RSD 2021 list included some fine Bill Evans sessions for Dutch radio. Horrendously expensive on vinyl. A few weeks later, a more affordable CD was released.

    The RSD 2022 list included two incredible Bill Evans concerts from the 1970s. Horrendously expensive on vinyl. A few weeks later, more affordable CD sets were released.

    Looking at the RSD 2023 list, I see that it offers “A true holy grail of previously unreleased recordings” by Bill Evans from recordings in Denmark in 1965-1969.

    Guys: just TAKE MY MONEY.

      • @MikeH

        Totally agree.

        By never carrying the stuff myself, I’m also helping to
        relieve my friends of their own burden when visiting
        pubs, restaurants, etc

    • Similarly, most/all of the releases on Demon Records (e.g. Suede, etc) pressed on expensive coloured vinyl for RSD, come out about a year later on normal-priced black stuff to little or no fanfare.

      Much as I’d like the RSD Suede demos, I’ll take my chances and wait.

  19. Well my son-in-law is rather hoping Record Store Day will make up for some grim trading over the past couple of months, so I hope those of you who aren’t in Australia will pop along and buy stuff. No idea of what he has and hasn’t got, although I know he’s hoping for a mob of screaming Swifties.

    Dreamhouse Records in Francis Rd, Leyton since you ask.

    • Yes, this. I’m already struggling to get my head around the inflation in vinyl prices.

      Non-RSD Talking Heads double LP, or the not very good ABBA LP on a double 12″ 45rpm single, that’ll be 50 quid to you. Single album for £35? Well, not for me, thanks.

      I bought a couple of things from last year’s RSD. The EBTG 12″ single cost me £25 and it was down to £15 a couple of weeks later.

      Some of this year’s RSD stuff looks tempting, but I’m going to take my chances and let prices settle. The Suede demos will almost certainly be released in a year at the normal price, like every other Suede RSD release.

        • They were also on the first Deluxe Edition (2CD + DVD) of the debut Suede album, which I bought when it came out 12 years ago. And on the subsequent 25th Anniversary Deluxe Edition, which I didn’t buy.

          Not RSD, but there’s a Steven Wilson remix/Atmos DVDA for sale on SDE right now. There are also a 30th Anniversary 2CD (just the album + b-sides, so less content than the 18th & 25th editions) and half-speed mastered vinyl coming in July.

  22. I went to have a look but one of our record shops has closed and the other one is not partaking. They were chock-a-block with stock both new and secondhand. I was shocked by the prices from 350 kr to 600 or more. Drop a 0 to get the pound price, roughly. CDs even over 200. I left empty handed.

  23. I spent 30 mins at Probe Records as we are in Liverpool for the weekend. Mrs Moles went through the Ohsees catalogue with the owner and a good time was Spent. They were not doing RSD as too much trouble.

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