The fifth annual Record Store Day, held last Saturday (21st April), looks set to have been the event’s most successful year yet. Initial figures show that vinyl sales were up more than 50% on last year’s RSD, and some shops enjoyed a sales hike of over 100% compared to last year.
This success may be due to the growing uptake of the event across the industry: 2012 saw 230 independent record shops – 50 more than last year – selling 450 Record Store Day exclusive releases.
Spencer Hickman, Record Store Day coordinator and manager of Rough Trade East in London, said: "With vinyl sales again on the rise for the fifth year in a row indie record stores and Record Store Day are proving to be more relevant than ever for the discerning music buyer."
RSD’s success continued into the charts, where the exclusive releases made up the entire physical singles chart, topped by Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds’ ‘Songs From The Great White North’. Barring releases from Madonna, Alabama Shakes and Spiritualized, the vinyl album chart was also an RSD-heavy zone, with The Beatles’ No. 1s Singles Collection, Leonard Cohen’s Live in Frederiction and Metallica’s Beyond Magnetic making up the top three.
Alan Jordan, who works in Reflex in Newcastle, summed up the general feeling of this year’s event: "Record Store Day 2012 was the busiest, most buzzing day in my 30 years selling recorded music. An amazing experience I’m proud to be a part of!"
