This Irish Times article titled “Why Record Store Day can’t bring the good times back” was the final straw in a series of bah-humbug complaints posited by music fans about Record Store Day. Of course the day has its faults, and of course it can be abused, but I’ve yet to hear an argument that convinces me it’s a bad idea. The arguments usually go like this:
1. “Record shops are not just for Record Store Day.”
True. But that’s a pretty terrible reason to be a Scrooge about a day that brings in money for the record stores that so-called True Vinyl Collectors frequent all the other weeks of the year.
a.) It’s snobby and smacks of the type of record-snob elitism that keeps average Joes out of record shops.
b.) I’ve spoken to several shop owners who say that every year RSD brings new people into their shops, and a good chunk of those people then become regular customers, which means that this complaint is actually an argument for RSD.
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