I'm just curious about this as one of my favourite record shops, Drift records in Totnes, has posted today that they won't be stocking the Black Friday releases and are likely to not engage with RSD itself either in 2023. The shop owner wrote a piece for the Guardian that was published earlier this year:

 

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/feb/...-vinyl-shortage

 

https://twitter.com/driftrecordshop/status/...0-1FZE0dVe5XxAg

 

 

I'm quite pleased to see this. I've bought a fair bit from RSD over the years but over the past couple of years it has felt like such a rip off to me, charging higher prices for records that are often in substandard packaging (not even gatefolds for example) and retailing for £30 plus. The releases themselves are also beginning to feel pretty niche so I can see why it would cause record shops a problem in deciding what to stock, there's absolutely nothing I'm even vaguely interested in from the list for Black Friday this year for example. This year for RSD I was interested in Prince (but was kinda gutted that it was pretty basic) and Blur (which had great packaging but didn't sell and ultimately was available for half the price I paid within a very short amount of time) - same story with Suede so I ended up feeling ripped off in many ways rather than be left feeling like I had bagged anything special.

 

I'd rather that it was cancelled and we got releases of current music back on track instead of having to wait months on end for albums.

I didn't purchase anything from the last main Record Store Day event as I was on holiday while releases hit the shops, but I didn't end up ordering anything online either. I think I've become a lot more selective now that my collection is already taking up so much storage space. That article was really eye-opening as I always presumed it could only be a beneficial event for participants, as there's quite a bit of buzz around it each year. The lengthy delays for vinyl are pretty frustrating so I would be in favour of pausing it for a year if it would help the back log out. I have really loved going in the past and the Claptone vinyl does catch my eye from the Black Friday list (Jadakissnia alumni going up in the world) but I do agree that the prices are extortionate and the passion is taken away a bit, when you know so many records are just going to be picked up by scalpers.

Not RSD related at all but along similar lines, my copy of Extraordinary Machine turned up today and the packaging on that is so basic for an expensive VMP release. The colour of the records is lovely but I’m still a little underwhelmed, especially after the other Fiona VMP releases have been so good