Those of you who were busy this past Record Store Day and are still reeling from missing out on all of the excitement, we have some news that will calm your nerves. You can now look forward to participating in the RSD revelry every week.
Yes, as Consequence of Sound reports, the vinyl sector has just given a big middle finger to the many critics who’ve dismissed the vinyl revival as a passing fad, whilst simultaneously giving the industry a big shot in the arm with Vinyl Tuesday.
Brought to you by the same folks behind the beloved Record Store Day, Vinyl Tuesday will be a new weekly program that will give fans the opportunity to get their hands on exclusive releases every week from their favourite independent record stores.
In a statement provided by the American Association of Independent Music, organisers outline the five different kinds of releases that will be shared on Vinyl Tuesday, which includes “catalog releases, commercial and promotional releases…”
Other categories include “releases made specifically for the Record Store Day indie community, vinyl editions of albums that were previously released on CD and digitally, and exclusive vinyl releases that drop before their digital editions”.
While there’s no official launch date for Vinyl Tuesday yet confirmed, nor are we yet aware just what releases we can expect from the first Vinyl Tuesday, the introduction of this new program means music fans can now snag new records twice a week.
According to the press release, Vinyl Tuesday “will be offered to the international community of retailers”, which means we can very likely expect Australian record stores to be offering us all of the sweet Vinyl Tuesday goodies each week when it launches.
It will be interesting to see how Vinyl Tuesday will affect the criticism that’s been levelled at the annual Record Store Day event, such as the claim that RSD clogs pressing plants, which are already struggling under the weight of demand.
It will also be interesting to see whether Vinyl Tuesday will experience the same phenomenon of touts buying up exclusive releases and later flogging them on online retail sites like eBay at egregiously marked-up prices.
More recently, several indie labels have called out Record Store Day for what they claim is the detrimental impact that the event has had on their business by allegedly strong-arming them into printing expensive RSD exclusives.
In response, RSD organisers argued that their aim has always been to help independent, brick-and-mortar record stores and not independent labels, whilst defending their curation process, which some labels argued was opaque, with some releases rejected from RSD participation for no good reason.
Stay tuned to Tone Deaf for more details on Vinyl Tuesday as they come through.
