This Saturday, music stores everywhere will be participating in Record Store Day, a celebration of independent music stores and music lovers.
Two years ago, the idea of a Record Store Day came to fruition as a band of merry music store owners stood up for the poor in opposition of the rich corporations by successfully organizing the celebration of locally owned music stores across the country, as well as stores participating internationally. The founders of this occasion wanted to make it an event for the little guys who keep the purchasing of music a personal, interactive experience.
Therefore, in order for a store to participate in the festivities, at least half of its products need to be music, its company must not be publicly traded, and at least 70 percent of ownership for the company must be located in the state of operation, according to recordstoreday.com. These guidelines effectively keep impersonal corporations from benefiting from this celebration of music fans and store owners who are still passionate about meeting people interested in music and nostalgic about owning physical copies of their favorite records.
With performances and sales kicking off Saturday morning all across the country, two participating stores on State Street—The Exclusive Company and B-Side Records—will be offering music fans an enhanced atmosphere and special sales.
Local festivities
The Exclusive Company, located at 508 State St., plans for a long day of live music and sales. Downstairs—usually overlooked by casual music fans as it contains the jazz section—will house live bands, while the upstairs will feature DJs throughout the day. Naturally, they will be hosting sales on select DVDs and CDs, as well as exclusive merchandise featured for the special occasion.
B-Side Records, The Exclusive Company's closest competitor at 436 State St., takes the sale up a notch by offering 10 percent off everything in the store. Unfortunately, they do not have the space for any live music or DJs, but they will also be featuring free promotional gifts and Record Store Day merchandise.
Promoting indepedent music stores
The main concept of this occasion is to support independent music stores suffering from more convenient mainstream monsters such as iTunes, Best Buy and Wal-Mart. Although the obvious decreases in CD sales have hurt local stores, there are reasons to be optimistic.
Both stores praise the celebration heavily, crediting it for bringing people back to smaller music stores along with providing at least one day of big exposure and sales.
Another recent surprise for music stores is vinyl. This old-school medium is inexplicably on the rise, including both contemporary and classic albums, which helps balance out the decrease in CD sales. The Exclusive Company even maintains a Vinyl Club, offering discounts after a certain number of purchases have been made.
Why save local music stores?
For music unappreciators, this day may simply be a tolerable but unnecessary occasion. Yet for anyone who loves to talk music, an interactive experience in a small music store is what's needed to spur your interests and share experiences.
For B-Side Records owner Steve Manley, this interaction may be what has kept his tiny store in business for nearly 30 years.
""The web can offer an array of random faceless opinions, but at an indie record store you can interact with people who are passionate about music,"" Manley said, going on to say the real benefit smaller stores like his offer is a ""real human connection.""
Along with effectively spreading local music—B-Side features local bands and sells tickets to local venues—and satisfying audiophiles with immediately gratifying physical artifacts of music, local stores are making their case to stick around. Saturday presents an occasion for music fans of all ages and genres to experience this firsthand.
