Why you should be excited and ready for Record Store Day 2024

In a world of music driven heavily by online streaming and downloads, there’s still a place for other ways to listen. Perhaps you’ve got addicted to those playlists and tracks and need a fix from a whole album instead. Maybe it’s time to put down your phone and use Record Store Day as an ideal opportunity to see and hear how that feels again. 

It’s now an annual event around the world, usually around the third Saturday of each April. So it’s coming up soon, on Saturday, April 20 this year. Although there is a growing trend in some parts to also include Black Friday in November. You can’t get too much of a good thing, so why not?

It started back in 2007 as an idea from a bunch of independent record store owners in Baltimore. The day has grown since then, with more stores and indeed more countries, taking part. With vinyl in particular making a resurgence in recent years the fun of sifting through boxes of records in your favourite store is definitely back. 

What’s so good about Record Store Day?

But hey, you can do that anytime, so what’s so good about Record Store Day? Well, it’s a great reminder or prompt if you’ve got stuck in an online groove and developed a streaming habit.  But there is much more than that on offer on the day in-store rather than online. 

You’ll likely find an exclusive range of records pressed and released specifically on this day which will only be available from independent record stores. Another range of records will be in indie stores first but will follow in other stores or online afterward. Then there are limited run records, usually less than 1,000 copies available and more regionally based in local indie stores. 

Paramore are very appropriate Ambassadors for the day in the US, having recently ended their record contract and gone independent themselves. One of the ways they are joining in the fun on the day is with an exclusive 12” single with their version of Talking Heads’ “Burning The House Down” backed by David Byrne covering Paramore’s “Hard Times”. 

Limited Record Store Day availability 

For Record Store Day in the UK, UK, Kate Bush has the ambassador role and also has a record exclusive. A 10” three-song disc featuring “Eat The Music”, “Lily” and “Big Stripey Lie”. The singer has also designed a special cover for the disc. Both this and the Paramore/Byrne special will only be available in participating indie record stores for that one day.  

That’s not all though, in addition to those exclusive records and many, many more, you’ll find artists doing meet and greets, special appearances, and some short gigs at selected stores. There’s lots going on while you remember how much fun browsing in a record store is again. You can easily find out more on RecordStoreDay.com and see what’s on in a store near you. Go visit them this year!

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