Record Store Day Hits Highest Sales Mark in 10 Year History

Vinyl Bay 777, Long Island’s music outlet, was bustling on April 22, as Record Store Day celebrated its 10^th anniversary at independent record shops around the world. Patrons packed the store since its 8AM opening time, itching to get their hands on some of the nearly 400 exclusive 12” and 7” records released that day.

Such has increasingly been the response to Record Store Day. Over the last ten years, RSD has proven to be a boon for independent record shops, helping to increase sales and bring in more traffic. In fact, 2017 was the annual event’s biggest sales draw in its history. And now that the numbers are back, we know by just how much.

According to Billboard, Record Store Day sales for 2017 were up… way up. Compared to the week following last year’s event, sales at independent record shops went up about 1.4 percent. If you’re talking solely about vinyl, that number jumps to 3.4 percent.  Total album sales at independent shops for the week rose even more dramatically, 193 percent for total album sales and 484 percent for vinyl album sales, the highest weekly increase the event has ever caused.

Record Store Day also provided a massive sales boost to the retail sector in general. Vinyl album sales for the week ending April 27 jumped a massive 213 percent, leading to the best non-Christmas vinyl sales week since at least 1991. Even amongst non-musical purchases, it was one of the biggest non-Christmas sales weeks for retail shops in 11 years. Nearly 650,000 units were sold, the most sold in a week since 2006.

This year’s top sellers included full length titles from Grateful Dead, The Doors, The Black Angels, Jason Isbell and The Cure, as well as singles from U2, Beatles, Pink Floyd, Pearl Jam and The Smiths. A list of the top 20 selling of each can be found on Billboard.

Vinyl sales weren’t the only thing up this Record Store Day. This year’s event also saw the largest draw to independent record shops in its 10 year history. In the span of a week, sales at independent record shops grew to 31 percent of the market, four percent more than the 2016 event and more than double the impact they had in the first half of 2017.

Started in 2008, Record Store Day celebrates the community created by independent record shops, as well as the intersection of music, artists and fans. Every year, hundreds of exclusive vinyl releases are produced to celebrate and draw in music lovers. Over the last 10 years, more and more artists, fans and record shops all over the world have been participating, leading to it become the huge global event it is today.

Record Store Day’s 10^th anniversary event was a great success. It drew a massive amount of people out to their local, independent record shops, leading to the highest sales the event has ever seen. Business at independent shops was booming, providing some of the biggest sales ever seen in retail outside of the Christmas shopping season.

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Find Record Store Day exclusives and more at Vinyl Bay 777 and vinylbay777.com. Long Island’s top new independent record shop has thousands of titles to choose from spanning a wide variety of genres. Shop our selection of new and used vinyl records, CDs, cassettes, music DVDs and memorabilia both in store and online. More titles are being added all the time, including more of this year’s RSD titles, so now is a great time to check out what’s new.