Record Store Day 2017 Is Upon Us – Why Record Stores Matter

Record Store Day is finally here! Tomorrow marks the 10^th anniversary of the annual event, and Vinyl Bay 777, Long Island’s music outlet, is proud to be participating.

Record Store Day was created in 2007 to celebrate independent record shops, music, artists, fans and the way music brings us all together. What started out as a small event mainly taking place at shops across the United States and the U.K., has turned into a massive global phenomenon. Record shops throughout six of the seven continents now participate, stocking special releases and generally celebrating everything music.  

This year’s list of exclusive releases features nearly 400 rare recordings and reissues. Artists on the list include the likes of Prince, David Bowie, Alice in Chains, Fleetwood Mac, Madonna, Sia and many, many more. Many of these releases come from small, independent labels and will only be available on Record Store Day.

Over the event’s ten-year tenure, the music buying landscape has vastly changed. In 2007, digital music was starting to come into its own and take over people’s listening habits. And although downloads and streaming services are still dominating the market, vinyl has reemerged as a dark horse contender in the sales game. There is still a discernable desire for tangible, physical music mediums, as the market for vinyl records is at a 25-year high. In 2016, the market saw a 53% increase in sales over the previous year. This is due in no small part to Record Store Day and the increased incentive it gives people to come back to record stores.  

Vinyl popularity aside, Record Store Day has helped the independent record shop make a comeback as a place to foster and maintain community. Music has always been a community-based activity with record stores becoming places where people could meet up with their friends and discover the latest bands. However, online shopping has caused many a brick-and-mortar business to shut its doors, record shops included. Record Store Day has aimed to change that in the last 10 years, attempting to make physically going to your local record shop an exciting experience. Since all of the releases are exclusive and not available online, it gives music lovers an incentive to come back to the shop and reacquaint themselves with their local music community.

As music lovers of all types across the globe come together for Record Store Day tomorrow, it is important to remember what the event celebrates. Local record shops are meant to foster community between collectors and casual music fans alike. Record Store Day reminds of this, urging people to visit their favorite record shop through the added bonus of exclusive releases.

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Celebrate Record Store Day with Vinyl Bay 777! We will be opening at 8AM, so drop by early because titles will sell out fast! Once you’re here, browse our wide selection of new and used vinyl records, CDs, cassettes, DVDs and memorabilia. We have thousands more titles throughout the store that we know you’ll love. Then, check out our website, vinylbay777.com, to stay up-to-date with the latest titles making their way onto our shelves.

Vinyl Bay 777 is located at 101-14 Dupont Street in Plainview, New York, conveniently located between the Long Island Expressway and Northern State Parkway. Come down and see why we are the top new independent record shop on Long Island.

Vinyl Bay 777 talks Vinyl Revival

Vinyl Revival Stumps Digital Age

Vinyl records, the kind that we here at Vinyl Bay 777 love to frame, study, and spin, are undoubtedly technology from last century.  In an era where a gadget the size of your hand can store half a terabyte of data, translating into thousands of songs spanning hundreds of albums, it sounds almost quaint that physically distributed music – cold, hard media such as Compact Disks and magnetic tape - could stand up to digital downloads.  With electronic audio formats such as MP3's dominating in the cost, storage space, quality and, sadly, ease-of-piracy categories, the only leg left for solid media to stand on is the value of touch.  Surprisingly for many who don't work with us at Vinyl Bay 777, the soft grooves of vinyl records have managed to provide physical media a grip on the sales charts long after their supposed death at the hands of CD's.

According to Wikipedia, global sales in Vinyl have skyrocketed from around $55 million in 2007 to $171 million in 2012.  $55 million of that growth came between 2011 and 2012 alone.  This resurrection of a media form once written off as dead is being called the “Vinyl Revival,” a term popularized in part by Britain's The Independent's use of the term in their 2012 article, The Rapacity Of The Record Revival.

Part of the reason for the Vinyl Revival's success has been its status symbol as part of collector-edition sets for groups like the Foo Fighters, or pre-order packages for bands like Silversun Pickups.  In the case of pre-order packages, sometimes an MP3 copy of the album is included with the purchase, merging digital and physical distribution.  Collectors can hold on to their mint-condition vinyl albums and still listen to the music they bought!  Plus, no amount of internet uploading can duplicate a physical object, so sales officials can rest assured that they will get an excellent mark-up on their merchandise even if the MP3 files find their way to a torrent site.

Speaking to The Independent in its Record Revival article, Sean Bidder, the creative director of Vinyl Foundry, argued that it was worth “another few pounds” to create a vinyl album because of its superior “quality and craftsmanship.”  We at Vinyl Bay 777 completely agree.  We love feeling the velvety grooves of our albums, and that's why we got into the industry. 

The Vinyl Revival is about more than just sales figures:  It's about craftsmanship, nostalgia, and good tunes along the way!