Vinyl lovers were out in force on April 19 for International Record Store Day. Founded in 2008 to support struggling independent record stores, this year the annual celebration attracted hundreds of fans to stores in Newtown and Surry Hills. Many were on the hunt for limited edition releases from the likes of Bruce Springsteen and Sky Ferreira, as well as Australian artists Adalita, Tame Impala and Flume.
At Title on Crown Street in Surry Hills, Record Store Day is its busiest day of trade outside the Christmas period. Title group manager Scott Hillyard [pictured on page 1] says the popularity of Record Store Day in Australia has grown significantly in the past two years.
“It took a little while to catch on from the US and UK,” he explains. “One of the main parts of the day is the limited edition stock that gets released, and it took a while for that stock to be available in Australia. So without that focus on the day it was hard for it to get traction. But that’s happening now, in a big way.”
Chris Sammut, who owns Repressed Records on King Street in Newtown, counted at least 30 people queuing outside his store before he opened, to buy this year’s exclusive releases.
Sammut, who moved his business from Penrith to Newtown six years ago, says his customers are mostly people who are “right into music” – musicians, band members and record label owners. “We’re really targeted,” he explains. “We’re not going to try to compete with JB H-Fi. We get a lot of imported stuff, real cutting edge bands, rough around the edges music – that’s our niche.”
2014 was Sammut’s third Record Store Day, and his busiest yet. “I think it’s a good promotion,” he says. “It’s fun and gets new people in, who have probably never shopped here before. They will see an ad or some of the promotions and will come in and check out the shop, and hopefully they’ll come back again.”
Browsing the shelves of Repressed Records, Wagga Wagga’s Dana Crowe says Record Store Day was a deciding factor for her when organising a trip to visit Sydney. “I love it … there’s a really good vibe in every store you go into,” Crowe says. “So many music stores are always closing so I think it brings a crowd that wouldn’t normally put as much emphasis on buying records.”
At Egg Records on Wilson Street in Newtown, live music kept patrons entertained as they perused the shop’s mostly second hand collection, with owner Baz Scott hosting a series of local musicians from 12pm. “I wish it was like this everyday,” says Scott, who has been running the store since 2000. “Whether it’s vinyl or CDs, it’s great that people get out and support it.”
Fourteen years ago, only about 30 per cent of Scott’s sales were in vinyl, with the majority coming from CDs. Now, he says, it’s the other way around.
Encouragingly, vinyl sales in Australia rose by 77 per cent in 2013 compared with 2012, according to figures released by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA).
For Scott, he believes there’s something about the “whole package” of a record that can’t be matched by listening to music in other formats – the sound, the cover artwork and the feeling of holding something in your hand. “I bought many albums as a kid just for the cover, and hoped the record on the inside was great. And inevitably, nine times out of ten it was.”
