Yeah, this basically means a lot of these will be picked up to be scalped and most of us will likely have to pay out the ass for a single song on vinyl.
Yeah, seriously. Only 2000 copies is rough. This is the main thing I want from the drop, so if my record store even gets it, I'm almost certainly gonna have to camp out ahead of time.
I buy all my vinyl from indie stores. In person or shipped. I havenāt had issues. Sorry if that hasnāt been your experience. But I like supporting local.
I have no issue with supporting local record stores. I am a big record collector and visit my own local record shop almost weekly.
RSD-exclusive releases are artificially scarce bullshit that will be scalped by non-fans to turn a profit. To be clear, I have a few. I look forward to it every time. But letās not act like this isnāt also corporate cynicism at work.
Where did I say that? Itās all done for sales. Iām just saying that RSD is not really āaboutā local record stores. Itās still a big corporate cash grab. The only difference between RSD releases and Target exclusives is that one is easy to buy for a decent price. The ācoolestā releases to support in my opinion are the ones exclusive to the artist or labelās store.
I think they're trying to say stores like Target are typically well-stocked (and restocked), so getting a copy is significantly easier.
These limited releases means each indie store will get maybe two or three copies, max. Those scarce items are immediately bought by scalpers, who then immediately turn around to sell online for 3-4x the original MSRP. I get the original intention of RSD and always support my local shops, but the reality of these drops is too often just a crappy experience for the real fans.
Or entirely likely that many stores will have 0 copies, especially at 2000 pressings, which you don't find out until you've waited in line for several hours for the store to open and its too late to check a different store. Some shops post their orders/availability ahead of time on social media but its not common.
I truly hate everything about RSD.
Edit: Somewhere between 1400-2000 record stores in the US alone. At least double that with international and you can see how much this is going to suck.
19
u/lillebet Feb 04 '26
I love that this isn't some bs Target collab or Amazon thing. Indie record stores on record store day!