Howdy Everyone,

I have to say how overjoyed I was this week with all of the phone calls and wrap-ups from our stores with the details of how RSD 2023 went. There were some amazing, best-day-ever stories, and when you are talking about best-day-ever in 40- 50 year histories… that is really something!

I want to say thanks again to everyone that was a part of making last weekend a success.

I have done a mighty round-up of what the CIMS stores had to report so please find that below as well as the charts.

Thanks,
Andrea

Andrea Paschal
Executive Director
Coalition of Independent Music Stores
ThinkIndie Distribution
3738 4th Terrace North
Birmingham, AL 35222
Phone: 205.595.1932 x.208
Fax: 205.595.1938
Email : andrea@cimsmusic.com
cimsmusic.com
#cimsmusic

Waterloo - Austin, TX

Greetings fellow vinyl nerds!
Wow, RSD ‘23 was another one for the record books! Yesterday Waterloo Records experienced our busiest day in the 41-year history of our store. The combination of vinyl nerds, both old and new, plus hundreds of Swifties made for a day like no other. Sales were up 25% over the 2 combined RSD ‘22 drops, though I must admit, that without ‘you know who’ we would have only been up ~ 3%.

Our first guy in line arrived Friday evening about 7:45pm, before our 1hr early RSD prep closing at 8pm. Twelve hours later Saturday morning at our 8am opening time, we had 540 very eager folks in line, or nearly double our store’s fire Marshall capacity. It was 10:45am before we got everyone in line inside the store, which totaled 729 music lovers. They were followed by a very steady stream of customers throughout the entire day and evening.

We featured multiple ticket ETW drawings for
upcoming Austin concerts, and had FREE Beatles Revolver slip mats for high dollar RSD purchases. With the breadth and depth of this year’s titles, it proved easy to make high dollar RSD purchases. That said, we unfortunately still had 29 titles, or nearly 10%, with no sales yesterday. On the other hand, we sold out of 109 titles, or ~36%, so perhaps we were a little too cautious after the less robust early sales on Black Friday ‘22. However, we had a 101% ROI yesterday, with ~33% of our original buy-in left to sell.

But I’ve saved this story for last. Against the wishes of most of my talented staff, I chose to bring in 1,000 copies of former RSD ambassador Taylor Swift’s live folklore 2LP set. Her Swifties, both young and old, came out in force, and went home to listen, (though some maybe not?) to the 748 copies purchased! So thanks Taylor, first for all your music, and for nurturing your fans to love and support the music makers that enrich their lives.

Big thanks go out to everyone again that made this day happen: RSD ambassador power couple, Native Texan Amanda Shires & Mr. Shires :), the contributing artists, managers, & labels, the distributors, one-stops, sponsors, 1400 indie record stores, Carrie, Andrea, Michael, and Eric. Most of all, big thanks go out to the very dedicated and talented crew here at the best damn record store on the planet, Waterloo Records, serving the best music lovers on the planet, in-store and online.

John T Kunz

Looney Tunes - West Babylon, NY

The line at 8am! https://www.youtube.com/shorts/bxG7i7NeZKY

Wow….what can I say….

THANK YOU TO ALL OUR CUSTOMERS AND FRIENDS FOR MAKING THIS PAST RECORD STORE DAY THE BUSIEST DAY IN OUR 52 YEAR HISTORY!!

Please read that last sentence again…. We just had the busiest single day since my father Karl Sr. opened our doors in 1971.

We are so very grateful to you all. Where do I start?

We jump started the weekend off with a fantastic SOLD OUT instore concert by Waterparks and ended the weekend with an amazing performance by Ryan Cassata. Thank you to the bands and labels for playing our store and really putting on two fantastic concerts.

Record Store Day on Saturday was incredible. The line started forming at 8pm the night before! By the time I arrived at the store at 7am we had over 500+ people on line! It just seemed to go on for ever! It went down our building around the entire parking lot down the street all the way to Montauk highway and then made a left toward the front of Pet Co! We have never seen a line so long for anything ever. Usually we can get everyone in by about 10am. But this year we opened the doors at 8am and the line continued outside until about noon!! The check out lines were all around the store and almost back out the door!! We had our usual free bagels and coffee. We cant believe we ran out so soon.

Even though it was really INSANE at times in the store. EVERYONE was just in just such a good mood ALL DAY LONG! It really was just so much fun talking to everyone about music all day long. So many old and new friends shared their stores about their love of music and our store.

We ordered more product then we ever had in our lives for this event and it helped! We stocked 289 releases. Some titles we only got a fraction of what we ordered and they went fast. We still have stock on about 90 releases.

TAYLOR SWIFT….wow….we ordered 300 copies and we thought that was A LOT! We ran out by 1:30pm wow!!! AMAZING. We wish we ordered more…but its just hard to tell.

There were 18 release we ordered more then 100 of that we SOLD OUT before the end of the day……just insane we can’t believe it.

We released another beer this year with our friends at 27a Brewery and it was delicious and a lot of fun to do. Jamie designed the artwork this year! 8 concert ticket giveaways all day long from our friends at The Paramount in Huntington and Club Loaded Presents. Thank you guys for the giveaways.
A VERY VERY BIG thank you to my staff that worked their butts off.

AND MOST OF ALL thank you to our customers and community for supporting our little record store. We love you guys….

Until next time.

Karl and Jamie Groeger
Owners of Looney Tunes Record Store

Music Millennium - Portland, OR

Hello All -
I arrived at 5:25am to a line that was already over 100. Our first person showed up at 10am on Friday. A regular for Record Store Day he had just 3 titles on his list. The Grateful Dead, Jerry Garcia and Elton John. He did have his van and was able to get a few hours sleeptime in the evening. There was a drizzle of rain all night but by our 8am opening time, it had stopped and the weather for Saturday was the best we have had this spring. I handed out the Dogfish posters to first 75 and followed up with giving muffins out to all that were there along with a free coffee station by the entry way. I then gave away our store artist Haley Cassatt’s created poster.At 7pm we had reinforcements and we gave away 300 gift bags with various fun things, each having a pair of socks compliment to Sock It Too Me, vinyl, CDs and other that we were able to get from the labels (thankyou all!). Everyone in line were so appreciative. After a few more sweeps in line to give away bags and posters, wehad at least 350 people in line by opening time.
We have everyone come winding through the store single file, with an opportunity to walk by each RSD release. Many end up grabbing
more than what they had on their list as they slowly walk through the store and we find a space for them to get rung up at one of five cash
registers in operation. Hat’s off to Todd Johnson from the Orchard for helping us get the gift bags out to all in line as well as being a
cash register traffic monitor, giving me the sign when a register became open to send more people over to get checked out.

We had a kid called the Traveling Typist out in front of the store all day. He would type free poems on an old typewriter as well as have
another typewriter available for others to type on. Fascinating to the younger generation for sure, who were all more in the post-type-
writer era. He collected a good amount of tips in his empty typewriter case.
This became the biggest business day in the history of Music Millennium. Taylor Swift was a game changer this year and many of those
fans wanted an item or two more including the 1975, which was very underproduced, Maya Hawk (we should have ordered more!) and
various other titles. We ordered 300 Taylor, received 300 Taylor and sold out of Taylor by 1pm, 5 hours into the day. The phone rang
all afternoon asking if we had more. This release and the quantity made is an example of making a cool RSD piece for an artist that has
a strong fan base. Not just a variant of a previous title but material the fan base has not able to get before. Taylor is the biggest artist on the
planet right now but there are other artists that could crush with a cool unreleased piece of music. This year’s list of releases may have been
the strongest ever though and other than a few items like John Lennon, Steve Austin, 1975 cassette, Porcupine Tree, Broken Social Scene
and a few others, we were able to get most of the titles we ordered. We sold out of a great deal of titles by the end of the day but customers
were able to shop a great selection of titles all day….and we made many people happy.

Homer’s - Omaha, NE

Record setting day at Homers

biggest day in history, up 20% over 2019 and 2018
biggest line in history, over 3 blocks long,
last in line entered store in 2pm hour
RSD represented 57% of total store sales
sell-through was an astonishing 75% by Sunday night,
which probably indicates we under-ordered
sales activity on 239 titles
best sellers include-
T Swift, Larry Lovestein, Pearl jam, Tori Amos,
Black Keys, Billy Joel, Elton John, J Isbell,
Cure, Van Halen, Stevie Nicks, Grateful Dead,

Pixies, Dolly Parton, Eric Carr, Poe,
no sales activity on 64 titles
used sales were up almost 50% with big spikes
in used vinyl and used tape
Our 250 Taylor Swift lasted til 7pm Saturday
as usual we offered coffee, donuts and breakfast
burritos and custom tees and bags for purchases
over $150

Mike Fratt

Record Archive - Rochester, NY

Welcome to another glorious RSD Wrap Up from Record Archive!!!
Biggest crowd awaiting our door opening at 9 am. First arrived at 1 am. What was supposed to be 80% chance of rain, but ended up only being gray skies and 60s! Woot! Line went down the sidewalk, around the building. Managed to get everyone safely in with over 500+ people in the store. Once in, we started the entry into the RSD shopping area in our Backroom Lounge. In previous years, we have moved the crowds through by noon. This year- it was 3 pm before everyone had their chance to shop the RSD crates!
It is no surprise that Ms. Taylor Swift was the MAIN driver for robust sales! I was happy to report that we didn’t run out until 2 pm, so all our hardcore fans got most of their needs met. Thank you to all those who made this possible. We could not have asked for a better artist right now!

Customers were greeted with free coffee & donuts at 7:30 am. Then while waiting in the store they were given custom made RSD, RA & Our fabulous Ambassador cookies!
Many cool prizes were given away via our Spin-the-Prize-Wheel manned by my daughter Eliza! Beatles slip mats & tees; RA swag were well received.
Steve fired up the grill at noon and proceeded to give away 500 local Zweigle Hot dogs! Can you say White Hot?
Top local DJ Dino Kay was here promoting all the happenings!

Live music kicked off at noon by my business partner Dick Storms with his ‘Stormy Valle’ blues band, followed by Hey Mabel at 2 pm and final act Brian Lindsay Band took the stage at 4. Of course, Dogfish Head (and many other beers) were poured. We also featured 2 samplings from local crafters Naked Dove and 42 North.
We were thrilled to be chosen a Marshalls Headphones Ambassador this year- featuring and promoting Marshall ( yes the Amp company) consumer goods.

Dogfish Head Brewing graciously gave us a Turntable to giveaway- which we were so busy, we are keeping the promotion going for a bit longer.
We featured our annual RSD RA Exclusive T-shirt as well- and sales were crazy!

Even with 4 checkouts, lines were long all day! $1 Records, Buy 1 get 1 FREE on all Used DVDS, and Mystery Bags of CDS, DVDs, Toys, & LPS were grabbed by all!
My crew did our best to keep it all moving- this was truly the largest crowd in history.

Now onto the details:
Overall store sales were up 45% over 2022!
Biggest Single Selling Day in Record Archive HISTORY! ( Remember we started in 1975- so many of you reading this, were not around yet!)

Best sellers included:
Taylor Swift
Pearl Jam
Jason Isbell & Amanda Shires
Billy Joel
Rolling Stones
Grateful Dead
Jerry Garcia
Tori Amos
Jazz Dispensary
Things I wish I had more of: Wish I could swap Peppa for Bluey! LOL Of course TS, 1975, Pearl Jam CDS, and always Grateful Dead.
As I look at our inventory, I am thrilled to say we had an 85 % sell through!!

I am grateful to EVERY ONE Who made this day possible!! Especially my family & my staff- who do this every day and support me in every way.
With love,
Alayna

The Long Ear - Coeur d’Alene, ID

Our in-line customers were about twice the normal total I'm sure do to the Swifties which we sold out in about the 1st 1/2 hour.
Overall sales were up 36.7 %
Vinyl up 33%
CD's up 10%
customer count up 25%
Plus profit up 88% (love it)
Record setting day for our store. Glad to have only one RSD this year, keeps it more special. Lots of happy customers & much better fill than in years gone by.
It just keeps getting better & better!
Terry & Deon

Electric Fetus - Minneapolis, MN

Record Store Day 2023 was the biggest day in Electric Fetus history—going back 55 years!

The weather didn’t really cooperate—several people spent the night through below-freezing temps and strong winds, and we only got up to 37 degrees on RSD—nasty. Even so, when I got to the store around 7:30 there were well over 150 people in line. Line person #1 arrived before noon on Friday.

At 8am we started handing out numbers (store opened at 9) and we got to 350—more than double the “usual” amount. We ran out of numbers at 1,000, which we hit by mid-afternoon, so after that we just had a separate line for RSD titles.

We set up three main draws for early birds in different locations: RSD titles that were only accessible from the behind the store in our garage, the hoard of primo Used records on our new arrivals wall, and two endcaps of signed records in the department. And when we opened at 9am the store started hopping for nine straight hours until we closed at 6pm.

Prior to this year our biggest day ever was RSD 2018, when RSD coincided with the second anniversary of Prince’s death and the Celebration at Paisley Park. RSD 2023 beat RSD 2018 by “only” 6%, but 2018 was buoyed by non-music items from our Gifts department due to the visiting Prince tourists. Looking at just our Music department RSD 2023 crushed 2018 by 27%--unbelievable!

For the first three hours we were selling more than 100 Taylor Swift records PER HOUR. We started with 425 copies and sold out around 3pm. We could have easily sold another 100-150 on Saturday. Greg Norton from Hϋsker Dϋ signed records at the store in the morning, which drove their Tonite Longhorn LP to #2 for our RSD titles, and Dave Pirner from Soul Asylum’s DJ set in the afternoon drove their MTV Unplugged to #4. And local favorites The Cactus Blossoms were #5—we are lucky to have some great Minneapolis artists on this year’s RSD list!

No live bands at the store this year! We went with DJ sets from local musicians and celebs, and I think it was great. The bands were often too loud and dissuaded customers from shopping the sections near the PA—I think we might go the mostly-DJ route next year too.

Our two signed records endcaps were also huge performers for us—for non-RSD titles eleven of our top 20 were signed records from:

Tennis
Unknown Mortal Orchestra
Everything But the Girl
Margo Price
Aoife O’Donovan
Snarky Puppy
Low Cut Connie
Foals
Poliça
Fruit Bats
Dawes

Thanks to all labels who help us get signed records—they are bringing people through our door every day, and especially RSD!

Sell-through by EOD Sunday for RSD titles was 81%--too high! Even taking out Taylor sell-through was 76%--Swifties drove more foot-traffic that I expected!

I was surprised by how many titles completely sold out—if only had I known… …and on a related note—it’s great that two of the three one-stops sent remaining inventory emails this morning, so I have some of these sellouts coming back in.

And we would have sold a ton more of these if they weren’t allocated:

The 1975 vinyl and cassette (our orders were cut by 90%--customers almost got violent over these—there was some jostling and I had to use my “Dad voice”)
Larry Lovestein
Wilco
Orville Peck
Duran Duran
Joan Jett
Macho Man

Here are the titles that didn’t perform close to expectations:

Paul McCartney
Blur
The Doors 3” records

Thanks for your support to make RSD 2023 our biggest day ever!

Jim Novak

Streetlight Records - San Jose/ Santa Cruz, CA

We are so pleased to announce that it was another record-breaking (pun intended) RSD for Streetlight! Our San Jose store had the best ever sales day in its history and was up over 17% from last year, the previous #1. First day sell-through for San Jose was 87%, indicating we could have ordered more on some key titles, but we’ll take it! Our Santa Cruz location also saw a great bump in sales this year, up over 12% from last year. First day sell-through for Santa Cruz was 59%, with stellar sales the following two days, as well. Below are Top 20 sales for RSD titles for each store.
A huge thanks goes out to the organizers of RSD, with special recognition to Carrie, Andrea, Michael and Eric! Big buckets of thanks to all the labels, distros, artists and management. And a heartfelt THANK YOU to the incredible staff at both Streetlight locations and our amazing customers!

Paige Brodsky
Store Manager, San Jose

Twist and Shout - Denver, CO

Pat Brown walks the line -> https://www.instagram.com/reel/CrVpWIvrYou/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Em Beihold video -> https://www.instagram.com/reel/CrXPVCkRBde/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Twist & Shout’s RSD 2023 Recap

Spring weather in Colorado is a fickle thing – 80 degrees one day and snow the next is not at all unheard of. So when after a very pleasant early week the predictions for RSD turned toward snow, we braced for the worst. Turned out to not be too bad – but then I didn’t have to sleep outside in it! Regardless, our customers showed up hardcore, with a regular customer arriving first in line about 4:30 PM Friday (he wanted the lone Lennon box set we received – and got it), followed not too long out by a group of four women there for the T. Swift release. There were about a dozen people there when I checked back in the blowing snow at 10:30 PM and when I got to work around 6AM – snow still falling from the night before – the line was halfway around the building, about 150 people deep, all bundled for the weather. And after we opened at 8AM they kept on coming for the remainder of the day – it didn’t let up until we closed after I split, twelve hours after arriving, in what turned out to be our best Record Store Day in the history of the store.

The big sales story of the day was obviously Taylor Swift. We played a little conservative with our numbers – though we doubled the initial order in the weeks leading up to RSD and thought we’d be able to sell our remaining copies in the weeks to come. Turned out we probably could’ve had three times as many as we did and still sold out on Saturday – every copy was gone just over two hours after we opened the doors. We had sold out of five titles 15 minutes after the doors opened, about a third of the titles we’d brought in by 11AM, and nearly half by 3PM. Top sellers outside of T. Swift were Grateful Dead, Beach House, Pearl Jam, Jerry Garcia, Jason Isbell/Amanda Shires, Medeski Martin & Wood, Allman Brothers, Rolling Stones, Black Keys, Miles Davis, Dolly Parton, and the Nuggets box set – most of which were also completely sold out by midday. And though we sold at least some of almost everything, a handful of titles didn’t move as we’d hoped – we ordered decent numbers on Blitz Vega, Jerry Harrison, Hawkwind, the Miles Davis tribute band M.E.B., and Rich Kids, but their fans seem to have stayed away in droves.

This year we had a pair of special guests who helped sales for us as well. Debora Iyall, lead singer of Romeo Void, happened to be in town so she stopped by the store to say hello, meet a few fans, and sign all our copies of Live From The Mabuhay Gardens: November 14,1980(both the RSD LPs and the CDs that had come out the day before), while up-and-comer Em Beihold, whose debut vinyl EP Egg In The Backseat came out on RSD, dropped by to make a quick video for her fans about the record being out, which in turn boosted people looking for it from us both in store and online once we put
them up for sale there. But if there’s one overarching story to this year’s RSD, it’s that we sold through more, and more quickly, than any year in memory – and we sold at least some copies of nearly everything; even most of the “stiffs” above moved a couple copies.

Ultimately, it was our best single-day RSD event ever, up about 5 ¼% from the previous high-water mark in 2019, and second only to the combined totals of last year’s RSD and June Drops date. The weekend overall was also our best-ever, beating 2019’s weekend by 5 2/3%.

If I had one complaint – hard to do in our best-ever year, but here it is anyway – it would be the level of allocations. This year we were allocated on more titles and more deeply than any year in memory. It definitely hurt us on a few – the two Sparks titles, Wilco, and (no joke) Macho Man Randy Savage (0 copies!) come to mind – and overall we ran out of stuff. Obviously there’s an upside to a great sell-through percentage, but when a third of our RSD stock is gone only three hours in, I just wonder what we would’ve been able to do had we not been allocated on things (and if we’d quadrupled instead of doubling our T. Swift order)! It would be interesting just for our edification to know the reasoning behind these – were more stores participating so the allocations had to be spread over a larger group; were smaller titles pushed aside at pressing plants to ensure that everyone got the Swift they needed; or were other factors at play? I don’t know what it would change, but I’m curious how things came down regardless.

Lastly special thanks need to be given to my incredible staff – everyone worked extra hard in the weeks leading up to RSD, as well as the day itself, and it went off without a hitch. Thanks also to AEG for bringing bagels to the hungry crowd, Blue Pan Pizza and Santiago’s and Greg & Terry Burns for feeding our hungry crew, and to former Twister Frankie Brack for his fantastic Colfax poster art! And another nod goes to Debora Iyall and Em Beihold for taking the time to come down to the store (and to their people for making it happen)! And one more – thanks also to our industry partners at the one-stops for getting us all our product in a timely fashion and in good condition!

Patrick Brown

Cactus - Houston, TX

Hello,

Here's our wrap-up for RSD 2023 which was tremendous fun.

We decided to continue our tickets for line reservations which began with the first drop of 2020. Customers have grown accustomed to this method and it keeps anxiety to a minimum as record fans have a sense of when to arrive, what their place in line will be and tempered expectations for opportunities to purchase coveted items. Safety is a concern and our system doesn't allow for camping overnight. We distributed 500 tickets to customers and began serving up the RSD goodness at 10am. We escorted vinyl fans to the RSD product table in 25 person segments which kept the store accessible to customers and new visitors who simply wanted to shop or just visit a store on our unofficial holiday. We heard nothing but positive feedback regarding our system and were delighted to have a customer tell us that it is as efficient as the drive through at Chick Fil A. We felt that, with the diminished health concerns, that we would see many people who had not participated in RSD in a few years and that proved true. In an effort to create a great experience for our reconnected RSDers and all of the Taylor Swift fans, many who had not been to our store, we decided that it was best not to present in-store events and avoid overcrowding. Once again, we saw strong afternoon traffic and sales that almost equal the morning hours as customers who visited other stores searched for items that they missed.

Taylor Swift was our most newsworthy RSD release again this year. We felt good about our order of 400 units, but quickly realized that it was not nearly sufficient. We sold out around 4pm, but could have sold that many more before close. It was amazing to see hundreds of passionate music fans visit our store for the first time and I expect that many are already making plans to visit our store again.

Our sponsors, Katz Coffee served our Black Vinyl Blend to the early birds who waited in line. Our partner, The Saint Arnold Brewery provided delicious beverages to shoppers including their new music-themed Banger IPA. Refreshing Topo Chico was available throughout the entire day. We were able to offer great prizes including turntables, gift packages from Warner Records, and many, many concert tickets from Live Nation, House of Blues and 713 Music Hall including coveted tickets to Beck, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Madonna and more. Fans were especially excited to enter to win passes to a screening of Hi Fidelity with John Cusack. We greatly value the support of these brands and their appreciation of RSD.

As a special gift to our customers on RSD, we created a high quality art print which features a record store themed drawing commissioned from our dear, departed friend, Gerard Baldwin. Gerard was an artist at Jay Ward Studios and the director of Hannah Barbera during the studio's prime where he created The Flintstones, Captain Crunch and The Smurfs. The image is also featured on this year's commemorative RSD shirt, is visible on our socials and will soon be available for sale on our site. Fans were delighted to receive this unique piece which is framed with ease and we're certain that it will find a spot on their wall.

Some important details:
- RSD 2023 set a record of our highest volume day ever which is remarkable. When compared with the combined sales from the RSD Drops of 2022, sales are flat. That is not remarkable. It was somewhat disappointing considering the expected impact of this year's Taylor Swift sales. This is the second year with minimal or no growth and it would appear that the event has reached a plateau of sales at our store. This sales trend is out of step with our steady growth that we continue to see.
- We experienced severe allocations on many RSD products, more so than last year which was impactful. We saw a greater percentage of sellouts than last year, including many more before noon and we often felt that we were unable to meet the demand for music lovers in Houston. As Houston's flagship RSD store, we are stocking these titles for RSD followers throughout Houston and not just our customers. We feel that the numbers produced on these products need to continue to increase to meet market demand which continues to surge dramatically as well as the added participating stores.
- Our overall sell through for the weekend was 80% of the stock that we purchased with the entirety of the remainder being underperforming titles.

RSD 2023 at our store was truly a celebration of record store culture and a wonderful time was had by all.
We look forward to RSD2024, Best only, Q

The Record Exchange - Boise, ID

Wow.

We knew what to expect (Swifties), but we also did not know what to expect. Downtown Boise these days resembles one large construction site, and just in time for Record Store Day, both of the blocks adjacent to our corner lot were closed to vehicle traffic. We are literally surrounded by construction, and all of the street parking around the store, all of the convenient ways to reach us, are gone for the time being. Also, the forecast called for mid-30s overnight and a high of 58 during the day, a bit chillier than Boise is used to for RSD.

Thankfully, gratefully, our people still made it here. And by the time we were done with the line around 10:30am, exactly 433 customers had entered the store. And they just kept coming in. A typical RSD for us has started with a line of 200-250 that we get through by 9 or 9:30, followed by a bit of lull, then a steady afternoon. This year, the traffic just never stopped, and we ended the day up 52% over 2022, beating last year’s RSD total sales by 1pm and setting a new all-time store sales record in the process.

First in line got to the store at 9:15pm Friday – another new store record. And for the first time, we had legit tents set up outside the store. Several of these customers, of course, were here for Taylor Swift (which sold out before 2pm), but that wasn’t the only story of the day. The thirst and excitement for this year’s exclusives was evident, not only in the discussions we had with customers throughout the day but with our 87% sell-through rate, and the 170 sellouts by Monday morning (thanks in part to robust online sales Sunday). New vinyl overall accounted for 82% of our overall sales on Saturday. Wow again.

We started the weekend on Thursday with an in-store performance by Boise hardcore legends State of Confusion, who reunited for a weekend of shows and the reissue of their second and most well-known album. We also kicked off a few four-day sales running through Sunday, including 20%-25% off new turntables, 50% off new and used video and 20%-50% off select lifestyle items. We sold a ton of turntables, including some to young customers getting their first table. Saturday night, we held our first offsite RSD event, an after party at Spacebar Arcade (a downtown arcade bar) featuring five vinyl DJs, including three of our staffers.

Taylor aside, the fast-movers and hot titles included The 1975, Larry Lovestein, Stevie Nicks, Beach House, Pearl Jam, Miles Davis, The Cure, Grateful Dead, Sonnyjim, U2, Van Halen, Wilco and The Black Keys.

Allocations we really felt were The 1975, Sonnyjim, Wilco, The Black Keys, Bluey, the Donnas, Duran Duran, Orville Peck and the heinously under-pressed Macho Man Randy Savage.

Thank you to everyone involved in assembling one of the best RSD lists yet and to all of our reps and partners for a huge show of support leading up to our biggest event of the year.

Catherine Merrick, Glenn Newkirk, Chad Dryden and Erica Sparlin Dryden
Co-owners
The Record Exchange
owners@therecordexchange.com

Easy Street - Seattle, WA

Surprise! Taylor not #1.
75lbs of bacon, 500 cups of coffee. Big ups to our longtime coffee partner Caffe Vita. We also had local legends Rainier Beer (“so good they named a mountain after it”) buying beers and throwing swag.

Legendary photog Charles Peterson debuted his latest public showing in and around the shop and cafe. Iconic photos up close and personal …and for sale. Charles was on hand to say a few words about the exhibition. He’s a man of mystery and storied legend so was very cool to see him having a great time and mixing it up.

This was officially our busiest day EVER ! Sunday went well too. No hiccups with online orders either, thank u Jon Berger and Chris at TRAK….and of course our staff picking, packing, and taking calls. We did 12% above our 2019 RSD, which had been our previous best.

Jeff Ament from Pearl Jam made an appearance the day before and gave a look thru and unboxing of their RSD piece “Give Way”. Indie record store fan favorite and PJHQ Ten Club GM Tim Bierman got on the mic and thanked all for coming out and gave inside details about the release.

We’ve had a spring Patio Sale going on out front with 10,000 used records & 7”ers, 5 for $10. We replenished for RSD and had fresh meat for the cratediggers.

Can we talk The Rockfords? Many of u outside of the PNW might not know much about this one…and I wouldn’t blame u. This was a record that slipped out 20 years ago, a bit of a local supergroup. One and done record. It was a side project that Mike McCready (Pearl Jam) did after Mad Season and between his PJ releases “Yield” and “Binaural”. Local indie/riot/songstress Carrie Akre (Hammerbox/Goodness) joined up along w working musicians and Mike’s childhood friends/Shadow bandmates (pre-Pearl Jam) the Friel Brothers and Danny Newcomb. They had a local hit “Silver Lining” that was played on local rock stations throughout 2000-01. All members were busy with other projects so there was never a tour, only a couple shows…and never released on vinyl. 4 bonus tracks were added from a long lost EP.

Gordon at Real Gone does such a great job with his pressings and packaging, another beautiful piece. Gordon used to run Collectors Choice. Much respect to him and Erik Freeman at AEC for believing in this piece and walking it up the RSD ladder.

The Rockfords were scheduled to perform at 7pm. Not only did we have 400 ppl in line at 7am, but by 5pm…we had another 400 in line for The Rockfords. We closed up at midnight. Thanks everyone for all that u do. No duds. No scrubs.

Instores from the previous week(s) helped get the word out too; Syml, Sandrider, Dave Hause, Waterparks, and Boygenius listening party.

Staff killed it, Adam personally received every piece. Kevin had a beautiful Mudhoney window on display and a Metallica billboard up. Maria did a great job w our socials. Andy and the vinyl crew had killer rarities on display and got us lined up for the flow. Nate, Sophia had us ready to go. Mary kept us all in order. Café and bar was full throttle! See below. Staff was stellar!
https://www.facebook.com/EasyStreetRecords/
https://www.instagram.com/easystreetrecords/

Park Ave - Orlando, FL

SOCIAL MEDIA:
Facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/722030196157339
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/parkavecds
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ParkAveCDs
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@parkavecds

MARKETING:
pacd newsletter/guide: https://conta.cc/40y6EQl
charitable contributions: Second Harvest Food Bank of CFL & FL Access Network
attached: screenshots & photos of event — bit.ly/RSD2023Photos

OVERALL SALES:
- RSD 2023: up 70% over RSD 2022
- RSD 2023: sell through: 72%
- Sunday: up 175% over 2022
- RSD Weekend Overall: up 104% over 2022

THUMBS UP & THUMBS DOWN:
up: Our crew! Considering this was our biggest day in the history of the store, we couldn’t have asked more of them.
up: The RSD crew of Carrie, Michael, Andrea and Eric for the coordination and execution.
up: Our customers/supporters and the many brand new patrons of the shop.
down: The list prices continue to go up while the margin goes down.

titles we wish we had more of: Macho Man Randy Savage, The 1975, Sonnyjim & Purist, Orville Peck, The Midnight, Art Blakey, The Black Keys, Duran Duran, Garbage, Joan Jett, Laufey, Stevie Nicks, Porcupine Tree, Violent Femmes

titles we thought would have done better: Peppa Pig, Kittie, Sunn O))) & Boris, Galt MacDermot, Björk, Blur, David Byrne, Captain Beefheart, Jerry Garcia

Hello friends!

Hope everyone had a great weekend :)

It seems that each Record Store Day only gets bigger and bigger, with more new faces and first-time vinyl buyers coming out in droves year after year. This RSD was no exception, and RSD 2023 proved to be an overwhelming success! Of course we anticipated big crowds with releases from Taylor Swift, The 1975, Pearl Jam, Beach House, Mac Miller, etc, but nothing could have prepared us for the amount of people that turned out this weekend.

The typical RSD Saturday keeps pretty busy with long lines until about 3-5pm, but this year we had a long line wrapping around the building until past 7pm. Just like with recent years, we utilized the same raffle/appointment system for early access reserved shopping times from 8am-1pm and then we opened to the general public from 1pm-11pm for walk-ups. Our customer base still prefers the reservation system where they shop via our PACDs RSD Menu, as it keeps wait times down. This year we increased the amount of reservations per time slot as we knew the overall demand was going to be higher. In the end we filled every reservation slot for a total of 600 people from 8am-1pm. Once everything got rolling, the reservations were working well for us, but at some point we really started to get busy and the line outside started to wrap around our plaza. When 1pm hit we had several hundred people waiting in line that continued around the plaza and into a local school parking lot — easily the longest line we’ve ever had in the history of PACDs.

Meanwhile outside, from 8am to 2pm, we had some local businesses/vendors (Foundation Presents & Kick Bright Buttons & Vintage), food/coffee stands (Cholo Dogs & Totally Coffee) and voter registration (People Power For Florida) that setup in our parking lot. We also had our friends at Enemy Ink setup outside as well doing some live screen-printing for this year’s RSD 2023 t-shirt. This year’s limited RSD t-shirt, print and tote bag sales all raised money for the Florida Access Network, our local state organization that works to build pathways for abortion access by advocating for reproductive justice, funding abortion care, and providing logistical support. Thanks to everyone’s support we were able to raise $2,670 for FL Access Network! On top of that we held our annual food drive for our local food bank Second Harvest of CFL, with over 922+ lbs of food donated by the end of the day — significantly more donations than last year’s food drive. We also had a surprise visit from our local State Representative Anna Eskamani, who gifted the shop a commemorative plaque in tribute to Record Store Day and to all the independent record stores in our community. Such an awesome moment!

As always with the RSD exclusive release, there were several surprises as far as which titles sold out early and which titles were hardly touched — all of which have been included in our wrap-up below. Taylor Swift, Larry Lovestein, Pearl Jam, Beach House, Maya Hawke, Bluey, Stevie Nicks, Wilco, The 1975, Grateful Dead and dodie were the some of the hottest titles of the day. Also, huge thank you to Carrie Colliton (RSD) and Dan Cohen (Nonesuch) for helping coordinate a last minute LP-venue-signing with Wilco for their RSD Exclusive 'Crosseyed Strangers: An Alternate Yankee Hotel Foxtrot’ LP. It was already such a cool piece but that extra touch really got the fans excited for RSD and even surprised a few in the process.

Overall it was such an exhilarating (also exhausting) and unforgettable day! Thankfully we all got some rest before Sunday when we began selling RSD 2023 titles via our web-store for in-store pickup and mail orders. Just as with in-store sales, we saw a huge increase in online sales compared to last year, with sales overall for this RSD weekend besting our previous record by 104%. This was the easily the most financially successful RSD event + weekend we’ve had in all 16 years of participating. All that being said, we’re already looking for new ways we can improve the overall experience for our valued customers, neighbors and staff.

As with every RSD, we can’t thank you all enough for everything you do for us and for all of indie retail! Special shoutout to Eric at AEC for treating the staff to some of our favorite local donuts — it kept everyone fueled up and smiling throughout the weekend! We’re already looking forward to the next event and we hope to see you at Music Biz, Summer Camp or in the bins soon :)

Thanks!
Josiah, Sandy & the entire PACDs crew

Hi Everyone,

Ben Kweller has been a longtime friend of CIMS, ThinkIndie and indie retail in general, and it is with great sadness that we learned that he and his wife Liz lost their son Dorian last week.

News of the loss of someone so young with so much life ahead of them is always so hard, so I wanted to extend our condolences to Ben and his family while they are going through such a heartbreaking time. May they one day find peace with this devastating event in their lives.

I am also sharing their note remembering their son Dorian Zev Kweller.

Our son Dorian died in a freak car accident on Monday, February 27th, 2023. He was 16 years old. He was going the speed limit, phone in its holder, seatbelt on, doing everything right. He was freestyle rapping to his favorite instrumental playlist when an oncoming truck drifted towards him. Dorian swerved into the shoulder to avoid the oncoming truck. While in the shoulder, a downed broken tree branch from the recent freeze came through the window and hit him on the right side of his head. He died instantly. The airbags didn’t go off, the car wasn’t overly damaged. He would’ve walked away from this had it not been for that one branch. When Dorian was born, our main wish for him was to have a zest for life. That wish came true times a hundred. Our baby was riding high until his final minute on earth.

Lizzy and I are starting a foundation in his honor. It will serve young musicians and skateboarders (Dorian's two favorite things). We've set up a GoFundMe to get everything off the ground. Please consider donating something, even if it's $1. We are going to do great things for young people and I'd love to have you along for the ride. www.gofundme.com/doriankweller

Dorian Zev Kweller came into this world on May 30th, 2006. He took his first breath in a tiny NYC delivery room while the music of Mason Jennings played in the background. Dorian received his first drum set at the age of 2 and played a 4/4 rock beat before his father could show him how. He was a wordsmith from the time he could speak - rhyming and freestyling from his car seat to the backyard, to the bed.

In 2008 we relocated to Austin, TX where we spent countless days hiking the greenbelt and swimming in local swimming holes. When Dorian had his mind set on something he was unstoppable. His first mission was to learn how to skateboard. Music and skating ultimately became his two lifelong passions.

Dorian attended Habibi’s Hutch preschool and Zilker Elementary school where he made lifelong friends. During his time at Zilker, he received the “Friend To All'' and “Do It My Own Way” awards. While these accolades became loving jokes inside the household, they were spot on. He truly was a unique, outside of the box thinking ‘friend to all’. One of his strongest bonds was with his brother Judah, who was born in 2010. Dorian protected and adored Judah and they were deeply intertwined. Dorian was a spiritual person who perceived deeper meaning in life. He was authentic, kind and generous. He saw the good in everyone and was never embarrassed to be himself because he was confident in who he was.

In 2018 we moved to Dripping Springs where Dorian attended Skybridge Academy (now known as The Appamada School) then Dripping Springs High where he continued to expand his vast circle of friends. He was heavily involved in the local Dripping Springs Skate Club and the Austin skate scene at large. Dorian cherished every minute he had with his skate friends and knew every public and private skate spot in central Texas. Dorian was an integral member of the acclaimed DSHS music program where he played the bass drum and tenor/quad drums. His expressive drumming helped bring DSHS to the State Finals two years in a row.

His knack for wordplay came alive in high school as did his guitar playing and audio production skills. 2021 was the year that Dorian got serious about his life as an artist. He worked under his middle name, ZEV, which is Hebrew for “wolf”. Every day after school, he oscillated between hip-hop beats, acoustic ballads, indie-guitar rockers, and lofi chill-wave grooves. One of the last traits that Dorian developed, and perhaps the most stunning, was his lush singing voice. ZEV released music to the public for the first time on July 1st, 2022.

On February 25th, 2023, two days before Dorian’s passing, TikTok superstar, Masked Mortal discovered his song “SH3” and noted ZEV’s “voice that could cut butter.” ZEV was scheduled to make his live debut at SXSW on March 17th, 2023. He was looking forward to his senior year of High School and visiting potential colleges with his eye on Boston’s Berklee College of Music. Music was looking like a viable career path for him and at the same time Volatile Skateboards offered him a sponsorship deal just six hours before the car crash.

On Friday, March 3rd, 2023, we laid Dorian to rest on our family’s ranch. The outpouring of love from our Dripping Springs, Austin, and worldwide communities has been incredible. In his short life, Dorian radiated positivity and spread it to everyone he touched. He was brave, adventurous, and lived each day to the fullest. He was witty and loved making people laugh even when it was at his own expense. He loved deeply and was loved deeply. We know that his powerful light and music will continue to make this world a happier, more peaceful place.

xo Ben and Lizzy
P.S. Here's his rad music.

Here are the charts.

Andrea

Andrea Paschal
Executive Director
Coalition of Independent Music Stores
ThinkIndie Distribution
3738 4th Terrace North
Birmingham, AL 35222
Phone: 205.595.1932 x.208
Fax: 205.595.1938
Email : andrea@cimsmusic.com
cimsmusic.com
#cimsmusic