Record Store Day: Rockefeller Center Hub
Record Store Day on April 18 is getting a major public spotlight in New York — Rockefeller Center is being billed as the “world’s largest Record Store Day celebration,” with special limited‑run vinyl tied to big names like Taylor Swift, Paramore, Charli XCX and Weezer. (timeout.com) The weekend is also shaping up as a regional opportunity for indie shops — WXPN says Philadelphia‑area stores (including suburbs, New Jersey and Central Pennsylvania) are extending hours and adding performances, and Goldmine toured Microforum Service Group, the 60,000‑square‑foot plant pressing many of these exclusives. ( )
New York’s biggest Record Store Day draw this year is not a record shop at all. Rockefeller Center says its iNDIEPLAZA festival will run from noon to 9 p.m. on Saturday, April 18, at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, free to the public, with Rough Trade as the retail partner. (rockefellercenter.com) Time Out New York says the plaza is being billed as the “world’s largest Record Store Day celebration,” built around the annual rush for limited-run vinyl from artists including Taylor Swift, Paramore, Charli XCX, and Weezer. The same event listing says live sets are scheduled from Incendiary, Hotline TNT, Momma, Winter, Friko, Nuovo Testamento, and Weird Nightmare, plus DJs through the day. (timeout.com) Record Store Day started in 2007 as an idea from independent store owners and employees, and the first one was held on April 19, 2008. The official Record Store Day site now says the event is tied to nearly 1,400 independently owned stores in the United States and thousands more internationally. (recordstoreday.com) That is why a giant public plaza matters here: the holiday still runs on scarcity. Record Store Day’s official site and Time Out both point shoppers toward special editions that are sold through participating indie stores rather than a single national chain. (recordstoreday.com, timeout.com) The New York splash is only one side of the weekend. Philadelphia public radio station WXPN says stores across Philadelphia, the suburbs, New Jersey, and Central Pennsylvania are extending hours, booking performances, hosting guests, and giving away prizes on April 18. (xpn.org) WXPN is also using the day to push local music, not just collectible reissues. A separate April 3 report says the station will give away a free compilation called *Homegrown Originals Volume 4* to customers who buy something at 13 participating stores, with 11 tracks by Philadelphia-area artists. (nationaltoday.com) One Philadelphia shop, Repo Records on South Street, says it will open at 8 a.m. and start serving the line at 7 a.m. with a coffee truck and giveaway bags for early customers. That is the basic Record Store Day ritual in miniature: wake up early, stand in line, and hope your store got the pressing you want. (reporecords.com) Behind those lines is a factory story. Goldmine reports that many of this year’s Record Store Day exclusives are being made at Microforum Service Group, a 60,000-square-foot vinyl and compact disc plant that gave the magazine a tour this week. (goldminemag.com) Microforum’s own site says the company handles the whole chain in one place, from lacquer cutting and electroplating to pressing, printing, and packaging. In other words, the shiny seven-inch single on a fan’s shelf starts as a manufacturing job with molds, paper parts, and shipping deadlines, not just a merch idea on an artist’s Instagram. (microforum.ca) So April 18 is shaping up as two events at once. In Manhattan, Rockefeller Center is turning Record Store Day into a public spectacle with tens of thousands expected, while in the Mid-Atlantic the same holiday is still doing its original job of funneling people into neighborhood stores one line at a time. (dice.fm, xpn.org)
