Record Store Day drops

Record Store Day returns on Saturday, April 18, with more than 365 limited and exclusive releases headed to independent shops. (recordstoreday.com) The official Record Store Day site says the records are sold through participating brick-and-mortar stores, not through Record Store Day itself, and each shop chooses its own orders from the 2026 list. Stores may put leftover stock online starting Sunday, April 19. (recordstoreday.com) This year’s list includes releases from artists such as Taylor Swift, Paramore, Charli XCX and Weezer, alongside hundreds of other titles spread across categories including “Record Store Day Exclusive,” “Record Store Day First,” and small-run regional releases. (timeout.com, recordstoreday.com) In New York, Rockefeller Center is turning April 18 into a daylong iNDIEPLAZA festival that Time Out reported organizers call the world’s largest Record Store Day event. The free event is in its fifth year and is expected to draw tens of thousands of fans from noon to 9 p.m. at 30 Rockefeller Plaza. (timeout.com) Rough Trade is curating the Rockefeller Center program, with live sets by Superchunk and other acts, plus early sales at its two Rockefeller Center store locations beginning at 9 a.m. and 10 a.m. A children’s program called TiNY iNDIE runs from 9:30 a.m. to noon. (timeout.com) Record Store Day began as a 2007 idea from independent record store owners and employees, and the first event was held on April 19, 2008. The organization says it now spans nearly 1,400 independently owned stores in the United States and thousands more internationally. (recordstoreday.com) The annual scramble for exclusives depends on manufacturing deadlines as much as fan demand. Goldmine reported that Microforum Service Group, a Record Store Day Canada manufacturing sponsor, runs a 60,000-square-foot vinyl and compact disc plant and says it delivers more than 99 percent of deadlines. (goldminemag.com) Microforum’s Noble Musa told Goldmine the plant typically handles five or six Record Store Day titles a year, with press runs often ranging from 500 copies to a few thousand. That limited scale helps explain why some titles sell out quickly and why stores often tell shoppers to line up early. (goldminemag.com, timeout.com) For shoppers, the practical detail is simple: April 18 is the in-store release date, inventory will vary by shop, and the biggest crowds are expected where the rarest records and live events overlap. In Midtown Manhattan, that means Rockefeller Center. (recordstoreday.com, timeout.com)