Three Years of Record Store Day
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I remember Jude suggesting that TRC hold a Record Store Day event for 2017 – with maybe fifteen days to go. We had been talking of collaborating and I was still to realise that this was his style. After all there is nothing like bringing things up at the last minute. Helps you to focus.
I’ve been buying records for over 4 decades and I hadn’t heard of such a thing. A small community of folks like myself never really gave up on records. This was In part because records sound so much better than anything that has come after – and in part because we already have large collections - and starting over with CDs was pointless. MP3s of course never counted for “real” music in our universe. Smug from thinking of ourselves as some sort of torchbearers – we have developed a misplaced sense of ownership on the medium. Many of us therefore failed to register the true scale of its revival over the last decade. A revival driven largely by millennial's followed by the generation next.
There is much discussion around factors that have contributed to this renaissance. These range from the superiority of analog, a return to the music album as a whole, a sense of ownership only the physical media can provide, the need for a more immersive listening experience, the cultural longevity of records, the discovery of the self and the need to invest quality time to music, the hipness of records, the broader slow movement and so on. They make for an interesting discussion.
Fact remains that the demand for records has been growing steadily. It apparently exceeds supply by some margin. There is regular news of new record manufacturing plants, new turntables are being introduced almost weekly. And then theres the explosion in record stores across the world.
Read more about the revival of vinyl records by clicking on the article links below.
The record store community has returned to the cultural center of the music landscape. This renaissance is celebrated on the first Saturday of every April as Record Store Day across the world since 2008.
Click here to check out the official Record Store Day website
Getting back to 2017. As the only record store in town we felt like connecting our growing legion of customers to this worldwide celebration. Unsure of their response, and with much trepidation, we threw ourselves into the the deep end. The Revolver Club held the country’s first Record Store Day celebration in Bandra, Mumbai.
We put together an interesting day covering presentations, discussions and performances by many artists. We put on sale an impressive spread of titles of new and used records across genres.
We were overwhelmed by the response of the community. People showed in numbers and participated with marked enthusiasm. Record Store Day had arrived in India.
The Revolver Club held the third edition of our Record Store Day event on April 13th, 2019.
Its been an exciting journey. We’ve done our best to support the community by procuring the widest possible selection of music from quality plants across the world. We’ve enjoyed making friends by the hundreds. Friends from whom we learn everyday. Its safe to say that the community has been friends first and customers later.
Its has been particularly gratifying to bring the joy of analog to the uninitiated through our listening events. 
We are excited to note that our efforts at supporting the medium are paying off handsomely. It is gratifying that the record listening community has been growing steadily and that each year has sees more and more RSD events.
Record Store Day has truly become a part of the music calendar. The movement we started in India has grown from strength to strength. Nothing could have made us happier. See you at Record Store Day 2020. Cheers.
written by Manu Trivedi
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