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Record Store Day's Black Friday Event Aims To Support Local Music Shops

Every year since 2007, on the third Saturday in April, music fans and record collectors flock to their local independent music shop in hopes of scoring a gem on Record Store Day.

This year, collectors will get something a little bit extra.

In addition to the main event held earlier this year, a smaller second event will take place on November 29. Organizers of "Record Store Day - Back to Black Friday" hope to drive customers into their local record shops during the busiest shopping day of the year.

Spektrum Musik is a locally owned music store as well as an occasional KMUW underwriter. The store's co-owner, Adam Phillips, says that RSD and RSD Black Friday are two distinct events.

“They promote each event and they’re going to have exclusive releases for RSD Black Friday, but not as much as the main RSD event,” Phillips says.

According to the website, the albums and singles that are sold on the main RSD event in April are made specifically for that day and will not be sold after that date.

However, the Black Friday event is smaller and has items that are made for the holiday season and record labels have the option to carry the product after the event.

Spektrum Musik is excited about the event after a successful RSD event earlier this year.

“It’s definitely good for business,” Phillips says. “It’s when the best deals are and when the specials are just like any other establishment on Black Friday.”

The store, located at 2712 E Boulevard Plaza, will have some sales and giveaways in addition to everything else RSD - Black Friday brings.

However, not all the music stores in town may be participating.

Out of four Wichita owned music shops listed on the RSD website, only two have signed an RSD pledge.

The stores that have pledged have agreed “to act in the spirit of Record Store Day, and sell the commercial Record Store Day releases to their physical customers, on Record Store Day; not to gouge them, or hold product back to sell them online.”

One of the record stores in town, Notes and Noises Record Shoppe at 117 S. Pattie, has yet to sign the pledge and will not be participating in RSD Black Friday later this month.

“When it started, it was a day of appreciation for the record store,” says Notes and Noises owner Christopher Trenary. “It started off innocent and only a few independent labels did special releases, but now, due to infighting between labels, artists and record stores, prices on those type of records have risen.”

He says that because of the rising costs of these records, as well as shipping, the RSD pledge is a commitment that allows no room for mark up for the store on these exclusive releases.

“We realized that we aren’t making a whole a lot of money on those days, but there are labels that are,” Trenary says. “I don’t like my customers to be disappointed. It’s not fun and it’s out of our hands. There are a lot of mom and pop stores that are taking a hit on those days and there are a lot of indie labels that won’t participate.”

Even though Notes and Noises won’t be participating in RSD-Black Friday, that doesn’t mean they won’t have anything planned for that day.

“We are going to have a sale on the week leading up to that and we will have cookies out for Black Friday,” Trenary says. “We always do something fun for customers."

While not everyone may agree with how event is handled, the intent behind RSD may seem noble to many.

According to the website, the goal of Record Store Day - Back to Black Friday is to support local independent record shops by subverting the idea behind the biggest corporate shopping day of the year.

Check out the Record Store Day website for a list of all the special releases that will available on RSD-Black Friday.

Hugo Phan is a Digital News Reporter at KMUW, and founding member of the KMUW Movie Club. After years of being a loyal listener, he signed up to be a KMUW volunteer and joined the station's college student group before becoming a digital assistant in 2013.