Interesting releases for Record Store Day Black Friday
This week saw the announcement of the releases for Record Store Day Black Friday. While in the States Black Friday is a big deal taking place the day after Thanksgiving in the UK it is somewhat seen as a manufactured retail celebration.
There are some interesting releases including a ten inch single from Billie Eilish and a seven inch from Chappell Roan, while from decades earlier there is a 1:1 replica of the 1975 UK Led Zeppelin 7” promo Trampled Under Foot backed with Black Country Woman.
There will be big demand for the Ghost picture disc of Skeleta while on the local band front Young Fathers release a tenth anniversary version of White Men Are Black Men Too.
Later this month on Saturday October 18 it is National Album Day and this year there is a rock theme. Unfortunately this day is not organised by ERA, the Entertainment Retailers Association, which organises Record Store Day, and it has already disintegrated into total chaos.
Record companies have been left to organise the distribution of the limited edition releases and from the start shops were told that they might only receive one copy of the more popular releases by several of the big record companies. In the end, one of the larger record companies, having said not to make any orders until an official form was produced, then sent an email saying they needed orders immediately, and a couple of hours later when many shops had not yet replied said all the releases were sold out.
One big difference with National Album Day is that sales are allowed online in advance so shops that put their releases up for pre-sell will have very little left on the actual day. The other big difference is stock is available to all retailers, not just independents. It is very telling that HMV are only sold out of a couple of titles so must have been given stock numbers far greater than the independents beyond what can be justified by their size and Amazon still seem to have everything available.
It is no surprise that National Album Day is always a bit of a damp squib as all the keen people have already bought online and shops will for one reason or another not have many of the titles in stock. While Black Friday may not be the big event Record Store Day has become it will at least be well organised and there is something for everybody.
All being well Black Friday will be the first big event in the new shop as we plan to be open in the new space by the end of October. It will take us a while to get settled in but with Christmas following quickly on from the opening we hope to have as much in place as possible from the start and then just tweak things as it becomes clear how the dynamics of the shop are working.
In other news, after several years of lobbying Avalanche has managed to secure the release of the debut Fratellis album Costello Music on CD. Rather than ask for an exclusive we have bought enough to make the release viable and the rest will be given to a distributor who will make it available to other shops.