Record Store Day, which falls on April 16 this year, is a sort of secular holiday whose ethos is hard to argue with—it’s basically “hooray for independent record stores and actually buying records instead of downloading them off Mediafire.” But I’m sure that some very cynical person out there has already imagined the point when some very hip person would decry RSD for losing sight of its roots and abandoning its soul. Congratulations, whoever you are! In a press release sent out Wednesday, Numero Group honcho Ken Shipley is quoted as saying, “Most Record Store Day records are trashy cash-ins. Bogus 7″ repros, expensive and needless live LPs, and perhaps the worst culprit of all, records that aren’t actually limited but are marketed as such.” He then calls the holiday a “cash grab,” which to be fair it was sort of meant to be, though recently RSD seems dominated by major labels and not so much the indies that first embraced the idea.
Bold words from Mr. Shipley. The obvious response is, Do he and his label have plans to right the wrongs he sees? The answer is yes, and fairly elaborate ones at that.