Record Store Day 2016

Well another Record Store Day has come and gone here in the UK and once again I have managed to avoid it. Not that I have anything against the event you understand, in fact as a collector of records myself, I believe that anything that promotes this fine hobby of ours has some merit. However, I have the distinct feeling that the whole event has, in the 9 years of it's existence, become something of a rip-off with too little by way of quality and too many vastly inflated prices.

The event was conceived as a way of giving a sales boost to independent record stores, and for a while it appeared to work. However, talking recently to the owner of such a store, he told me that the whole thing had become something of a blessing and a curse. Yes, on the day itself, he anticipated doing good business but his experience of the last few years is that sales declined dramatically in the weeks preceding the event. His theory was that perhaps people were saving up to splash out on the big day.

Nevertheless the event this year has again generated a lot of excitement and from what I read online, there are a whole load of people who are very happy with their purchases. Personally I might have found myself tempted by the deluxe version of 'Wrecking Ball' by Emmylou Harris and almost certainly by the self titled second album by Traffic which was limited to only 500 copies. For some inexplicable reason it is an album I do not own and one which I feel I really must get on vinyl - the way that I first heard it back in 1968.

Perhaps one of these days, when all the fuss has died down.