Record Store Day 2023: 'More titles than I've ever had before'

Lines stretched down the roads outside New Zealand's record shops today, with music fans lining up for hours to get exclusive Record Store Day releases from artists including Taylor Swift and Pearl Jam.

Starting in 2008, the day celebrates independent record stores and features exclusive releases only available on the day.

At the time, the stores were struggling due to illegal downloads.

Today there were exclusive releases from artists like Taylor Swift, Pearl Jam, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Fat Freddy's Drop, Fleetwood Mac and Donna Summer.

Stock was extremely limited.

By 9.10 am, Slow Boat Records in Wellington had already run out of Taylor Swift's limited LP.

People had lined up waiting for doors to open since 5am.

Lines down the road were a common theme of the day.

At Auckland's Real Groovy in the CBD, a line stretched out the door and down the road.

There were more Record Store Day releases than ever before, the store said.

At Penny Lane Records in Christchurch, Garry Knight told Music 101 the day also celebrates music fans.

"Lots of the purest, the fans, the people who want stuff in their collection are going to be the ones who will come in and shop... it sort of makes for an exciting day."

While music leaks are common these days, Knight said in the 90s he would open his store at midnight for the fans.

"The record company would have it under lock and key and would release it on that day and we'd open at midnight so you could get them first."

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Grant Smithies is both a music reviewer and owns a "part-time record shack" called Family Jewels in Nelson, located in the beer garden of craft beer joint The Freehouse.

He says they get "crushed by incoming multitudes on Record Store Day, always".

"Sometimes even if we haven't got a whole lot of that day only type releases, cause I only order the ones I think are interesting. We still get just people coming out to support independent record stores which is a good cause, that's why it got formulated in the first place."

Initially, the day aimed to provide a cash-bump to independent record stores at that time of year with a lot of independent band releases coming out, Smithies said.

But now big marketing companies had also decided it was a great time of the year to sell vinyl and they could clog up the pressing plants with less interesting releases, he said.

"But if you rake through the lists there's always enough cool things to just order the winners and ignore the others I think."

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Mark Thomas, the owner of New Plymouth's Vinyl Countdown, says Record Store Day was the busiest day of the year, bigger even than Christmas Eve.

He ordered the stock three or four months ahead of Record Store Day and it was impossible to tell exactly what you would get sent, he said.

"You know you can order them but you might only get sent half of what you ordered, so it's good to get that good hit rate and know that you're going to have a big day."

He expected Taylor Swift to be in greatest demand, but there was quite a range this year, he says.

"This year I think I've got more titles than I've ever had before, there's about six crates sitting here full of stuff that hopefully all will go."

John Hose, the manager at MyMusic in Taupō, says he is well known for getting his hands on the hard-to-get titles, since opening back in 1986.

"This week I've brought in probably close to 1500 albums from around the world and titles in all genres and people from around the country are attacking our store at the moment, you know on our Facebook site, because they can't believe we've got all these titles brand new sitting on the shelf."

Hose said selling big-name artists like Taylor Swift or Ed Sheeran allowed him to also keep a broad catalogue and stock lesser-known artists.

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