Record Store Day: Still Worth It - But What Comes Next?

Every April, a familiar ritual plays out across the country. Alarm clocks go off at unreasonable hours. Coffee is gulped in semi-darkness. Queues form outside independent record shops long before the doors open. There’s a quiet camaraderie in it - strangers united by a shared obsession with music and the physical object.

And we’ll be there again this year.

Because for all its quirks and frustrations, Record Store Day remains, at its core, a good thing.

The Good: A Shot in the Arm for Independent Shops

Independent record shops are under constant pressure. Rising costs, changing listening habits, online competition - it’s not an easy environment. Record Store Day gives them a moment in the spotlight. A genuine surge of footfall. A reminder that these spaces still matter.

And they do.

They’re not just retail outlets. They’re cultural hubs. Places of discovery. Places where music exists beyond an algorithm.

Anything that helps keep those doors open is something we fully support.

The Drift: From Discovery to Repackaging

But it’s hard to ignore that something has shifted.

There was a time when Record Store Day felt like a treasure hunt - genuinely exciting, exclusive releases that you couldn’t get anywhere else. New music, obscure gems, unexpected collaborations.

Now? It often feels like a different proposition.

The racks are increasingly filled with:

• Reissues of albums that never really went away

• Multiple colour variants that serve little purpose but to well a major label's coffers

• Deep catalogue dips from the majors that can feel like really scraping the barrel

There’s nothing inherently wrong with any of that. But it does start to feel... familiar. Predictable. A little bit safe.

The sense of discovery - the thing that made digging through crates exciting - isn’t quite as sharp as it once was.

The Reality: Scalpers and the Secondary Market

Then there’s the other side of it.

Not everyone in that early morning queue is there for the music.

Some are there for the flip.

Limited releases appear on eBay within hours - sometimes minutes - at inflated prices. The same records, now detached from the shop, the queue, the experience. Just another commodity.

It’s hard not to feel that this chips away at what RSD is supposed to be about.

Where Do Small Labels Like ForgeMaster Fit Into This?

Here’s where it gets a bit more complicated - especially from our side of the fence.

The reality is that Record Store Day doesn’t really work for small labels.

To take part, you’re generally looking at pressing runs at a minimum of 500 units or more just to be included. For us, that’s not just ambitious - it’s unrealistic. It’s a significant upfront investment, tied up in stock that may or may not move.

Even if it does sell, once you factor in manufacturing, distribution, and retail margins, the returns are minimal.

And then there’s the wider knock-on effect.

Production bottlenecks are very real. When pressing plants are tied up fulfilling large RSD orders - thousands of units for major label releases - smaller runs get pushed back, deprioritised, or simply become unviable, and the costs begin to climb because demand increases.

A plant isn’t going to stop a 5,000-unit run to cut 50 copies of a single for an emerging band.

Which means the very ecosystem that RSD celebrates - independent music culture - can end up squeezed elsewhere.

The Bigger Picture: An Uneven Playing Field

This isn’t about pointing fingers.

RSD was created to support independent retailers, and in that respect, it succeeds.

But the industry has changed. The balance of power hasn’t.

Major labels have the scale, the catalogue, and the resources to dominate the event. Small labels - the ones working at grassroots level, nurturing new artists, taking risks - don’t really have a natural place within it.

And yet, those labels are a crucial part of the pipeline.

They’re the early believers. The ones pressing up small runs, funding releases out of pocket, building something from nothing.

Much like small venues in the live circuit, they’re where things begin.

A Thought: What Would “Indie Label Day” Look Like?

Maybe the answer isn’t to change Record Store Day.

Maybe it’s to complement it.

Something like an “Indie Label Day” - whatever that might be.

An event that:

• Embraces short runs and limited editions

• Supports emerging artists and labels

• Works with pressing plants to prioritise smaller batches

• Encourages shops to showcase truly independent releases

  
  

Not a competitor. Not a replacement. Just... another lane. Maybe it needs to be more regionalised because for many emerging artists or labels the demand is based around a home town. Or maybe it's an online event. We don't know.

But if RSD is about celebrating the shops, maybe there’s space for something that celebrates the people filling those racks in the first place.

Where We Land

We’ll still be in the queue.

We’ll still pick up a couple of releases.

We’ll still support the shops - because they deserve it.

But it does feel like the conversation is ready to move on a bit.

Not away from Record Store Day.

Just... beyond it.

Because if we care about the future of music - not just its past - then the ecosystem needs to work for everyone in it.