John
After postponing their original April 18th date in a bid to outrun the coronavirus epidemic, Record Store Day 2020 will no longer take place on June 20th but across three dates in August (29th), September (26th) and October (24th). Stock will be shipped to independent record stores around the world in a series of three ‘drops’, leaving store owners to manage sales in compliance with whatever social distancing rules their country has in place at the time.
It’s unlikely that we will see the queues and the shoulder-barging of previous years. Our best guess at this stage is that if record stores remain closed, sales will be conducted online and then shipped out to customers. Elsewhere we might see orders placed online with a strict one-in-one-out procedure in place for in-person pick-ups. If you run a popular independent record store, now is the time to talk to your I.T. guy about your website’s ability to handle traffic surges.
Record Store Day’s statement: “2020 is different. So what we’re doing this year is going to be different too. No one knows what kind of party we’ll all be in the mood for, or able to hold safely, at any time this year, in any part of the world. So we’re focusing this year not on the party aspect of Record Store Day, but on getting the great releases on the RSD 2020 List into your local record store, and then into your collection.
RSD DROPS! Three street dates when titles from The List will be available only at participating indie record stores. We’re working on getting the new version of The List — with new RSD Drops dates — all nice and pretty for you. Look for that on the Record Store Day site on June 1.”
Further information: Record Store Day
