Record Store Day (RSD) was on April 18, and celebrated independent brick and mortar record stores around the world. The tradition itself first started on April 19, 2008. RSD brings people together to celebrate vinyl and vinyl culture. Thousands of limited records are pressed special for hundreds of different albums across a variety of genres.
RSD is one of the busier days for record stores around the world. At Triple Play Records on Main St in Grand Junction, the first 100 people got an exclusive poster made by Rhyan Montgomery while supplies lasted.
Triple Play had a live DJ out front. Charles “Chuck Jay” Walker performed that afternoon at 2:00 p.m. and the store booked a local food truck that served coffee and breakfast in the morning.
These intent was to build a community around record collecting. RSD connects people with independent record stores and other collector communities around vinyl. Matthew Cesario is general manager of Triple Play Records.
“My favorite thing about Record Store Day is that it’s a celebration of music and independent stores,” Cesario said. “It brings me joy seeing the excitement on people’s faces when they find [records] they’ve been looking for.”
Sean Rourke is the assistant manager of Paradise Found: Records and Music.
“I like the community and energy around record store day,” Rourke said. “It gets me excited to see people come together over records.”
The resurgence of vinyl records started in 2007 and peaked in 2020. This push to vinyl came in response to streaming and people’s desire for physical media.
“There’s something about vinyl that I prefer to digital music,” Cesario said. “All media sound different, whether that’s a cassette, CD or vinyl. I think vinyl sounds the richest. A part of that is the experience around vinyl. Being able to hold the sleeve, see who played on the record and for better or for worse, being able to smell the record gives me something that streaming doesn’t.”
This sentiment was shared by younger people at RSD downtown. Kaden Miller attended the event and like analog music more.
“I prefer records because it feels more personal,” Miller said. “You have to actually move the needle to it and flip the record. You interact with it a lot more than when you use a CD player or digital media.”
As the popularity of RSD continues to grow, more people may become interested in collecting physical media like vinyl records. This increases the traffic that independent record stores see and strengthens the community around a hobby that celebrates music.
