Record Store Day 2026.
There was some disagreement in the Vinyl Community leading up to this year’s RSD. Some felt it was the best list in many years, others felt in sucked. I myself found it to be about average for RSD, but my musical taste in not universal (whose is?).
When deciding what to buy, I have a number of considerations:
- How much I like the artist and or title of course.
- The price.
- Whether or not the LP is a Record Store Day Exclusive, or rather a Record Store Day "First" title, with a possible general release some time in the future (often with the general release being on black vinyl, the exclusive on alternative colors).
- How many copies were manufactured (with resulting FOMO!).
In past Record Store Days I have spent as much as around $400, but the list I made for this year was more modest: my "A" list came in at less than half that. My "B" list was comprised of somewhat marginal titles, prices I wasn’t willing to pay, or RSD First titles I can wait on.
Participating record stores are required to open at 8 AM, but at my usual shop (Music Millennium in Portland Oregon) people start lining up the night before, some with folding chairs, blankets, and even sleeping bags. I usually arrive at between 5 and 6 AM (with reading material and a flashlight), but this year was different. There was one album on the list I absolutely HAD to get: Iris DeMent’s The Way I Should.
The album was released on CD only in 1996, with a promo-only LP pressed for distribution to radio stations and record company sales reps (who give copies to the product buyers in record shops, for in-store play). I have one of the promo LPs in my collection.
The RSD website listed the album as an "RSD Limited Run/Regional Focus" release, with only 900 copies pressed. Uh oh. I emailed Yep Rock Records (a great label) to ask what was meant by regional, and was told that Music Millennium was shipped a very small number of copies, and the label had no plans for a general release of the album at a future date. Absolutely having to get myself a copy, I got to the shop at midnight. I was surprised to see a line already half-a-block long, with 39 people in it. Uh oh.
8 hours later I was entering the shop, taking my place in the line that snaked itself through the shop’s many aisles, from one end to the other. As I made my way down one row to the next, my hopes diminished. By the time I entered the very last row, I had resigned myself to having to look for a copy online. Then, in the last section of the display, there it was! And not just a copy or two, but about 10. Music Millennium places huge RSD orders, so gets preferential treatment by the RSD organizers.
Here’s what I bought:
- The Blasters (1200 LPs pressed). $28.
- Marshall Crenshaw (900). $27.
- The dB’s (1500). $30.
- Iris DeMent (900). $27.
- The Jayhawks (2500). $30.
- George Jones (2750). $28.
This morning I looked on the Music Millennium website to see if they had another copy of Iris’ album left, but nope, sold out. I decided to look for a second copy, and found one at a shop up by Seattle. There are only a few artists I would do that for (Buddy Miller is another).
The other titles I was interested in can be waited on, as a few were of the RSD First variety (the Mark Knopfler & Emmylou Harris album, Son Volt’s new album, and Weezer’s 1192). I didn’t feel like paying $45 for Little Feat’s debut, even with the bonus material (my original suffices).
So, how about you?
