Hello, and welcome to Record Store Day! Your store listing on the recordstoreday.com website has been made live and is now visible to customers searching for stores near them.

Below are a few things that are important for participating stores to know. We are also doing group zoom calls to answer any questions you may have after reading this email, and WE HIGHLY ENCOURAGE YOU TO JOIN US. To do that, fill out the information below and then you'll receive a link to the zoom call closer to the date.

ZOOM CALLS WILL BE HELD ON TUESDAY 10/3 at 2 PM EDT, and MONDAY 10/9 at 5 PM EDT
If you'd like to join them, please fill out the information here: 

http://bit.ly/NEWRSDSTOREZOOMCALLS 


The most important thing to know is that the main mission of the small group of people who organize Record Store Day is to shine a spotlight on the independent record store, like yours. We do that all year long, and we’ll keep you posted on every promotion and other things that are available to you. Of course, we really go all out on one special day (usually) in April. On that day, we celebrate with you in any way you like—party, concert, sale, whatever you decide to set up, whatever works best for you, your customers and your community, we will help you promote it and shout out to the world that not only are you open, you are celebrating that fact. Every store celebrates Record Store Day however they like, and we are here to encourage and help you. *SEE LOWER IN THIS NOTE FOR INFORMATION ON RSD BLACK FRIDAY.


RECORD STORE DAY WEEKLY EMAIL
Record Store Day is a day, yes, but it’s also our little organization that works year-round to offer you exclusive promotions, releases, run our website, social media and press outreach and basically strive to shine the spotlight on the culture of the record store throughout the year. Emails such as this one are the ONLY way we have of getting information to the stores. We generally send one email a week, and while some weeks you may not find any of the information or offers relevant to your store, we ask you to do us a favor and read through every email anyway—in some cases there will be VERY important information for stores to know. The email address you are receiving this on is the email we have on file for your store, and this is where the emails will come. Please make sure you are checking this account, and that you have put ORDERS@RECORDSTOREDAY.COM on your list of approved senders.

The emails you get on Fridays will all be titles the same: RECORD STORE DAY NOTE TO US STORES XXXX  The XXXX will be the date. We recommend that you save these in a folder on your computer so you can reference them if you need to. IF YOU GO TWO WEEKS WITHOUT SEEING AN EMAIL, PLEASE CONTACT INFORMATION@RECORDSTOREDAY.COM 


YOUR LISTING -- THIS IS IMPORTANT! 
All the information on your listing is what you typed in when you submitted your application. Sometimes there are typos or errors or things you’d like to change, and that’s fine. Sometimes you forgot to include a logo, or a picture, or you thought of a better way to describe your store, or a better way to give directions. (Maybe you didn’t realize that the things you were writing were going to be seen by customers, and you wrote a note to us. This is the way to address that.) You can log in to your page at any time and change or update any information (WITH THE EXCEPTION OF YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS AND YOUR STORE NAME. If you need to change either of those, please contact us directly.) Instructions for logging in and doing that can be found here:www.recordstoreday.com/StoreInstructions. The login link is located on the right side of the black tool bar near the top of the www.recordstoreday.com.

We recommend that you go to the site now, and look at your page as a customer would. Is your address correct? (This is KEY as the address information is what allows our search engine to bring your store up when customers look for stores near them.) Is the page inviting? Does it tell customers what to expect when they get to you? Are you holding an event in your store, either on Record Store Day or any other day of the year? If so, you should add that to your page, because these events automatically populate the EVENTS SCROLL on the frontpage of the website. Consider it some free publicity. 

This is also the time to address your website and social media. Are the links you provided correct? When a customer clicks through to your Facebook page or website do they see something useful and updated? One of the things we do is constantly encourage people to find stores near them. When they do, if the first thing they see from you is a broken link or a page that hasn’t been updated in months, that’s kind of a turn-off. Take the time to make a good impression, because sometimes that first impression is of your online presence. ONE NOTE: We are very proud to have helped build a community around record stores, so please do not disparage other stores in your description. If we see descriptions that do that, we will take your entire listing down until it’s changed. 

If your links are ever not up to date, or your linked social media or website goes un-updated for two months or more, we will take your listing down from the RSD site.
WE RECOMMEND YOU CHECK IT REGULARLY.


OWNERSHIP BADGES
We cannot overstate the number of people who come to us looking for a store near them and the answers we give take them straight to your page. We now have another option for you to add there, if it applies to your store, and if you choose to do so.

We've created seven badges, which can be added to your listing--as many as apply-- to show specific ownership. You can do this yourself, by logging in and choosing which apply. (Instructions for logging in are here: recordstoreday.com/StoreInstructions) You do not need to fill anything out, or get permission from us, or apply to do this. Choose the ones that apply to your store.

I'm sure you understand the spirit in which we're offering these, and we're not going to overly monitor them, but please make sure that you are choosing the ones that apply to your store situation, truthfully. (Please don't misrepresent things--that will lead to conversations that we don't need or want to have.) Yes-- if there's more than one owner and a badge fits one but not all, of course it applies! There will certainly be stores who have more than one badge apply, and we've designed the programming so that more than one badge--even all seven--can go on your page. And of course, if these badges apply to your store but you make the decision not to use them--that is completely your decision to make. We're just letting you know that they are available.


                  




RECORD STORE DAY RELEASES (And RSD Black Friday as well) 
Ah yes, the shiny releases. While we never intended for these to be the sole focus of Record Store Day—and still don’t, our mission is to highlight the stores themselves, and we consider these releases just one aspect of that—there is no doubt that the special, limited edition releases created especially for Record Store Day or RSD Black Friday garner a lot of press and attention and bring the spotlight on to the stores. And some of you may have joined Record Store Day solely to gain access to them. (Just as some of you may not sell new releases and have no interest in starting now. WHICH IS FINE.) Below are some important things to know about Record Store Day releases:


THE PLEDGE 
In the past, we had complaints from stores and customers about stores who do not treat the release or the customers with respect—who gouge the customers, break street date or hold back product to sell online. In the world of social media, this has a very good chance of injuring the reputation of both Record Store Day and record stores as a whole, so we implemented THE PLEDGE, and the elements of it apply to Black Friday as well. This Pledge has a list of simple things we ask stores to agree to do or not do, and stores must sign it in order to be on the list we provide distributors and one-stops as APPROVED TO ORDER RSD PRODUCT. No store who is not on this list, even if they are on the recordstoreday.com website, will have their orders processed.

As an approved Record Store Day store, you have the right to read and sign The Pledge. THE DEADLINE FOR DOING SO IS FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 29 AT 10 PM EDT. THERE IS NO EXTENSION OF THIS DEADLINE.

Instructions for doing that are HERE: 

TO SIGN THE PLEDGE YOU NEED TO LOG IN TO YOUR STORE’S ACCOUNT ON WWW.RECORDSTOREDAY.COM The login button is in the top right of the site, and your store’s login is the email address you used to register with RSD, and the password is whatever you set it up to be. If you can’t recall your password you can use Password Recovery during the login process. When you log in, you should see something like the image below. 

PLEDGE BUTTON EXAMPLE WHEN LOGGED IN WITH PROPER EMAIL ADDRESS: 


  


Because we have to provide a final list of stores to the distributors and one-stops before their solicitation and allocation processes begin, we do have a hard and fast deadline for signing The Pledge. THAT DEADLINE IS FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 29 AT 10 PM EDT. IF YOUR PLEDGE HAS NOT BEEN SIGNED BY THAT DATE YOU WILL NOT BE ON THE LIST OF APPROVED STORES GIVEN TO DISTRIBUTORS. There will be another opportunity to sign the Pledge before Record Store Day 2024.

*RECORD STORE DAY DOES NOT SELL, GIVE OR DISTRIBUTE THESE RELEASES TO THE STORES
This is done the same way any other release gets into the stores the rest of the year—a store places an order with a distributor or one-stop, and that distributor sends releases to the store, and the store pays that distributor for the release. Our official distribution partners for RSD Black Friday will be announced, in emails like this one, later in the year.

WHICH TITLES YOU ORDER IS COMPLETELY UP TO YOU. You know your customers best. There is no requirement to bring in a certain number of titles, any title you don’t think will meet your customers’ needs doesn’t need to be brought in. Also, because the RSD releases are limited edition pieces, there are almost always titles that need to be allocated, which means not all stores will get the exact number of pieces they order. Know that when a title is allocated NO STORE gets its full allocation, and most distributors allocate on a percentage basis equally between the stores who order the piece, taking into consideration whether you are a once-a-year customer or year-round.

*THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN RECORD STORE DAY AND RSD BLACK FRIDAY 
While it can get confusing, and the wording that press and labels and bands use doesn’t always help, RSD Black Friday is NOT a second Record Store Day, nor is it RSD Jr. What it is, is a street date on which special releases are available exclusively at indie record stores. We were searching for a way to get indie stores involved in what is traditionally the biggest shopping day of the year in the US, but is also traditionally all about cheap, mass-produced goods. We want to remind customers that record stores are places to find special things—things to treasure, things that make excellent gifts—and that there’s no reason to not think of shopping locally, at a record store, for their holiday gift list. To that end, we strive to have a much smaller, more curated list of releases, specially created and some more expensive, since this is a gift-giving time of year. There are more details of RSD Black Friday on the FAQ we have posted on the site:www.recordstoreday.com/Page/1210



Again, welcome to Record Store Day. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to us at information@recordstoreday.com at any time.


REMEMBER: We are also doing some group zoom calls to answer any questions you may have after reading this email, and we HIGHLY ENCOURAGE YOU TO SIGN UP FOR ONE OF THESE. To do that, fill out the information below and then you'll receive a link to the zoom call closer to the date.


ZOOM CALLS WILL BE HELD ON TUESDAY 10/3 at 2 PM EDT, and MONDAY 10/9 at 5 PM EDT
If you'd like to join them, please fill out the information here: 

http://bit.ly/NEWRSDSTOREZOOMCALLS 




THIS PART WE’RE SERIOUS ABOUT: Please do not copy, forward or otherwise share the information contained in this email with anyone outside its intended recipients. This information is provided to help you keep up with promotions, products and internal workings of Record Store Day. If you no longer wish to receive this email or be part of Record Store Day, please let us know.