RECORD STORE DAY NOTE TO US RECORD STORES 5-27-16

IN THIS EMAIL

#SHELFNEIGHBORS
RSD CURATED RELEASES (HALL AND OATES and THE BYRDS) (DEADLINE TO VOTE TODAY)
BRAINZ PRE-ORDER PROMOTIONAL OPPORTUNITY (DEADLINE TO SIGN UP TODAY)
VINYL TUESDAY
VALUE ADD OPPORTUNITIES

#SHELFNEIGHBORS
One of the things we're going to be doing this summer is trying to get customers engaged on social media, sharing their record collections. We're going to be promoting the fact that owning physical formats of music is the way to go, and the music you own makes up your truly unique collection, a very personal extension of "you" since everyone's collection is different.  To do that, we're encouraging people to go through their collections (CD or Vinyl--we're format agnostic on this) and share the strange "neighbors" who live side by side in their collections. We're doing this across all social media formats, and encouraging people to use the #shelfneighbors hashtag so we can find them and follow along.  Feel free to do this as well, and tag your stores. We'll regram, retweet, etc. as we can.

And be sure to follow Record Store Day on social media as well, and feel free to use our posts for your own social media needs.

INSTAGRAM: @recordstoredayus (plain @recordstoreday is the UK organizers)
TWITTER: @recordstoreday
FACEBOOK: RecordStoreDay



RSD CURATED RELEASES: HALL AND OATES and THE BYRDS
In the past, we've worked with Sun Records for a series of records in which you guys acted as A&R, choosing the compilation tracks to be pressed and put out on Record Store Day. This year's SUN RECORDS VOL. 3 CURATED BY RECORD STORE DAY was in the Top Ten of releases sold on RSD.  We've also released a Doors compilation album that record stores curated.  Now, for Black Friday 2016, we are working to create two artist compilations that you will help curate, one for HALL AND OATES and one for THE BYRDS.

The tracks that are pre-cleared are listed on the voting pages, and you and all employees of your store are encouraged to hit the links below and vote for your five favorite tracks for each artist.

VOTE HERE FOR HALL AND OATES

VOTING ENDS 5/27  PLEASE DO NOT SHARE THIS LINK PUBLICLY. THIS IS ONLY FOR RECORD STORE EMPLOYEES
 


"BRAINZ" PRE-ORDER PROMOTIONAL OPPORTUNITY
"BRAINZ" is the code word we're using for a band in the electronic genre who have an album coming after a long hiatus. This will be a pretty exciting title for their fans, and this is an opportunity for you to have a physical single to give to customers who pre-order, starting just ten days after the release is announced. It's scheduled to be announced on 6/3 and on that date, we'll let you know who this is and you can begin promoting. Stores who sign up for this campaign will be given a 7” with one track from the new album and one track (an extended mix) that is NOT on the album, nor anywhere else, and that will be given to the customer when they pre-order the new album. Itunes and Amazon pre-orders come with instant downloads of album tracks, and this is the physical way to do that. The idea here, as with other pre-order campaigns, is not necessarily to have exclusive music from the album, b ut to give those fans who prefer to pre-order physical product and shop at their local record store the same opportunity.Stores who sign up for this must be able to properly execute apre-order for the FULL LENGTH ALBUM of this. That means you’ll follow whatever procedures you like to do the pre-order, but you have to be able to sell the release in advance to your customer and have the scan of the album show up on street date of 7/8.

"BRAINZ" PRE-ORDER CAMPAIGN
PRE-ORDER PIECE: vinyl 7” with two tracks
1. “Single” (album track)
2. “Extended Remix” (exclusive to this pre-order promotion)
ALBUM ANNOUNCEMENT MADE: 6/3
PRE-ORDER CAMPAIGN START DATE: 6/14
FULL LENGTH ALBUM TITLE: Provided on 6/3
FULL LENGTH ALBUM STREET DATE: 7/8
FULL LENGTH CD UPC: Provided on 6/3
FULL LENGTH LP UPC: Provided on 6/3

If you want to take part in this promotion, email ALL THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION (ALL OF IT PLEASE) to carrie@recordstoreday.com before Friday, MAY 27

NAME OF STORE:
# OF STORES PARTICIPATING:
NAME AND EMAIL OF STORE CONTACT:
ADDRESS WHERE TOOLS WILL BE SENT (include street address, city, state and zip):
DISTRIBUTOR OR ONE STOP FROM WHICH FULL LENGTH WILL BE PURCHASED (This is coming through UMG/CAROLINE):




Vinyl Tuesdays
VINYL TUESDAY

PLEASE LOOK AT THE UPDATED SPREADSHEET AND CONSIDER THOSE TITLES BEING RELEASED ON TUESDAYS. 

The link to the UPDATED VINYL TUESDAY SPREADSHEET IS BELOW. As a reminder, we’re asking you to give these Tuesday titles you choose to stock some love on social media. Use the hashtag #vinyltuesday so it’s easy for us to find them and show the labels who are helping us by releasing things on Tuesdays. Also, if you’re feeling lazy or time-deprived, feel free to share our social media posts and tweets about the titles.. 

ALL THE ART AND MORE TOOLS TO HELP YOU PROMOTE THE TITLES IS AVAILABLE HERE: www.recordstoreday.com/VTART

The whole simple idea behind VINYL TUESDAY: CREATING MID-WEEK STORE EXCITEMENT WITH TUESDAY RELEASES. We are working on releases and promotions for you to talk about on social media during the week, giving your customers reasons to visit you then as well as on the weekend. These might be the same sorts of promotions we do now, and they’ll continue to start on Tuesdays. This may be titles that are coming on vinyl a little bit later than their CD counterparts, and we’ll ask the labels to have those street on a Tuesday. This may be catalog titles being reissued—some of which will be exclusive to indies, some of which won’t be. There will be different things every week (and they may not all be VINYL (gasp!) but our goal is to continue to give you something to shout abo ut, reasons why physical media and your stores are the best, during the week as well as on the ever-more-crowded weekends. It’s a really simple princi ple, and will encompass a lot of things. 

DOWNLOAD THE VINYL TUESDAY RELEASE SCHEDULE HERE

1. We will update it every week with titles that we are cleared to announce. You may see announcements or solicitations before our weekly spreadsheet comes out. Please feel free to keep these spreadsheets as reference. You are going to need to know which titles are Tuesday titles. 

2. In most cases, because of shipping and distribution systems, the Vinyl Tuesday titles will arrive with the previous week’s Friday new releases. For example, 8/4 Tuesday releases will arrive with your 7/31 New Releases. You will need to make your staff aware that these titles are TUESDAY RELEASES. DO NOT SELL THEM EARLIER THAN THEIR RELEASE DATE. The spreadsheet is an easy way to keep track of these titles.THIS IS IMPORTANT: We are working hard to get labels and artists to embrace the idea of Tuesday releases, to continue to give you things to drive sales during the week. We are working with them and around obstacles like shipping restrictions. We are asking you to honor what we’re trying to do and HOLD THE TITLES UNTIL THEIR TUESDAY RELEASE DATE. This is very important and any progress we make could be for nothing if street dates are broken. 

3. There will be all kinds of releases coming on Tuesdays. We’re going to be very clear on the spreadsheets if a title is exclusive, if it’s exclusive for a few days, if it’s a special color variant, if it’s a reissue, if it’s something we haven’t thought of. The titles are grouped by street date on the spreadsheet, and every week there may be titles added to previous groupings, so make sure to check the spreadsheet carefully every week. 

4. When a label or artist agrees to release a title on Tuesday, ahead of the regular Friday release days, one of the reasons they’re doing it is the promotion that it will garner, the record store love. We ask the artists to promote that those are in your stores, and encourage their fans to go to visit you for them, so for those Vinyl Tuesday titles that work for your store, that you bring in, please use your social media to promote them. The last column on the spreadsheet indicates whether there is artwork for you to access on this internal page: www.recordstoreday.com/VTART When there are other tools to promote the titles, they’ll be found on that page too. 

If anyone has any questions about Vinyl Tuesday in general or the titles on the spreadsheet in particular, please feel free to ask.



VALUE ADD OPPORTUNITIES
On www.recordstoreday.com we regularly promote upcoming value adds that we have worked with various labels to create. The ones we promote on the site are indie exclusives, and are available to you through your coalition, your chain or with your order from Alliance. Alliance gets an allotment of these to send to all Record Store Day participating stores who order the albums they are associated with from them. Keep in mind, though, that the allotments are limited, and will go first come first serve.

Also, keep in mind that these value adds are created to be given out with the purchase of the accompanying full length release, so they will only be going to stores who are stocking the new release. If you're not a new release store, then this promotion isn't for you. On the site we are always careful to let people know that they should always check with their local store for availability. It is always your choice to stock any of the commercial or promotional pieces we promote on the site. Below are the street dates and titles we have added values for (as well as graphics to help you promote them, where we have those). If you are not already getting added values directly from your coalition or chain, you can contact your Alliance rep to place an order. If you don't have an Alliance rep, contact Ken.Glaser@aent.com and he can start the process for you.

The available items are below. AGAIN: If you are not a member of a coalition, you have access to these pieces when you place an order, first come first serve, with Alliance.
 

Volbeat - Papa Legba Litho Volbeat - King Of The Beast Litho Volbeat - Devil Boy Litho Volbeat - Boxer Litho
STREET DATE 6/4 VOLBEAT We'll have a set of four lithos for this value add. Each store gets each poster to hand out as a set.

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.