Below are some things that Record Store Day requests that stores agree to do or not do in order to participate in Record Store Day or RSD Black Friday, including a spot on the list given to distributors for order purposes, and being called out to customers on the site as a Pledge Store. These are all things designed to keep customer and store disappointment at a minimum. Please read through them, and if you agree, please fill out the form and click Submit.  NOTE: THESE ALL APPLY TO RSD BLACK FRIDAY AS WELL AS RECORD STORE DAY


1. NO MIDNIGHT SALES / EARLIEST SELLING TIME
Product created for Record Store Day and RSD Black Friday will be sold in physical retail stores and we are asking that no stores hold midnight sales, nor begin selling RSD or RSD BF releases until 8 AM Eastern on the event date (If you are not in the Eastern time zone, use the equivalent time in your time zone: 7 AM Central, 6 AM Mountain, 5 AM Pacific). We have many reasons for this but the main one is your customers: no matter how much promotion you do, not all your customers are going to know about a midnight sale, and they’re going to show up and be none too thrilled if you’ve sold all your releases nine hours earlier.  Your customers will come to you when you open, there’s no need to push this to the middle of the night. There are also concerns about eBay sellers and your fellow stores, so we are asking that Pledge stores agree not to hold midnight sales and sell no RSD product before the time requested.  WE UNDERSTAND THE ISSUES SURROUNDING THIS AT SOME STORES ON RSD BLACK FRIDAY BUT WE HAVE TO ASK THAT THIS STILL BE ADHERED TO.


2. PRICE GOUGING
‘Store gouging’ or the impression of such is the most common complaint from customers, risks damaging the reputation of both RSD and of individual stores, and so we are asking Pledge stores to help us avoid this impression. We are defining ‘gouging’ as higher than 20 % over SLP, and we will provide you the SLP on the Official RSD Releases SPREADSHEET that we send you every Friday once the List for each event is publicly announced. This means your pricing should be no higher than the RSD SLP plus 20%.
Again, the SLP we use to determine Pledge violations is the one found on the RSD Spreadsheet we send to stores every Friday once the List is launched for each event.


3. ONLINE SALES IN ADVANCE OR ON THE EVENT DATE
Stores will not sell any title on the RSD or RSD BF LIST online, nor will orders be taken online for later shipping, prior to or occurring on that year’s actual Record Store Day or RSD Black Friday. Basically, this means you can not have any system set up where someone can place an RSD title in a ‘cart’ prior to, or on, Record Store Day or RSD Black Friday. You are free to use your websites and social media to promote what you’ll have in stores, and we encourage you to do so, but no one should be able to hold or purchase any items online. Your social media marketing should not imply or lead people to believe holds or pre-orders are happening. It goes without saying that nothing should be sold in store before STREET DATE, which in this case is Record Store Day or RSD Black Friday.


4. ONLINE SALES AFTER RSD OR RSD BLACK FRIDAY
Product remaining after Record Store Day or RSD Black Friday can be put up on a store’s website the day AFTER the event, (STARTING AT 8 AM ET ON THE SUNDAY FOLLOWING RECORD STORE DAY, and 8 AM ET ON THE SATURDAY FOLLOWING RSD BLACK FRIDAY) but stores will not hold product back from physical customers in order to post it online, nor will set prices online be markedly above in-store prices.

Regarding online sales:

*The 20% above SLP pricing structure is in place for online sales as well as in-store pricing.

*A store may use a website to sell product online ONLY IF THAT SITE IS BRANDED CLEARLY AS A STORE SITE AND IS USED AS AN ONLINE SALES TOOL THROUGHOUT THE YEAR. This means a site name should clearly match the store name, or an account (such as eBay or Discogs) should be in the name of the store. No personal sites or accounts can be used to sell RSD releases, and stores cannot create an account for the sole purpose of selling RSD releases.  

*STORES CAN NEVER SELL RSD OR RSD BLACK FRIDAY RELEASES VIA AN AUCTION SALE. This means that if you are using eBay, Whatnot or any other auction or raffle site, you must have a store-branded account, and you must use a Buy It Now price.


5. PRE-ORDERS, PAID OR OTHERWISE
Because of the limited quantity of some items and the necessity of allocating, stores are asked not to take any in-store pre-orders or holds for Record Store Day or RSD Black Friday product. In the past, this has resulted in customers not receiving items they have paid for.


6. PROACTIVELY DISCOURAGING FLIPPERS
One of the biggest complaints about Record Store Day is the eBay and Discogs flipping —and this is something we have no control over if it’s a customer placing something on eBay or Discogs, but we can be on the alert for these folks (If the first person in line buys all eight copies of one title—that’s a red flag.) While every store may go about it differently, we are asking that you Pledge to give some thought and planning to how your store is laid out, and how customers have access to the releases. Whether this is one per customer per title, or some other system, we want you to promise to think about how you CAN try to minimize flipping and work to make sure fans get the releases.


7. PROMOTIONAL TOOLS AND VALUE ADDS THROUGH THE YEAR
Throughout the year, RSD organizers work to put together promotions that are available to stores. These promotions often include physical music or other items, like pre-order vinyl, samplers, CD singles. By signing this Pledge you agree that when you choose to take part in these promotions, the tools will be used as laid out in the promotion, not sold online or in stores by themselves unless stipulated as part of the promotion.

By completing and submitting this form, you promise to educate ALL your staff on the RSD policies and Pledge points. If a store signs this Pledge, all employees must abide by it. It’s your responsibility to let them know what Record Store Day is, what the releases are, why they are special and what they can’t do with them (example: put them on Ebay or online, which may not be the case with your other, regular releases).


If you would like to be on the list of those stores who have agreed to play by the rules, please sign. When you do that, a P will automatically go on your listing on recordstoreday.com. Stores who violate the Pledge will be taken off the List and will no longer be listed on the Record Store Day website as a participating store. We have no choice but to take Pledge violations seriously.


SEE BELOW TO SEE WHICH STORES ARE LISTED UNDER YOUR LOG-IN. YOU WILL BE SIGNING THE PLEDGE FOR ALL THESE STORES. If this is correct, please continue. If not, or you have any questions, please contact orders@recordstoreday.com