VoxBox - Edinburgh record shop

The Record Store Day list is now out. Thankfully it’s only around 550 releases to get through. It was 650 vinyl releases two years ago and it cost VoxBox a small fortune to buy in copies of around 400 different titles. It’s safe to say that not all sold on the day… There is actually still a box of unsold LPs and singles in the shop. Some have gone up in value -hooray! And some are heading to the Backroom soon. -boo! In fact we’ll have a sale including them and various new records that we have a few too many of on Saturday 16th April.

The RSD list is ok. It’s overwhelming to begin with. But when you have a good look, there are a good amount of records that are already incredibly rare and have been out of print for too long- So they are very welcome. I’d have liked to see more contemporary artists with exclusive releases but that’s the way it goes. The 5 Seconds of Summer cassette tape in 2014 was my favourite release of the day as it created such excitement. The tape was gifted to shops by the label to give away free to fans that queued up and knew the password. The 16 year old female fans didn’t buy anything at all on the day but it was really good fun and generous of the (major) label.

The best RSD release 2014 ?

I’m keen to not have many unsold records this year so I’ll be ordering fewer copies of the bands that have a smaller fanbase. I’m also not going to order any records that I think are insanely overpriced or that are not particularly limited in terms of worldwide availability. Any records I think will quickly depreciate in value won’t be ordered in either. Most of the records are expensive for shops to buy in. So complaints should be addressed to the labels concerned rather than the shops or even RSD as an event.

Please get in touch soon if you have any specific wants. The shops only got the list yesterday at the same time as everyone else and there is only between 2 and 3 weeks for us to get our orders in. Obviously I’ll be asking for as many Bowie records we can get in but gauging the demand for the smaller bands is difficult. We can’t take pre-orders and can’t save you a copy of anything but I’ll order extra copies of smaller band releases if there is interest.

Remember that although the queue can be long, there are so many releases that a queue of 50 people can actually all be after different records.

Mainly, the day is a celebration of record shops and the added income helps pay the wages and for us, it’s also a platform and celebration of the local talent we have and our wonderful Street. Saying that, we’ll be using most of any profit from this RSD to help fund the shop’s own record label. There are 3 album release this year. Jargo At Night When The Wind Calms Down -out on RSD. The best guitar band in the UK’s debut album (seriously) around June – more announced soon. And Edinburgh’s Delta Mainline’s sublime second album towards the end of the year.

We’ll have an afternoon of free live music in nearby venues as usual, courtesy of some of the best established and up and coming bands from Edinburgh and further afield. The bands are paid by the shop and venue and normally have a new release to sell too that will certainly be worth checking out.

I should also mention that this particular Record Store Day is being celebrated by us as the VoxBox Music 5th birthday party. I’m ironing out a few details just now and there are a few council/licensing hoops to jump through but I think we will have the best celebration in the UK. We’ll all be smiling like Little Stevie Wonder.

Happy Birthday To Ya!

There is much fun to come.

Keep Saturday 16th April free.

Darren VoxBox

Here’s the RSD list. Let me know what you need.

Facebook and twitter are good ways of getting in touch.

https://www.facebook.com/VoxBoxMusic/

Twitter: @voxboxmusic