Visit Your Local Record Store on April 18

With the advent of digital media, many music retailers have been feeling the financial pinch as profit margins declined with the availability of MP3s.  Digital music offers listeners the ability to sample, purchase, and download their music without ever having to visit a music retailer.  As a result, many record stores have fallen to the wayside, and one of the biggest, Tower Records, succumbed to bankruptcy in October 2006. 

However, a number of record stores still exist and continue to serve a loyal customer base within a niche market.  Whether it involves purchasing rare or used vinyl records, cassette tapes, compact discs, or even videotapes and DVDs, some independent record stores have been able to thrive despite their diminishing market share due to new media.  George Doratt, aka DJ Shortstack, is a vinyl record enthusiast and disc jockey in Southern California.  “While the convenience and economics of MP3s make it an attractive option to djs, there is still no replacement for digging and finding that long lost record you’ve been searching for,” says Doratt.

On April 18th, record stores around the globe will be offering a number of promotional giveaways, hosting live performances by musical artists, and discounting inventory in honor of Record Store Day.  According to the site, Record Store Day., a record store qualifies as a “physical retailer whose product line consists of at least 50% music retail, whose company is not publicly traded and whose ownership is at least 70% located in the state of operation. (In other words, we’re dealing with real, live, physical, indie record stores—not online retailers or corporate behemoths).”

So for now, shut down the laptops and visit a local record store or two in honor of Record Store Day.  Not even iTunes can replace the feel of flipping through dusty titles of your favorite artists from the well known to the most obscure.