Major Labels do not have a monopoly at Record Store Day

Phil Barton, one of the team behind Record Store Day says that the major labels don’t have a monopoly over the event.

Since its inception in 2007 Record Store Day has always been about supporting your local independent retailer, but it’s also about offering a diverse range of music for the fans. “Anyone who has something to release, can release something on Record Store Day,” says Phil in an interview with BBCNewsbeat. “Just because you’re a major label doesn’t mean you have the monopoly on releasing good records.
“The aim is to make it a broad church, and if we get a broad church then we get a good happy shopping day. Sometimes there’s too many things for certain people. But if we all moaned about how many things there were, there wouldn’t be anything in the end so let’s celebrate the fact that there’s a really good diverse mix.”
For RSD 2017 this includes rare editions from The Beatles and Sex Pistols, a re-release of prog-rock outfit Coheed and Cambria’s Good Apollo IV, obscure drum and bass titles and mainstream acts like Little Mix.
“It brings in people who don’t normally come…to record stores. One Direction brought out something for Record Store Day [in 2014]. My staff were saying, ‘One Direction, we don’t want that’ – I was like, ‘No, we do want that. I’m a big fan of spreading the love and making sure people know what a record shop is all about.”