Krieg’s Neill Jameson Also Hates Record Store Day

Lest you think I’m the only one grumpy about Record Store Day (see: Saturday’s Tweets), it seems the annual day of music industry self-flagellation has riled up a few others in the metal community as well.

First, Nails’ Todd Jones, who pointed out Friday that the great quantities of vinyl now put out for Record Store Day have resulted in severe production issues for everyone else trying to release records. Jones cited a two-month production window for the band’s 2013 release compared to five months for their upcoming album You Will Never Be One of Us. While it might be unfair to single out Record Store Day as the sole cause of that — the general demand for vinyl is way up overall (all year round), and as such releases by tons of record labels both big and small are now being shoehorned into the same number of manufacturing plants — he’s correct that RSD certainly isn’t helping matters.

The most common retort to the above — including the one leveled by our own Axl Rosenberg — is that while sure, it sucks bands need to wait longer to have their records pressed, Record Store Day is a boon to independent record stores. Which certainly makes sense: not only do fans flock to stores on RSD to buy the special, limited edition copies that are only available that day, but they spend money on other stuff too while they’re there. And, really, how bad of a problem is the increased production time? In the grand scheme of things, there are bigger problems.

But now Krieg’s Neill Jameson — who has made his opinions known on the Internet before — has debunked that argument in a column for Decibel, and as someone who has owned two record stores he oughtta know. His stance: 1) that many of the RSD releases don’t sell and end up in bargain bins shortly thereafter, 2) margins on the ones that do sell are insanely slim, and 3) any additional business from increased foot traffic is small and temporary anyway:

Saying Record Store Day is the only thing keeping brick and mortars open is grievously ignorant. Go into most indie stores over the next few weeks and tell me how many have a ton of unsold RSD titles not just from 2016 but years passed in bins with major mark downs. Not only that but the wholesale prices on this shit has become obscene, thus causing stores to either inflate the prices or sell at nearly no profit in order to not fuck their customers who come in the other 364 days of the year. The only real way RSD helps record stores is when people purchase other things that aren’t related to the “holiday” when they’re in the store, something that has low overhead costs for the store and helps refill the coffers. Otherwise, much like with the indie labels, it ties up money into product that after the initial frenzy is over a few days later. The store I worked at did the prior—something I had a very ethical problem doing. The one year I was out of town for RSD I received phone calls from customers asking why 7-inches were priced five times above cost. The answer was to match the online sales frenzy that fortunately places like Amazon and eBay have taken steps to reign in the last few years. Which only helps in the short term but business is like sex—if you cum too quick no one’s going to want to shop in you. I might have messed that up but you get the idea.

Jameson also argues that 4) the major labels have ruined Record Store Day by dominating its releases with uninteresting crap, 5) the major label releases are causing economic problems for independents whose cash is tied up in insanely long production times, 6) my own personal opinion, which is that the culture of fetishizing vinyl has become artificial and blown out of proportion:

The false sense of collectability has completely replaced the original good intentions. I highly doubt anyone even listens to half the shit they buy on this day but I’m sure someone in the comments section’s dick is already getting hard as they type a contrarian response. It’s taking advantage of fans devotion by sucking their wallets dry for shit they’re told is “essential”. It is essential—essentially garbage.

While I don’t necessarily agree that everything put out on RSD is “essentially garbage,” I do agree with the sentiment that the culture around it has become bigger than the thing itself. You could make the argument that that’s alright — that it still helps record stores, and the industry — but Jameson’s own experience seems to negate that right quick.

Let us know what you think about Record Store Day in the comments.