Record Store Day

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Record Runner on Jones

By Anthony Paradiso

On the 17th bi-annual Record Store Day on April 12, 2025, people came from far and wide to celebrate the indie record store and look for exclusive titles that had just been released. They stopped at Record Runner where there were lines stretching around the block when the store opened at 11 a.m.

These record-seekers included Alex, a Canadian immigrant who was looking for ”a very specific” and rare record for his friend. Alex, who lives in Hell’s Kitchen, said, “The Chvrches anniversary album—it’s going to be difficult to find, there’s only 2,500 copies. I don’t know how realistic it will be. I was at Rough Trade at Rockefeller Center earlier and there was a huge line. I went to a few others too.” Record Runner ended up having the Chvrches Every Open Eye 10th Anniversary Special Edition album and Alex left the store a happy camper.

John Pita, owner of Record Runner described what’s it like when there are certain rare titles that are in demand. “Every Record Store Day, there’s always one item, maybe two, that people keep walking in, asking ‘Do you have this?’ ”

This year there were six that were in the highest demand according to Pita: Wicked: The Soundtrack, Gracie Abrams’ Live from Radio City Music Hall, Post Malone’s Tribute to Nirvana, Taylor Swift’s Fortnight 7, John & Yoko, The Plastic Ono Band, Elephant’s Memory’s Power To The People – Live at the One-To-One Concert, New York City, 1972 and Charli XCX’s Number 1 Angel.

Pita also rattled off some of the most popular artists for this year including Classic Rock stuff, Beatles-related stuff, the Doors and older 80s stuff like Duran Duran. He also sold a lot of David Bowie, the Cure, Prince, and Talking Heads.

While it was smooth sailing when it came to selling David Bowie in 2025, Pita explained how difficult it has become for a small store like his to make sure they have enough of certain in-demand titles. “Two years ago I got 20 copies of a Taylor Swift title. So Record Store Day contacted me and said, ‘you have too many copies.’ I said, ‘what do you mean I have too many copies? Look, we’re known because Cornelia Street, where Taylor Swift used to live, is around the corner, so I’m gonna get a lot of Taylor Swift requests.’ They said, ‘we don’t care. So, we want you to send five copies here and five copies to this other store.’ I thought about it and said ‘look, I will do what you ask me to do but I want you to guarantee me that if I walk into Rough Trade, or Newbury Comics, or Amoeba that they’re only going to have five copies.’ And what did they do? They said to keep them because they allow the bigger stores to get as many copies as they want.”

Pita reminisced about the old days when how many of a certain title each store got was up to the distributor. “It never used to be like this. It used to be up to the distributor which I thought was always the best deal. Because, let’s say there’s a Madonna title, and the distributor knows this is a big Madonna store—we have tons of Madonna—so my distributor would give a little extra Madonna to John. This other store, called Generation, is more of a metal store, so they got a little extra of whatever metal title because that’s their preference. So, the distributor who deals with us every single day, knows us better but once Record Store Day got involved, things changed a little.”

Pita recalls Record Store Day starting slowly but quickly building into a monumental event. “I remember thinking you have Pizza Day and Ice Cream Day. I was like ‘Record Store Day, who’s going to care about that?’ And the first couple [of Record Store Days], people came in but I didn’t find it to be anything special. Then the third one, suddenly you saw people really excited about it. The thing about that time was there was a new U2 record that everybody wanted. I ordered a whole bunch and didn’t get any, so I had friends go buy the U2 record. From that point on, Record Store Day became bigger and bigger every year and then these last few years have been crazy.”

That U2 record was Wide Awake in Europe which was released on the Black Friday Record Store Day in November of 2010. Pita remembers ordering a lot of that record but not receiving any because they were in such high demand. Ever since then, Record Store Day has grown to become a big deal and thanks to independent record stores like Record Runner on Jones Street, it will continue to be for years to come.

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Village Revival Records on Bleecker

By Roger Paradiso

I went to see my friend Jamal at the Village Revival Records store. It was a miserably cold, wet day and I was afraid Record Store Day would be a wipe out. But when I turned the corner, I saw a line going around the block, leading up to Jamal’s store.

Record Store Day became a marketing tool to help record stores that were losing business to Spotify, iTunes, and other internet stores. RD, as it is called, occurs twice a year and big things happen on this day. Bands put out new vinyl releases, stores mark down vinyl and other collectible music, and musicians pop into stores to sign albums and speak to their fans. It is a unique way for merchants, bands, and fans to get together. It is, after, all a day to celebrate music.

Amanda, a smiling young lady standing on line said, “It’s the first RD in my life. I’m looking for Mark Bolan T Rex B Side, David Bowie Live, Bruce Springsteen, and the Killers Live in Europe.” I asked her when she started collecting vinyl because she looked like she came of age when CDs were the thing. “I started collecting vinyl when I was 12 or 13,” she said. “My grandmother had a record player and she played her old vinyl records. Now, I use my grandmother’s record player.”

Kai, another young lady braving the weather, came from Hoboken with a friend looking for a special record. She told me, “Gracie Abrams released a vinyl of her concert at Radio City. We went to the concert. It’s pretty sentimental. We’re both very big music lovers. One person we know has a record player and we go to his place to play our vinyl collection.“ I thanked Kai for coming out in the rain. And I wondered if anyone owned a record player or just borrowed them? That’s for another time.

I peeked into the store and saw Jamal with lots of people around him. I figured he would be swamped so I called him a few days later when things quieted down. He said he had been a little concerned about the bad weather but it was a great turnout.

Record Day is good PR for the store, Jamal told me, but he doesn’t make much money. “If I order 40 of each of the available 400 titles it could cost me $16,000–an average of 40 bucks each,” Jamal said. “I also have to promote the event and have extra workers and security. At the end of the day, I have a markup of about 5% for everything I sell after expenses.”

He went on to say, “The big sellers were Gracie Abrams 2 Color Vinyl. The teenagers love it. I sell it for 32 bucks. On eBay it sells for 250 bucks — but the distributors won’t let us sell it for that price. I can’t price gouge like others do because it is not right. Also, everyone wants Wicked. I only had two copies of my own so I gave them away. There were also lots of requests for Air, a UK band, as well as Pink Floyd’s Gilmour and Waters, Springsteen, and The Killers.”

Jamal wrapped up saying, “I’ve been doing Record Day since it started in 2008. I love it because the customers are happy and I enjoy speaking to them. It’s like a party for me and the customers and I buy the food and drink. It is not the small amount of money I make, it’s fun and I will do it again.”