Record Store Day
&
Black Friday
Record Store Day was conceived in 2007 at a gathering of independent record store owners and employees as a way to celebrate and spread the word about the unique culture surrounding nearly 1400 independently-owned record stores in the US and thousands of similar stores internationally. The first Record Store Day took place on April 19, 2008. Today, Record Store Day is celebrated at independently-owned brick-and-mortar record stores around the world.
This is a day for the people who make up the world of the record store—the staff, the customers, and the artists—to come together and celebrate the unique culture of a record store and the special role they play in their communities. Special vinyl and CD releases and various promotional products are made exclusively for the day. Festivities include performances, cook-outs, body painting, meet & greets with artists, parades, DJs spinning records, and on and on. In 2008 a small list of titles was released on Record Store Day and that list has grown to include artists and labels both large and small, in every genre and price point. For several years, 60% or more of the Record Store Day Official Release List came from independent labels and distributors. The list continues to include a wide range of artists, covering the diverse taste of record stores and their customers.
For more information regarding Record Store Day, and the organization and folks behind it all, visit their website at www.recordstoreday.com.
How We Handle Record Store Day
2026 & 2027
Record Store Day & RSD Black Friday
RSD BLACK FRIDAY
For the 2026 RSD Black Friday event, we are continuing on with the method of letting participants line up when they want to line up
and we are NOT employing the method of conducting a Virtual Line Drawing for placement in line.
We had considered doing a Virtual Line Drawing for this Black Friday event,
but we pretty much decided that we wanted to keep things simple and easier to manage.
And besides, RSD Black Friday and Record Store Day in April, are intended to be "different". And, they really are in a lot of ways.
So ... for this year's RSD Black Friday taking place on Friday, November 27, 2026, get here when you feel comfortable getting here.
The store will open at 8:00am and will stay open to at least 8pm later that night.
There may be some folks lining up the night before but who knows for sure how things will unfold.
Weather, for sure, can be a major factor.
Some Background & Thoughts
Prior to 2025, and for the most part, we conducted a Virtual Line Drawing for placement in a line
for entry into the April Record Store Day event. We tried it a few times for the RSD Black Friday event as well.
In those situations where we did not conduct a VLD for RSD Black Friday, we left it open for customers to form a line
when they felt like getting into line, whether it be beginning with the night, the day before, or early Friday morning.
We even did it that way for some of the very early years of Record Store Day for the April event.
That seemed to work out fine.
But as time went on, the RSD events were becoming more and more attended in terms of numbers,
it seemed to make sense that we conduct a more "formal" method of "lining up" to gain entry into the store.
At last we feel that way about the event that takes place in April, which is Record Store Day.
We do not feel that it's necessary for the RSD Black Friday event.
RECORD STORE DAY
For the "April 2027 RSD Event", entry will be determined by what we call our Virtual Line Drawing
in which those wanting to participate:
(1) Send an email to Kiss The Sky at stevewarrenfeltz@gmail.com;
(2) Put the letters RSD VLD in the email's subject line;
(3) Put your full name in the body of the email.
A return confirmation email is not sent, but ...
On the Sunday just prior to Record Store Day, we conduct a randomizer based drawing and assign each entrant a number
that will be their place in line. Entry into the store is conducted according to each person's assigned number and people are
allowed in at a time based on what the store can handle without people crawling all over each other.
The initial number typically has been about 15 to 25 people. As people do their thing and then leave, others are let in.
Things typically move along pretty fast and there's a constant flow of people entering and leaving and entering.
It's a good idea to get to the store no later than by 7:45am if you are in the Top 50 and by 8:30 if you are in the 50 to 100 group and so on.
However, there are factors that could impact how long it takes to go through the line and get to your position thereof, so a little earlier is
better than being late.
The results of the drawing for the April 2026 Record Store Day are posted here
on this Website as an example of what the final drawing can look like.
It's the PDF file located on this page right down below.
As a side note, we can tell you that we have placed an order that includes pretty much every title being released specifically for RSD Black Friday. The quantities ordered for each item vary of course. How many is dependent upon what we think our demand is going to be.
And what we end up getting is something that we won't know until the week of The Event, and is based upon how many of each item
is being produced versus what is being ordered by the 1,500 some odd record stores that are participating.
Some items DO get allocated due to the fact that demand is greater than supply.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
If there are any further questions, do not hesitate to stop in the store and ask or shoot us an email. I would stay away from
contacting us via Messenger. In Person and Email are the preferred methods of communicating regarding events such as
Record Store Day and RSD Black Friday.
*** Hope to see a bunch of ya here this RSD Black Friday ***