Record Store Day promotes music and local business

The 7th annual record store day is this Saturday and, along with Coachella heading into its second weekend, is turning the valley into a music lovers dream.
In 2007, one record store employee came up with the idea to celebrate music and local retailers through a record store day.
Now, 6 straight years of increased record sales later, Record Store Day is a world wide celebration.
Danny Wejbe visits the valley several times a year from Burbank and owns more than 4000 records. He tells us, “A lot of the record stores have kind of faded out you know so there’s not that many around. So it’s nice to see, you know, bringing the vinyl back, letting everybody know, hey, you know what, vinyl still sound just as good as it did before but now it’s better quality too.”
On every third saturday in april, stores bring collectors in with deals, memorabilia, and special edition releases.
Some big releases this year come from Bob Dylan, The Grateful Dead, The White Stripes, as well as Coachella participants Tame Impala, and The Red Hot Chili Peppers.
Not only are the records special edition, they’re generally all limited releases with less than a few thousand copies being released.
The day brings a big boost in business and with the second weekend of Coachella approaching, those collectors in town make local record stores their place to stop.
Elenia Austin works at Record Alley in Palm Desert, she says, “Not just that, but people that don’t want to compete like at Amoeba in Los Angeles or Fingerprints in Long Beach. It’s a smaller atmosphere here and it’s not as intense, there’s not lines around the block.”
Brad Benoit is visiting from Canada for Coachella. “Well we’re just killing time before the festival starts tomorrow so decided to check out the town and see what we could find,” he says.
Record Alley in Palm Desert is participating on Saturday, along with a pop up store at the Ace Hotel in Palm Springs.
Brad continues, “It’s cool because sometimes they’ll have little bands playing in the records stores too and stuff like that so it’s a cool opportunity to kind of get out there and like listen to new music and support the record industry.”
Support that continues to keep local record stores alive.
“Oh its just phenomenal, just in the last couple years alone. 2011 it spiked up 36 percent, another 12 percent last year and this year we’ve gotten the most we’ve ever had product wise.”
Limited edition releases are sure to go quickly, so you might want to stop by your local shop early in the day.