Overview
- The annual event, held Saturday, brought roughly 368–380 exclusive releases to nearly 3,000 independent stores worldwide.
- Fans camped overnight outside shops from San Francisco to Cardiff and Newcastle as high‑profile titles like Taylor Swift’s Elizabeth Taylor 7-inch and Slipknot’s Look Outside Your Window (limited to about 2,300 copies) moved fast.
- Stores sold on a first‑come basis with no preorders, and many received far fewer copies than ordered, which pushed buyers to line up early and accept that some sought‑after titles would sell out.
- Shoppers and shop owners reported resales at steep markups on platforms like Vinted, and some small retailers criticized bundled allocations that force them to take slower‑moving records to get in‑demand items.
- The crush of interest comes as vinyl logs a 19th straight year of U.S. growth past $1 billion in 2025, and independent retailers remain the top channel for LP purchases, reinforcing Record Store Day’s role in sustaining local music hubs.