By Ian Sparks and Carson Waire

UM Journalism Students

National Record Store Day is almost here. While there are a variety of obscure holidays that the average person would never pay attention to, this one is a little different. 

Saturday, April 20, marks the 16th annual celebration for this day and The End of All Music record store on the Square in Oxford is participating. 

According to Dr. Jason Cain, an integrated marketing communications professor at Ole Miss, it’s an event that appeals to both new and old customers.

“It’s not only nostalgia from the standpoint of people who grew up with vinyl but also the way these ideas are packaged and sold that makes younger people want to discover these things,” Cain said. 

Despite the majority of music consumption occurring on digital platforms, vinyl has remained a mainstay in the industry. According to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), 41.3 million EPs/LPs were sold in the U.S. last year, up more than 45-fold compared to 2006 when the vinyl comeback began.

“There are some arguments about audio quality in vinyl versus other formats, which is my personal opinion and I can back this up,” Cain stated. “It’s not that vinyl has a more accurate sound reproduction it’s more that vinyl has a sound.”

Not only does this holiday bring awareness to the brick-and-mortar record stores across the country, it also provides these stores with the opportunities to receive and sell exclusive versions of records from their favorite artists. According to the Oxford music store’s website, customers will find records to buy from the Rolling Stones, John Lennon, and many others. 

Purchasing hard copies of music is a different experience, according to Cain.

“The case of streaming services or digital services, if they remove digital rights, you don’t own any of that anyway,” Cain said. “If you have your Spotify playlist and someone changes a contract then all that music goes away, so you actually own the physical media at that point it’s yours. So, I think there’s a collection aspect.” 

National Record Store Day began in 2008 when a group of independent record store owners banded together to spread awareness about their passion. Household names like Metallica, Dave Grohl, and Taylor Swift have all participated in the event.  However, according to Statista, vinyl is still far away from its glory days in the 1970s, when more than 300 million LPs and EPs would be sold in a single year.