RECORD STORE EVENT PULLS IN £1M

Independent U.K. music retailers pulled in more than £1m on Saturday’s #loverecordstores event, thanks to 83 limited edition new and reissued vinyl releases. More than 500,000 units were shipped to stores and retailers have reported that the vast majority of stock sold out within one hour of being made available online.

The aim of the event was to provide participating stores with a significant spike in customews and revenues in the absence of Record Store Day, which has been postponed until later this year. Alongside retail activity, online “instore” performances by a number of artists and exclusive DJs sets were broadcast throughout the day.

Music Venue Trust was also a beneficiary of the event with thousands of pounds raised for its #saveourvenues campaign from the sale of a range of specially commissioned T-shirts.

Jason Rackham, Managing Director of [PIAS] and one of the organizers behind the #loverecordstores campaign said: “We had really high hopes for our #loverecordstores event, but things exceeded even our most ambitious expectations. The feedback we’ve had from participating record stores has been phenomenal with reports of some doing a month’s business in less than an hour on Saturday.

"We always hoped this event would give record stores a boost and it’s definitely done that. We have been stunned by the generosity and commitment of artists and the wider music community, which was hugely enjoyed by music fans this weekend.”

Since the campaign launch in April, #LoveRecordStores became at one point the fifth most trending hashtag on TikTok and has to date received over 465m views. During the 24-hour event, click-through rates from socials increased by 70% with more than 635,000 impressions on Twitter and 375,000 on Instagram. Some of the artists who supported the social campaign included Bastille, Elton John, The Rolling Stones, Tom Walker, Paul Weller and Steve Wilson.