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Business News Retail
Record Store Day UK sales up again in 2014
By Andy Malt | Published on Wednesday 7 May 2014
This year’s Record Store Day has been deemed the most successful ever in the UK, with album sales up 30% on the previous year.
The biggest-selling album of the day was ‘Indie Cindy’ by Pixies, their first studio album since 1991’s ‘Trompe Le Monde’. Topping the single chart was David Bowie’s ‘Rock N Roll Suicide’ on seven-inch. Meanwhile, classic music shop Abergavenny Music, which diversified out of its usual genre for the day, noted that “the punk titles went like hotcakes”.
Commenting on the results, RSD UK spokesman Spencer Hickman said: “The statistics continue to show Record Store Day going from strength to strength, but the stats only tell part of the story. Record Store Day is ultimately about record store culture, the committed music fans who run indie record shops and the music fans who queue from early in the morning to get their hands on the music they love and enjoy this one-day celebration of music’s grassroots”.
He also noted that the exclusive releases on the day predominantly came from UK artists, which 49% from these shores compared to 40% from the US, and that indie labels were responsible for releasing 78% of the total haul.
“Major record companies and US repertoire may dominate much of the music industry”, said Hickman. “But Record Store Day is overwhelmingly about British music and music from independent labels”.
One complaint raised this year – most notably by Paul Weller, after fans struggled to find copies of his new single, ‘Brand New Toy’ – was the appearance of Record Store Day releases for sale on eBay after, during and (in some cases) before the event.
“With limited edition product, there will always be some people trying to cash in, and ultimately we cannot stop members of the public doing this”, admitted Hickman. “However store staff are vigilant and often refuse to sell to those clearly trying to flout the spirit of the day”.
Part of the problem with Weller’s single, he added, was that only 500 copies were pressed: “With nearly 250 stores participating in RSD this year, arguably two copies per store was just not enough. We will be talking to labels to help them better match supply to demand to thwart the eBay sellers while still retaining the exclusivity of the event”.
Anyway, there were lots of releases that people did manage to get hold of. Here are the top ten best selling albums of this year:
1 Pixies – Indie Cindy
2 Ray Parker Jr – Ghostbusters
3 Tame Impala – Live Versions
4 Adam & The Ants – Dirk Wears White Sox
5 The Pogues – Live With Joe Strummer
6 The Ramones – Meltdown With The Ramones
7 Green Day – Demolicious
8 The Sex Pistols – Never Mind The Bollocks (Alternative)
9 Gil Scott-Heron – Nothing New
10 T-Rex – Tanx
And the singles:
1 David Bowie – Rock N Roll Suicide
2 Oasis – Supersonic
3 Nirvana – Pennyroyal Tea
4 Bruce Springsteen – American Beauty
5 One Direction – Midnight Memories
6 Joy Division – An Ideal For Living
7 Jake Bugg – There’s A Beast And We All Feed It
8 The Stranglers – Peaches
9 The Specials – Sock It To Em JB
10 Damon Albarn – Hollow Ponds
