On April 23, Record Store Day celebrates its 15th anniversary. Four days prior,vinyl enthusiasts and Metallica fans gathered in Los Angeles’ Clive Davis Theater on April 19 to learn about the history of Record Store Day and the GRAMMY-winning rock band's involvement in it.
The Celebrating Record Store Day panel featured Metallica’s Kirk Hammett and Robert Trujillo, RSD Co-Founder Michael Kurtz, and Rand Foster, owner of Fingerprints Music, a beloved Long Beach, Calif. record store. Guests also got details on Hammett's debut solo EP, Portals, dropping on this year's Record Store Day, and experienced a soul-stirring two-song performance from Nilüfer Yanya.
Read on for some of the learnings from the engaging conversation celebrating 15 years of RSD.
Metallica Has Supported RSD Since Day 1
Metallica has been involved with RSD since its first iteration in 2008, and has continued to support the event over the years with exclusive RSD releases and more. The iconic band spent hours with fans at Rasputin Records in Mountain View, Calif. to kick off RSD 2008 with a bang.
Eight years later, the Rock and Roll Hall of Famers played a special set of their '80s gems at Rasputin’s Berkeley location in 2016, when they served as the RSD Ambassadors. (This year’s Ambassador is Taylor Swift, who is RSD’s first global ambassador.)
Hammett said that the Berkley Rasputin was one of his favorite record stores as a kid. He recalled begging his mom to take him so he could browse the import section for the baddest metal and hard rock from Europe. He discovered Motorhead and other bands he'd go on to love — and that would inspire a lifetime in music — by asking one of the employees there for advice on what he should check out.
Few Believed In Vinyl When RSD Was Envisioned In 2007
Kurtz and fellow RSD Co-Founder Carrie Colliton began envisioning RSD back in 2007 — right after the iconic Tower Records had closed all their stores due to bankruptcy by the end of 2006 — to support local, independent record stores. This was the era of iTunes and Napster, when digital sales of music rose as physical album sales fell; 2007 saw a 9.5 percent drop in physical album sales (in all formats) over the year prior, with digital album sales totaling 10 percent of all album sales.
Interestingly, vinyl sales began to rise in 2007 as CD sales fell, with 2008 seeing sales spike to 1.88 million records — the most vinyl sales in any year since Nielsen began tracking them in 1991. Two thirds of the vinyl purchased in 2008 were from independent record stores, so clearly RSD made an impact right away.
As Kurtz explained, the business model for vinyl had been dismantled by that time, and the infrastructure was limited. Most stores they initially talked to said they needed to focus on CDs, and that centering RSD around vinyl didn't make sense.
Foster added that one of his employees suggested removing their vinyl rack to make more room for CDs, but it was important to him to keep the record in the record store. While they had held onto that vinyl for a while, after 2008 things began to shift and they began selling them.
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RSD Has Supported A Resurgence In Jazz Reissues & Jazz Vinyl Sales
Ahead of the first RSD, Kurtz reached out to Trujillo about jazz bassist Jaco Pastorius — Trujillo was working on a documentary about him, and Kurtz had rare Super-8 footage from a concert he attended when he was just 16. This was how their friendship began, and how Metallica became an important part of RSD. It also planted a seed for rare jazz releases and reissues to become a part of the annual event. Jaco would be released in 2014 as RSD's official film that year, with an RSD exclusive for the DVD and soundtrack in 2015 and 2016, respectively.
Kurtz shared that producer Zev Feldman, who manages Resonance Records, has successfully used RSD as a platform to increase interest in jazz vinyl. Since 2012, he and Resonance have issued special jazz releases for RSD, beginning with a Bill Evans live album, and it has led to a revived interest in jazz vinyl and unearthed jazz records. Foster affirmed that jazz records have sold better since it became a part of RSD.
A Conversation With Robert Trujillo Inspired Kirk Hammett's Debut Solo EP
In honor of their long relationship, the Metallica guitarist's first-ever solo release, Portals, drops on Record Store Day 2022, along with a special limited-edition ocean blue vinyl. An audience member asked Hammett if he'd release more solo music after this EP, and if he was planning on touring the project. Hammett explained that since it's filled with intricate instrumentation, he'd either have to tour with backing tapes or a very large band, and he hasn't figured out how'd he'd approach it yet.
“I didn’t plan on this [solo] album coming out, it just kind of happened," he added. "This is definitely a beginning and not an end."
He also explained that it was Trujillo that inspired him to make it, as he wasn't really planning on making a solo project. The pair had a long call at the beginning of the COVID-19 lockdown, which Trujillo ended by saying, “Be positive, be creative.” That really helped Hammett get through the pandemic and led to him creating the music for the EP. "This music is the soundtrack to the lives in your own heads.”
You Can Learn More About The History Of RSD In A New Book
To celebrate 15 years of RSD and its positive impact on vinyl, independent record stores, and musicians, music journalist Larry Jaffee wrote "RECORD STORE DAY: The Most Improbable Comeback of the 21st Century." Of course, there is a special RSD edition, only available at indie record stores. This version includes a vinyl compilation album of in-store performances from Brandi Carlile, Billie Eilish, Metallica and many more at Grimey's in Nashville, among other beloved record stores.
