Today is Record Store Day.
It’s a marketing gimmick meant to get people to buy music at real stores instead of just downloading it from iTunes — in part by offering special releases on vinyl.
Vinyl is what hipsters call records, and some of them swear that despite the pops and skips and scratches that it sounds a lot better, a lot warmer, than CDs, and don’t get them started on how much better vinyl sounds than MP3s.
Record Store Day, then, isn’t meant for people like me.
I don’t have a record player. My taste in music is all over the board — I like everything from classic country to vintage soul to Sinatra and Thievery Corporation — but I don’t think my tastes are better than yours. I think CDs are better than vinyl, and while I can tell the difference between the sound of a CD and an MP3, I don’t think it matters.
I’m still a sucker for used record stores, but as soon as I get a CD, usually I rip it and treat the CD itself as a backup.
But I still like Record Store Day.
I like the idea of small businesses getting together and doing something to fight back against big chain stores and technology.
Too many people just lap up whatever pap is placed before them, so I like knowing that people still care about something, whether it’s vinyl records or the music that’s embedded on that vinyl.
So, Record Store Day isn’t for people like me. God bless it, anyway.
Todd Pack 