Numero Group Criticizes Record Store Day: “An Unwieldy Grip-and-Bitch Fest”

"Over the past decade we’ve had an on-again, off-again relationship with Record Store Day. What started off as a clever way to support independent shops during a physical and sonic recession has blown up into an unwieldy grip-and-bitch fest. Lines, fights, flippers, backed up pressing plants, stock shorts, stocking and pricing at 4am the morning of, and that inevitable mark down bin filled with all manner of wasted petroleum and bad ideas. If you’ve ever walked into a record store on the third Saturday in April you know the drag of which we speak. The only people who are really happy are the major record companies who continue to prop the whole charade up with overpriced singles and needless pic discs. The stores make their nut and keep the lights on for another year. Rinse and repeat.

It would be a lie to say that Numero has not benefited from this hysteria, as stores have generously brought in our left field wares with full knowledge that they wouldn’t be the must buy of the day. We’ve always strived to manufacture records that would find their audience well after the shop closed. WTNG was panned so hard upon issue, and for years copies sat sealed in RSD leftovers bins. Store owners called it our worst release ever, some returned them, and more than a few times— while trawling the used and cut-out bins looking to fill out our own collections and future compilations, bought heavily-discounted, still-sealed copies to later resell for subzero profit. But through the lens of time, the album has become a classic in the Sausalito-cum-Yacht school of mixes. Songs by Caroline Peyton, Greenflow, Timothy, Archie James Cavanaugh have soundtracked High Maintenance, Broad City, and Magic Mike. Whatever sweat was spilled by disgruntled shop owners over those unsold albums has been forgotten.

For the sake of argument, go ahead and count the number of classic records issued on Record Store Day. (We’ll Wait.) Are there more than a dozen? Unlikely, because at its core RSD is a marketing event designed to generate traffic by pushing manufactured rarities that scrape off the chaff from deluxe edition CD bonus material and flaunt their first-time-on-wax status while remaining no less unessential, not a day to celebrate the best this backwards industry has to offer. And that’s something we just can’t hang with. Record stores need customers that understand that every day is Record Store Day, and record labels need to create crackerjack titles that—in the words of Ahmet Ertegun, “move the listener to such an extent that he or she has to get up out of bed, walk ten blocks, borrow twenty dollars from a friend and run to an all-night shop to buy the record to hear it again.”

http://numerogroup.com/sendy/w/txRY...Ex763iy9sRJJjiM8ww/j2T763u6ZvFr892eBUZDWKZWDQ

 

Yawn. And I like Numero. And RSD.

 

Memo to Numero: Shouldn’t that be “gripe”? </pedanticness>

 

What is the “WTNG” release they mention?

 

Various - WTNG 89.9 FM: Solid Bronze

 

For lovers of all things soft, smooth, and creamy, WTNG was a delightful release. It did find its audience, with me at least.

You gotta love Numero. I recently grabbed three more of their comps on LP:

008 Wayfaring Strangers: Ladies from the Canyon
018 Wayfaring Strangers: Guitar Soli
072 Seafaring Strangers: Private Yacht

 

I simply have to post its groovy cover art:




Inner sleeve:

 

To be fair, I sort of see why The Numero Group is likely not a favorite label for record stores to stock. Its customer base is mostly other record collector geeks and diggers of discount bin goodies. This is not a large or mainstream base. Still, I hope that they "make it" and stay afloat as a label. We're lucky that they are around.

 

I've never been to RSD and likely never will. As stated in Numero's message, I "understand that every day is Record Store Day". However, in the age of digital instant gratification, their statement:

...is a simply not a realistic scenario.

 

I like Numero, I even have several of their RSD releases, some thanks to a friend in Chicago who went to their pop up shops, I agree with them RSD is a problem for small labels and also small shops come to that, the majors suck up most of the pressing capacity with rehasses of tired material on coloured vinyl or picture discs, small independent labels struggle to get their product pressed and in many cases end up missing the RSD deadline, whilst the majors suck up even more of record buyers cash. Shops have to find huge amounts of cash up front for one day, not knowing how what will actually arrive and how many of the copies they ordered will arrive, you want 10, so you order 25, to get 10, but you may only get 2, or 0, or even worse the full 25, no returns of unsold titles destined to clog the racks for another year or three keeping precious cash tied up. Queues of people, many of whom only visit record stores once a year for their annual flipfest, checking eBay on phones for what titles are hot and fetching big bucks, people at labels, shops and distributors leaking product onto the market before the deadline, genuine fans queuing pointlessly and forced to reluctanly buy the record they want on eBay at an even larger markup than the in store prices. Subpar product that wouldn't sell 100 copies on any other day, but give it some RSD hype and suckers will bite, yeah RSD has a lot of problems that the organisation doesn't seem to worried about fixing and Numero is far from the only label to raise concerns.

 

Numero is one of the best reissue labels going IMO.

I love their mail outs. Great sense of humour and they can be self deprecating at times as well.

They're right, RSD is a marketing event designed to generate traffic and I don't think there's really anything wrong with that (of course there are legit concerns about how it is run, etc). The point is not to have an RSD every day but to hope that it leads to RSD being every day for people. I think RSD has done a lot in terms of market growth in general. It's a big day, lots of press and IMO it has led to me people getting into records.

Numero and RSD have been at odds for sometime. I can't remember why it started though as Numero did have RSD items at one point IIRC. Can't remember the last time they were on the official RSD list.

 

I agree with Numero here. But it's mostly preaching to the converted. People will still go and buy the pointless manufactured overpriced insta-collectibles.

For me, RSD crashed on the rocks around the time that vinyl was starting to re-emerge as the dominant format for such insta-collectible stuff. But if it really generates more than cash for flippers, then good luck to everyone.

 

I have had really bad luck with Numero re. Pressing quality.
Don't think I have ever purchased anything from them that sounded good let alone great...
Every multi disc set has had at least one major pressing flaw and I have never received a perfectly flat Numero LP. Not once.

Reads like sour grapes to me.