Music

Ottawa shop dropped by Record Store Day after criticizing event

by Richard Howard

While limited edition releases and bonkers sales tend to be the focal points of Record Store Day (RSD), the associated fanfare and promotional events play a large part in the annual event as well. According to Darin Tomlin, owner of Ottawa based independent record store Vertigo, the organization behind RSD has revealed an “all or nothing” attitude to stores’ participation and booted him as a member due to plans to scale things down this year.

In a February 17th post on Vertigo Records’ Facebook page, Tomlin informed his patrons that he would not be officially celebrating Record Store Day for the first time since 2009. Instead, he explained Vertigo would be carrying a small amount of handpicked RSD releases and those specifically requested by patrons.

Tomlin outlined the “absurd” cost of the non-returnable merchandise, much of which ends up being unsold or sold at extreme discounts and claimed his store had lost money every year he had participated. He added that the small retailers take all the risk while the labels and distributors take on none, and expressed hope “the people at Record Store Day will consider a major overhaul on the process that is TRULY beneficial to the independent record stores,” at which point Vertigo Records would again “participate fully” in the process. Extensive construction and the partial closure of Ottawa’s Rideau Street where the store is located was also pointed to by Tomlin as a factor.

The shop owner did not have any direct contact with RSD on the issue, so was surprised to discover he had been removed from the official members list – and only through an email from a major label denying him a requested Record Store Day release. 

“We actually got an email from one of the major labels saying, ‘You’re not listed on the official members list on the site anymore, so we can’t solicit you these titles,’” Tomlin told the Ottawa Citizen. “And that’s pretty much how I found out.”

Tomlin insisted he would have no problem not being promoted as an official Record Store Day participant, but was upset about not being able to provide the RSD releases his customers did have interest in purchasing. “I’m still an independent store,” he pointed out, ” [and] that seems to be the only criteria in order to sell this material – [but] I guess because I badmouthed them, or said something negative about Record Store Day, then all of a sudden, I’m just not a part of it anymore.”

In his initial Facebook post, Tomlin had promised to hold a “huge sale” the weekend before Record Store Day. He still plans to hold the event, but now in protest to being blocked from carrying RSD merchandise he quipped that it would be called “The First Annual Bollocks to Record Store Day Sale.”