Taylor Swift releases new vinyl record for 2023 Record Store Day
Many artists celebrate the record store recognition day by releasing new vinyls, which are dominating music sales.
Taylor Swift is one of the many Hollywood artists to release a vinyl record in celebration of 2023 Record Store Day. Record sales have been so high as of late that musicians are leaning into the trend — Metallica even invested in their own vinyl record manufacturing infrastructure.
The annual event takes place in record stores across the world on Saturday April 22 with the purpose of honoring independent record sellers, with some record shops even offering live performances from renown artists.
Swift’s big vinyl release
Swift joins the likes of Elton John, Pearl Jam, and U2 in preparing for a special album release for the nostalgia-hungry among their fans.
The ‘Midnights’ singer is set to release 75,000 vinyl copies of the 17-track ‘Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions’, her Grammy-winning folklore album that was recorded in the early days of the covid-19 pandemic.
Swift and the other artists collaborating on the album never had a chance to play the music together in person until the album was finally recorded in September 2020. ‘Long Pond Studio Sessions’ features Aaron Dessner of The National, Jack Antonoff of the Bleachers, Justin Vernon of Bon Iver.
What’s the big deal about vinyl?
Record Store Day takes place every April with record stores opening their doors from when the sun comes up until late into the evening.
Though we now live in a digital age, vinyl records and CDs are currently selling better than digital downloads for the first time in 35 years, according to a March 2023 announcement from the Recording Industry Association of America.
The association highlighted that it is vinyl that chiefly leads the sales with a ratio of 41 million to 33 million, as the old school records are coming rapidly back into style. Revenues for vinyl records in 2022 rose 17% from the year before, at $1.2 billion.
“Music lovers clearly can’t get enough of the high-quality sound and tangible connection to artists vinyl delivers,” Mitch Glazier, RIAA Chairman and CEO said as per Medium publication.
Meanwhile, Jason Isbell and Amanda Shires, Record Store ambassadors, assert that buying records pave the way for a deeper relationship between artists and their fans.
“I feel like it involves people more in the process of listening to music and understanding just the overall creative statement that the artist is trying to make,” Isbell told Variety.