record store day
The Doors will turn 60 next year — something drummer John Densmore says the kids who formed the legendary rock group in Los Angeles could never have imagined.
“When I was a kid, 60 years old seemed like, ‘Well, you’ll be dead any minute,’” Densmore tells Billboard with a laugh. “And here we are.”
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The group’s 60th anniversary celebration is upon us, too — starting next month with some key archival releases. Arriving Nov. 22 via Rhino’s High Fidelity audiophile vinyl series is The Doors 1967-1971, a limited edition (3,000 copies) six-LP set that houses the six studio albums the band released during late frontman Jim Morrison’s lifetime. A week later, for Record Store Black Friday, Rhino will release a four-disc remastered vinyl edition of Live in Detroit, taken from a May 8, 1970, concert at the city’s famed Cobo Arena. The 25-song set is the longest concert the Doors ever performed, according to band manager Jeff Jampol of JAM Inc.
Following those, in early 2025, will be Night Divides the Day, a 344-page book from Britain’s Genesis Publications that includes new interviews with Densmore and guitarist Robby Krieger, archival material from Morrison and the late keyboardist Ray Manzarek, commentary from other colleagues, friends and admirers, a treasure trove of photos, a foreword by Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic and an afterward by conductor and composer Gustavo Dudamel (a recent Billboard cover subject). The 2,000 numbered box sets will be signed by Krieger and Densmore and come with rare demo recordings of “Hello, I Love You” and “Moonlight Drive” on a 7-inch vinyl disc. It’s available for pre-order here.
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These are just the beginning of the Doors’ 60th festivities, according to Jampol. “Here we are 60 years later talking about them, and they’re just as relevant and the music is more relevant than ever, and the message,” Jampol, who also represents the Morrison estate, tells Billboard. “I want to preserve it because I think it’s relevant for new generations. We’re trying to do two things here. We want to do interesting things and fun things for Doors fans, who are great ’cause they’ve always been here with us and they’ll support whatever it is we’re doing, and they’re excellent passers-on of the baton. Then we also want to expose the Doors to people who are not as familiar…this group of potential new fans, which is thousands of times larger. So we’re trying to serve those two distinct fan bases.”
Jampol is confident that either constituency will be impressed by the remastered sound quality of the upcoming vinyl releases, while the book, he adds, is “a thing of beauty” that came in the wake of The Collected Works of Jim Morrison, another Genesis project that came out during 2021. “We started working on this three years ago,” Jampol says, promising that, “there’s some stuff in that book no one’s talked about, photos I’ve never seen.”
Densmore, meanwhile, was particularly flattered by Dudamel’s glowing assessment of the Doors’ creativity in his afterward.
“He talks about my rhythms and said, ‘Oh, a few hundred years down the road the Doors will be remembered like Beethoven and Mozart,’” Densmore says. “I’m like, ‘Holy sh-t! I feel a whole lot of helium rising up in my skull now.’”
Densmore himself has written a couple of books about the Doors — a memoir and another focused on his legal issues with Krieger and Manzarek after they began playing together again during the early 2000s — while Krieger has also published an autobiography. Both are clear about why interest remains so high in the Doors 52 years after its last album of original material.
“When you get right down to it, it’s the songs. We had great songs,” Krieger told Billboard a couple of years ago. “A lot of kids come up to me, like 10-year-old kids, ‘Yeah, I love the doors. You guys are amazing.’ I don’t think they even know about the Jim Morrison myths and all that as much as they love the music. And I think that’s what is gonna carry it for the next 50 years, or more.”
“I hoped we would last 10 years and pay the rent: ‘That’d be cool,’” Densmore says with a laugh. “I knew the ingredients were unique. It was a wonderful, blessed few years. And that we’re still talking about it? Come on, man!”
Other 60th anniversary plans for 2025 are still being finalized, including museum exhibitions and art installations and possibly additional archival releases. Densmore — who played with Krieger during February of 2016 in Los Angeles for a Stand Up to Cancer benefit on what would have been Manzarek’s 77th birthday — says he’d also like to see some sort of performance be part of the celebration.
“The Doors 60th at the Hollywood Bowl would be quite wonderful,” Densmore says of the venue where the group recorded and filmed a concert during July 1968 (and returned in 1972, after Morrison’s death in 1971). “Willie Nelson did his 90th birthday at the Bowl, so it’d be wonderful to have something like that — me and Robby would play a little bit here and there, and there’d hopefully be lots of wonderful artists that would show up for that. I’d love to see something like that happen.”
Vinyl releases from Noah Kahan, Olivia Rodrigo, Paramore, Pearl Jam and more were among the top-sellers from Record Store Day (RSD) 2024 in the United States, according to data tracking firm Luminate.
The annual independent record store celebration was held on April 20 this year and boasted a bevy of unique and limited-edition albums and singles (mostly vinyl pressings) created for the festivities. More than 350 titles were released for RSD 2024 at independent record stores across the United States.
Kahan does double-duty with both the top-selling RSD single and album, according to Luminate (see lists, below). The top-selling RSD-exclusive single was a joint effort from Kahan and Rodrigo: a two-song, 7-inch colored-vinyl. The single features Rodrigo’s cover of Kahan’s “Stick Season” and Kahan’s cover of Rodrigo’s “Lacy,” both recorded in the BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge. The top-selling RSD-exclusive album was a blue-colored vinyl pressing of Kahan’s 2021 sophomore album I Was/I Am.
The Nos. 2 to 5-biggest selling RSD-exclusive albums were: Paramore’s This Is Why / Re: This Is Why (double vinyl set, bone and ruby red-colored vinyl), Pearl Jam’s Dark Matter (on yellow and black ghostly-colored vinyl), Paramore’s Re: This Is Why (on ruby red-colored vinyl) and Talking Heads’ Live at WCOZ 77 (double vinyl). (Paramore was also the RSD 2024 Ambassador, following in the footsteps of such recent previous RSD Ambassadors as Jason Isbell and Amanda Shires (2023), Taylor Swift (2022), Fred Armisen (2021), Brandi Carlile (2020) and Pearl Jam (2019).
While most RSD 2024 titles had a fairly limited pressing — under 5,000 each — a few titles this year earned larger production runs (such as I Was/I Am and the Kahan/Rodrigo single, which each had a run of more than 30,000).
Top-Selling Record Store Day 2024 Exclusive Albums at Independent Record Stores in the U.S.Rank, Artist, Title1. Noah Kahan, I Was/I Am (blue-colored vinyl)2. Paramore, This Is Why / Re: This Is Why (Standard + Remix) (bone and ruby red-colored double vinyl)3. Pearl Jam, Dark Matter (yellow and black ghostly-colored vinyl)4. Paramore, Re: This Is Why (ruby red-colored vinyl)5. Talking Heads, Live at WCOZ 77 (double vinyl)6. The 1975, The 1975 Live at Gorilla (white-colored double vinyl)7. The Weeknd, Live at SoFi Stadium (triple vinyl)8. ATEEZ, The World EP.Fin: Will [X. Ver.] (clear or black-colored vinyl + 7-inch vinyl)9. Fleetwood Mac, Rumours (picture disc vinyl)10. David Bowie, Waiting in the Sky (Before the Starman Came to Earth) (vinyl)11. Wallows, Nothing Happens (5th Anniversary Edition) (aqua splatter and aqual with white splatter-colored double vinyl)12. Young Thug, Jeffery (vinyl)13. Team Sleep, Team Sleep (gold-colored double vinyl)14. Neil Young with Crazy Horse, Fuckin’ Up (clear-colored double vinyl)15. Ramones, The 1975 Sire Demos (vinyl)16. Gorillaz, Cracker Island (Deluxe Vinyl Version) (pink and magenta-colored double vinyl)17. The Replacements, Not Ready for Prime Time: Live at the Cabaret Metro, Chicago, IL, January 11, 1986 (double vinyl)18. Grateful Dead, Nightfall of Diamonds (180 gram four vinyl LP set)19. Soundtrack, Lost in Translation (Music From the Motion Picture Soundtrack [Deluxe Edition]) (double vinyl)20. The Cure, The Top (picture disc vinyl)21. Bill Evans, Everybody Digs Bill Evans (180 gram vinyl)22. Lil Uzi Vert, Luv Is Rage (vinyl)23. The Doors, Live at Konserthuset, Stockholm, September 20, 1968 (triple vinyl)24. Various Artists, South Park: The 25th Anniversary Concert (Towelie-Blue-colored triple vinyl)25. John Lennon, Mind Games EP (140 gram glow-in-the-dark-colored vinyl)Source: Luminate, for the week ending April 25, 2024
Top-Selling Record Store Day 2024 Exclusive Singles at Independent Record Stores in U.S.Rank, Artist, Title1. Olivia Rodrigo & Noah Kahan, Stick Season (Rodrigo) / Lacy (Kahan), Live from the BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge (7-inch colored vinyl)2. David Byrne & Paramore, Hard Times / Burning Down the House (12-inch vinyl)3. U2, Atomic City (Live at Sphere, Las Vegas) / Atomic City (Mike WiLL Made-It Remix) (10-inch transparent red-colored vinyl)4. 100 Gecs, Hey Big Man / Torture Me / Runaway (10-inch vinyl)5. Daft Punk, Something About Us / Veridis Quo / Voyager (Dominique Torti’s Wild Style Edit) (12-inch vinyl)6. The Beatles, She Loves You (3-inch vinyl)7. G.B.I., The Regulator (7-inch vinyl)8. Lil Peep, Star Shopping / Star Shopping (Live in London) / Star Shopping (Live in Belgium) (7-inch vinyl)9. Holly Humberstone/MUNA, Into Your Room (with MUNA) (7-inch vinyl)10. Chappell Roan, Pink Pony Club / Naked in Manhattan (7-inch baby pink-colored vinyl)Source: Luminate, for the week ending April 25, 2024
If it’s possible, Record Store Day was even bigger this year than last year, when Taylor Swift caused a traffic jam at record stores across the nation, according to some of the merchants Billboard’s Retail Track columnist visited this past Saturday (April 20).
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Retail Track
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This year, the Olivia Rodrigo “Stick Season”/Noah Kahan “Lacy” seven-inch was cited as the hottest seller by store managers and owners, but overall, a wider breadth of releases drove more traffic into stores, according to Rough Trade store manager George Flanagan.
Other big sellers — or records that the retailers wished they had more copies of — included Chappell Roan’s “Pink Pony Club” seven-inch; the Sparks/Noël double LP No. 1 Song in Heaven/Is There More to Life Than Dancing?; Talking Heads‘ Live at WCOZ double LP; Sabrina Carpenter’s “Feather” seven-inch; and a 12-inch featuring David Byrne‘s cover of “Hard Time” and Paramore‘s cover of “Burning Down The House.”
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This year, Swift issued The Tortured Poets Department on Friday, the day before Record Store Day (RSD), and it has so far sold an astounding 1.5 million records in its first three days of availability. But independent record store merchants say that while the album was a solid seller for the weekend, this album didn’t have the impact that Swift’s exclusive for last year’s RSD, Folklore: the Long Pond Studio Sessions. That’s because this year’s album was widely available at mass merchants, Amazon, and on her website, and at sale prices just a little bit above their wholesale cost. Nevertheless, retailers say they will always warmly welcome any new release by Swift.
Retail Track began the day at Darkside Records in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., where at 9:15 — 15 minutes after the store opened — there were some 250 people waiting in line for their turn to enter the store. Letting customers in 15 to 20 at a time, the line — which lasted until nearly 6:30 p.m. on Saturday — stretched around the 9,000-square-foot store and deep into the filled-to-capacity parking lot. The first person in line showed up at 8 p.m. Thursday (April 18), according to Darkside co-owner Justin Johnson, who added that when he showed up to open the store on Friday morning (April 19), a full day before Record Store Day kicked off, there were already four people queued up.
“It was absolutely an incredible turnout. Everyone was really cool and we had a great time,” Johnson told Billboard. “It was our best day ever and it blew away last year’s Record Store Day, which up to then had been our best day ever.”
What’s more, one woman drove 11 hours from Michigan to shop at Darkside because of how the store had handled the autographed Taylor Swift CD last year, she told Johnson. “[She] wanted to support us for treating the Swifties so fairly and combating the bots,” Johnson said. And she showed up early enough at the store to be No. 10 in line, he added.
After leaving Darkside, Retail Track drove over the Hudson River to Middletown, N.Y. to visit Rock Fantasy, a record store/pinball machine/video game arcade. Open since 1985, Rock Fantasy leans hard rock/metal, but owner Stephen Keeler said the Rodrigo/Kahan single was the day’s top seller. He added that about 30 customers were in line when he showed up to open the store. Moreover, he says the store celebrated Record Store Day/420 by staging two shows on successive nights at Quinnz Pinz, the local bowling alley where he promotes shows. The weekend kicked off with a Grateful Dead tribute band, Gratefully Yours, on Friday night; while on Saturday night, Kiss tribute band Psycho Circus performed. On the afternoon of Record Store Day, Rock Fantasy held a pinball tournament in the store.
Some of the 250 music fans waiting on line for their turn to shop Darkside Records—a store logo displayed about the tent structures.
Ed Christman
Rock Fantasy’s layout is long and narrow, almost like a railroad apartment with five or six rooms. Besides the records, tchotchkes and other music memorabilia it sells in the front two rooms, the store also houses 53 pinball machines and a few vintage video games. Customers can choose to play on machines featuring Led Zeppelin, Metallica, Kiss, Ted Nugent, AC/DC, the Beatles, Elton John, the Rolling Stones and Guns & Roses, as well as machines licensed from movies like Jaws, Pulp Fiction, Godzilla, OO7 and Jurassic Park.
Heading back to the other side of Hudson, Retail Track tried a little potluck with a store called The Vinyl Room in Beacon, N.Y. While it turned out to be more of a bar and restaurant than a record store, it was nevertheless a fun place to visit. The space had only two racks of vinyl, mainly used records, but the store’s interior design, which used records and other music memorabilia and ornamentation, more than made the trip worth it.
Across the street, at the local VFW Hall, was the Beacon Record & CD Fest, a swap meet with about a dozen vendors where Retail Track lucked out by scoring a copy of the Tommy James & The Shondells single “Gingerbread Man” on Roulette Records.
Staying on the same side of the Hudson, Retail Track next headed to Cold Springs, N.Y. and visited Half Moon Records at The Shoppes, an emporium-style setup with a number of different rooms and stores. Half Moon, which comprised the front two rooms of The Shoppes, was filled with records. One of the co-owners, Peter Hamboussi, said the store had just doubled the space devoted to records about a month ago; while co-owner Nicole Le Blanc said the store hopes to build its country music inventory. Like other merchants, Hamboussi said he wished he had received more copies of the Byrne and Paramore record, as well as the Cranberries. He said he usually does good business on Record Store Day later in the afternoon, as devout music buyers continue on their crawls.
Finally, Retail Track headed back to New York City to visit Rough Trade Records, which had a line of about 100 people when the store opened, including customer George West, who was first in line at about 5 p.m. on the Friday night prior. West is usually first in line every year at the store for the event, reported Rough Trade’s Flanagan, who added that by 8 p.m. on Friday, five people had queued up. The line lasted all day Saturday until about 5:30 p.m., when the store stopped regulating the in-flow. Nevertheless, when Retail Track showed up at around 6 p.m., the store was jam-packed and still doing brisk business.
Rough Trade and Rockefeller Center presented Indie Plaza in conjunction with Record Store Day, where eight bands and DJs entertained music fans, Rough Trade customers, and tourists from 1PM to 9PM. Pictured above is the Rough Trade booth, stocked with records and next to it is the artist merch booth selling wares from the bands. In the background, on the stage, Armand Hammer are working their way through their set.
Ed Christman
Another factor boosting traffic and sales at Rough Trade on Saturday was that it hosted Indie Plaza in Rockefeller Center, in the vast open space above the skating rink. During the day, DJs and bands alternated playing on a stage erected at the end of the plaza abutting 50th Street, keeping the crowd entertained until 9 p.m. Rough Trade set up a booth filled with music, while next to it was another booth with merch from the bands performing that day to sell to the fans enjoying the shows. Dave The Spazz, Sunrisa Disco, and Nancy Whang took turns helming the DJ booth in between sets by Cloud Nothings, Dehd, Armand Hammer, Glitterer, Sunny War, Corridor, Snõõper and Wishy.
“Last year, Record Store Day was our best day ever and it’s worth noting that Taylor Swift was a huge part of our business that day,” Flanagan said. “I was convinced we wouldn’t be able to top that, but we did; we were up by 5% to 10% more. I think one of the reasons why [2024 RSD] became the store’s best day ever is because there was something like 20% more titles out this year.”
For the last store visit of the day, the plan was to head back to home base of Astoria, Queens, to visit the semi-new Pancake Records on Steinway Street. But Retail Track ran out of gas (figuratively) and out of time (literally) — and the local bar with cold Pabst Blue Ribbon cans was beckoning.
Taylor Swift has given Swifties so many ways to interact and ingest her just-released 11th studio album, The Tortured Poets Department. There are multiple vinyl versions, that whole surprise second disc that came out after the LP dropped on Friday, as well as some track-by-track notes on the songs she recorded for Amazon Music. Explore […]
04/18/2024
This year’s event takes place April 20, and features releases from Olivia Rodrigo to The Beatles and beyond.
04/18/2024
The season of the sticks just keeps on giving. To celebrate this year’s Record Store Day, Noah Kahan and Olivia Rodrigo have announced a special vinyl package featuring both artists’ covers of each other’s songs — “Stick Season” and “Lacy,” respectively — on the BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge. The announcement comes five months after […]
Paramore has been named ambassador for Record Store Day 2024.
The trio of Hayley Williams, Taylor York and Zac Farro took to social media on Saturday (Feb. 10) to announce the exciting news and note that the group is now “freshly independent” and ready to “continue to have a long career in the music industry.”
“After a long career in the music industry we have decided to announce that… we are going to continue to have a long career in the music industry (sorry for any inconvenience),” Paramore wrote on Instagram. “Our first order of business as a freshly independent Paramore is to shine a light on independent record stores — a vital part of our journey from music obsessed school friends to professional music makers. With that being said, we are humbled to be your Ambassadors for Record Store Day 2024. The timing feels kismet.”
Earlier this year, Paramore game some fans a scare after unexpectedly pulling out of numerous live performances, wiping their website and social media accounts, and teasing their “next era.” As previously reported, the band’s 20-year contract with Atlantic Records expired in December 2023 with This Is Why, allowing the act to become a free agent.
The group added on Saturday, “The discovery of music was always meant to be romantic. Indie record shops are some of the only spaces we’ve got that offer a tangible, tactile experience of music discovery. In this world that feels more disconnected and hostile than ever, it feels important to remain in touch (literally) with what inspires us, empowers us, or simply brings us joy. Thankfully, for all our sakes, there still survives among the chaos, the purity and radical simplicity of a great record store.”
This year’s Record Store Day is scheduled for April 20. Past ambassadors have included Taylor Swift, St. Vincent, Metallica, Pearl Jam and Jack White, among others.
Paramore won their first two Grammys at this year’s ceremony on Feb. 4. The group took home best rock album and best alternative music performance for This Is Why and its title track, respectively.
“First off, infinite thanks to our fans, our team and the voting academy for making This Is Why such a moment for us, 20 years into our career. Our band won two Grammys last night, sitting together in Zac’s living room, dressed in our regular clothes (yes, we saw the empty red carpet meme),” the trio wrote on Instagram. “Turns out, our win for best rock album was a historic feat as we are the first female-fronted band to every take home a trophy for this category. Ridiculous yet true! It’s an honor for Paramore to be a small but constant reminder for people to keep pushing these rock and alternative spaces to be more inclusive.”
They added, “Some of you will know that This Is Why was our last album for our deal with Atlantic Records. To finish anything well is something to be proud of. Thank you to anyone who supported the ethos of Paramore as much as the music.”
Paramore released their sixth studio album, This Is Why, in February of last year, scoring their highest-charting album in nearly a decade with a No. 2 debut on the Billboard 200. The album was the band’s first since After Laughter was released in May 2017; it debuted and peaked at No. 6. The band’s last album to go higher was its self-titled 2013 release, which debuted at No. 1 on the April 27, 2013-dated list.
See Paramore’s Record Store Day 2024 announcement on Instagram below.
Record Store Day is just two months away, and on Monday (Feb. 5), superstars ATEEZ were announced as RSD’s first-ever K-pop Artist of the Year, Billboard can exclusively reveal. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news To celebrate, Record Store Day will feature an exclusive vinyl release of […]
Record Store Day’s Black Friday festivities on Nov. 24 yielded big gains for vinyl album sales in the U.S., thanks to hot-selling titles by the likes of Linkin Park, Olivia Rodrigo, The Doors, U2 and Post Malone – all released exclusively for the indie store holiday.
According to Luminate, in the tracking week ending Nov. 30, the top five-selling Record Store Day (RSD) Black Friday album release were Linkin Park’s Lost Demos (on translucent sea blue vinyl), Rodrigo’s four-song Guts: The Secret Tracks (on opaque deep purple vinyl), The Doors’ Live in Bakersfield, California, August 21, 1970 (on double vinyl), U2’s U2 Live: Under a Blood Red Sky (on red vinyl, naturally) and Post Malone’s The Diamond Collection (on clear double vinyl). (See lists below, which are ranked by album sales generated in the week ending Nov. 30.)
The Doors’ Live in Bakersfield set was released on both vinyl and as a two-CD set, and their combined sales across the two configurations make the album the RSD Black Friday top-seller overall for the week.
Typically, many unique and limited-edition titles – both albums and singles – are released for RSD Black Friday celebrations, exclusively sold through independent and small chain music stores. Record Store Day traditionally has its main indie store holiday in the springtime (2023’s edition was held on April 22), followed by a secondary shindig for Black Friday.
In the week ending Nov. 30, U.S. vinyl album sales industry-wide (across all sellers of music, not just indie stores and small chains) grew 67% to 1.748 million sold (up from 1.046 million sold the previous week). Independent store vinyl album sales for the week jumped 149% to 829,000 (up from 333,000 the previous week). 47.4% of all vinyl albums sold in the U.S. in the week ending Nov. 30 were purchased at independent and small chain music stores (829,000 of 1.748 million).
With 1.748 million vinyl albums sold industry-wide, that marks the fifth-largest week for vinyl album sales in the U.S. in the modern era, since Luminate began electronically tracking music sales in 1991. (It’s also the second-largest week of 2023 for vinyl album sales, following the week ending April 27, which captured Record Store Day 2023, with 1.809 million sold). The biggest week since 1991 for vinyl album sales was the week ending Dec. 22, 2022, when 2.232 million vinyl albums were sold.
Top-Selling Record Store Day Black Friday 2023 Exclusive Albums at Independent Record Stores in U.S. (By Configuration)Rank, Artist, Title1. Linkin Park, Lost Demos (translucent sea blue vinyl)2. Olivia Rodrigo, Guts: The Secret Tracks (opaque deep purple vinyl)3. The Doors, Live in Bakersfield, California, August 21, 1970 (double vinyl)4. U2, U2 Live: Under a Blood Red Sky (red vinyl)5. Post Malone, The Diamond Collection (clear double vinyl)6. Rilo Kiley, Under the Blacklight (translucent “blacklight” purple vinyl)7. Noah Kahan, Cape Elizabeth (color marbled vinyl)8. Grateful Dead, Filmore West 1969, March 2nd (five vinyl LP box set)9. Coheed and Cambria, Live at the Starland Ballroom (solar flare colored double vinyl)10. Gram Parsons and The Fallen Angels, The Last Roundup: Live From the Bijou Café in Philadelphia, 3/16/73 (double vinyl)11. Jerry Garcia & John Kahn, Pure Jerry: Marin Veterans Memorial Auditorium San Rafael, California – February, 28, 1986 (double vinyl)12. Joni Mitchell, Court and Spark: Demos (vinyl)13. CZARFACE, CZARtificial Intelligence (translucent Czarbury orange vinyl)14. The Beach Boys, The Beach Boys’ Christmas Album (green vinyl)15. My Morning Jacket, Happy Holiday! (clear vinyl with “white snow splatters”)16. Faces, Had Me a Real Good Time: Live at the BBC, In Session & In Concert 1971-1973 (vinyl)17. Nas, I Am… The Autobiography (double vinyl)18. The English Beat, I Just Can’t Stop It (double vinyl)19. Willie Nelson, Shotgun Willie (double vinyl)20. Bill Evans / Chuck Israels / Larry Bunker, Tales: Live in Copenhagen (1964) (vinyl)21. Various Artists, Jazz Dispensary: At the Movies (purple marble vinyl)22. Kim Petras, Problematique (apple red vinyl)23. Jonas Brothers, The Family Business (clear double vinyl)24. Soundtrack, Asteroid City (orange double vinyl)25. The Flaming Lips, Live at the Paradise Lounge (pink vinyl)
Top-Selling Record Store Day Black Friday 2023 Exclusive Singles at Independent Record Stores in U.S.Rank, Artist, Title1. Prince and The N.P.G, Gett Off (12-inch vinyl)2. Billy Strings featuring Willie Nelson, California Sober (green 12-inch vinyl)3. Turnstile x BADBADNOTGOOD, Mystery / Alien Love Call, featuring Blood Orange / Underwater Boi (12-inch vinyl)4. Motley Crue, Too Young to Fall In Love (Remix) / Knock em’ Dead Kid / Too Fast for Love (orange/black 12-inch vinyl)5. Cypress Hill, Insane In the Brain (2023 Remix) / Hits From the Bong (2023 Remix) (12-inch vinyl)6. Phoenix, Winter Solstice / Winter Solstice (Braxe+Falcon Remix) (7-inch vinyl)7. Aimee Mann, Dead Eyes / Dead Eyes (demo) (7-inch vinyl)8. Jeff Beck, Midnight Walker Lament, featuring Imelda May / Elegy for Dunkirk (Live), featuring Olivia Safe / Goin’ Down (Live) (12-inch vinyl)9. The Hold Steady, The Death of the Punchline / Radar & Leda (random color 12-inch)10. Waterboys, This Is the Sea (Fast) / The Passenger (10-inch vinyl)
Source: Luminate, for the week ending Nov. 30, 2023.
Agust D (an alias of BTS’ Suga) sees his solo debut studio effort D-Day bow at No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart (dated May 6), selling 122,000 copies in the United States in the week ending April 27, according to Luminate. That marks the fourth-largest sales week for an album in 2023.
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D-Day is the first leader for Agust D, and he’s the second member of BTS to achieve a No. 1 on Top Album Sales. He follows Jimin, who bowed at No. 1 earlier this year with FACE (April 8-dated chart). BTS itself has notched six No. 1s on Top Albums Sales, most recently with the retrospective collection Proof in 2022.
Like many K-pop releases, the CD edition of D-Day was issued in collectible CD packages (seven total, including exclusives for Target, Walmart and the Weverse webstore) each containing a standard set of items and randomized elements (in this case, photo cards). It was also available as a standard digital download album, as well as three alternative cover digital download variants that were sold exclusively through the artist’s official webstore. Of D-Day’s first-week sales, 90% were CDs, while the remaining 10% were digital album downloads. The set was not available in any other retail format (such as vinyl or cassette).
Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart ranks the top-selling albums of the week based only on traditional album sales. The chart’s history dates back to May 25, 1991, the first week Billboard began tabulating charts with electronically monitored piece count information from SoundScan, now Luminate. Pure album sales were the sole measurement utilized by the Billboard 200 albums chart through the list dated Dec. 6, 2014, after which that chart switched to a methodology that blends album sales with track equivalent album units and streaming equivalent album units. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram.
Taylor Swift’s Record Store Day-exclusive vinyl release Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions launches at No. 3 on Top Album Sales with 75,000 sold – all from sales of its vinyl LP. It’s the single-largest sales week for an album on vinyl in 2023. It’s the 15th top 10 for Swift on Top Album Sales.
The live acoustic album, which was previously available only as bonus tracks on a deluxe digital and streaming edition of her Folklore studio album (released in 2020), was issued on vinyl LP (its first physical release of any kind) for Record Store Day (RSD) (April 22) at participating independent record stores. It was previously announced that Long Pond’s production run for Record Store Day would be 75,000 copies in the United States, and the set sold out instantly. It’s typical for many albums and singles to garner unique and limited edition runs exclusively for the annual independent record store day celebration.
Typically, high-profile Record Store Day-exclusive titles might have a production run of 10,000-to-20,000 in the United States. For Record Store Day 2022, there were 10 titles that had pressings ranging from 10,000 to 18,000, but nothing larger. For Record Store Day 2023, Swift’s Long Pond title had by far the largest production run of any RSD title. Pearl Jam’s live concert album Give Way had the second-biggest production run, with 15,500 vinyl LPs pressed.
Metallica’s former leader 72 Seasons falls 1-3 in its second week on Top Album Sales with 25,000 sold (down 81%).
Pearl Jam’s Give Way starts at No. 4 with 22,000 copies sold – representing vinyl, CD and digital download sales combined. The set made its retail debut on both vinyl LP (one set available at indie retailers and one sold through the band’s fan club) and CD (exclusive to indie stores), as well as a digital download. The album was recorded in 1998 during the group’s Yield Tour. Give Way is the 17th top 10 effort on Top Album Sales for Pearl Jam.
Swift has a second title in the top 10, as her chart-topping Midnights dips 4-5 with a little over 15,000 sold (up 20%). Melanie Martinez’s former No. 1 Portals falls 3-6 with 14,000 (up 5%), Lana Del Rey’s Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd. is a non-mover at No. 7 with 11,000 sold (up 25%) and Boygenius’ The Record climbs 13-8 with 10,000 (up 47%).
Coming in at No. 9 is a re-entry from The Cure with its live album Show, and Stevie Nicks debuts at No. 10 with Bella Donna: Live 1981.
Show’s sales (just over 10,000) are driven almost entirely from a new picture disc vinyl release of the album for Record Store Day. The set was originally released widely in 1993 and initially peaked at No. 42. Show was recorded during The Cure’s 1992 Wish album tour.
For Nicks, Bella Donna: Live 1981 made its debut as stand-alone album for Record Store Day, and only on vinyl. It sold 10,000 copies. Its tracks were originally commercially released on an album as part of a deluxe edition of Nicks’ 1981 studio album Bella Donna, released in 2016. The Bella Donna: Live 1981 album was recorded during Nicks’ White Winged Dove Tour on Dec. 13, 1981.
In the week ending April 27, there were 2.927 million albums sold in the U.S. (up 44.4% compared to the previous week). Of that sum, physical albums (CDs, vinyl LPs, cassettes, etc.) comprised 2.583 million (up 54.3%) and digital albums comprised 339,000 (down 2.8%).
There were 760,000 CD albums sold in the week ending April 27 (up 9.6% week-over-week) and 1.809 vinyl albums sold (up 87.5%). Year-to-date CD album sales stand at 11.224 million (up 4.9% compared to the same time frame a year ago) and year-to-date vinyl album sales total 16.296 million (up 28.7%).
Overall year-to-date album sales total 33.707 million (up 10.9% compared to the same year-to-date time frame a year ago). Year-to-date physical album sales stand at 27.699 million (up 17.8%) and digital album sales total 6.009 million (down 12.5%).