The Role of Record Stores in Supporting The Indie Artists
Record stores launched the careers of many of today's stars, we share the history.

To understand the role of record stores in supporting indie artists we have to first understand what a record store is.

According to Wikipedia, a record store is a retail outlet that sells recorded music. Today in the 21^st century, they sell DVDs, music CDs, Vinyl records, some of them even selling merchandise from solo artists and bands like posters etc.
Now, from this description alone we can get a small grasp of how they can be important for indie artists all around the world but in this article, we will dive a bit deeper to explore exactly how important they are.

Consignment Sales

One of the things record stores can do to support indie artists are consignment sales. What are consignment sales you might ask? Consignment sales are a trade agreement in which the consignor, in this case the artist, provides goods to the consignee, in this case the record store, to sell. However, the consignee has the right to return unsold goods back to the consigner.

In shorter terms, an indie artist can provide a record store with his CDs for the record store to sell. And if the CDs don’t sell out, the record store can just return the CD to the artist.

This type of deal can prove very helpful to the artist as he is promoting his music on a small scale, and he can receive unsold CDs if there are any. There also isn’t any promoting work for him to do upfront since the record store takes care of it all.

From the viewpoint of the record store, this isn’t a bad thing at all. The record store doesn’t have to pay for any unsold CDs, and they only pay the artist for the CDs they could sell, meaning it’s basically net profit for the record store and the artist if they can get enough publicity and sales.

The only negative point that is risky that I could find is that the record store won’t promote the artist upfront or go out of their way to promote the artist. However, since it is in their best interest to get as many CDs sold as possible then as an artist you shouldn’t worry too much. You can always get your unsold CDs back and strike a deal with a different record store.

In-Store Promotion

Some retail stores, although not often, play songs of an indie artist in the store to try and promote them indirectly. If you sell your CD to a record store, one of the employees hears it and thinks it’s fitting for the store they can put it on the speakers of the stores as background music for shoppers.

Some retail stores also offer putting up posters and flyers or doing displays for you. This type of promotion is extremely important if you want to grow your audience as an artist, and if you are nice to the employees, they might even be happy to put you as a priority above other artists in striking deals or can promote you for free out of the goodness of their heart.

In store promotion overall is a great part of an indie artist’s rise to fame, you always start small and move on to bigger things, it’s the same with promotion, promoting yourself on a small scale like record stores could be your first step to success as an artist as there were many before you who became successful with the help of record stores.

Vinyl Records

Although it is more expensive than a CD, a vinyl is a great way to expand your audience as it holds more value for the consumer. A Vinyl also makes for a better gift than a normal CD since it has an old-school feel, putting the user in the mood for music.

Aside from only material value, vinyl is considered as a cooler way to listen to music, as it becomes rarer and rarer with time. Nowadays, especially, where music streaming has become the norm, it feels as if owning and listening to music via vinyl is much more special, so much so that it can be looked at as a line drawn between average music listeners and veteran music enjoyers.

For Indie Artists, Vinyl seems to be growing more popular since a vinyl record can be cheap at first, but its price could easily proportionately increase with the fame of the artist, which means people would rush to buy vinyl records of an unknown or not so famous indie artist, and hope they get famous so that the Vinyl becomes more valuable to sell at a higher price later.

In-store Performances

A lot of indie record stores allow for gigs and performances to be made in their store. If someone is going on a tour or wants to try and get his name out starting with a small venue. For an up and coming indie artist like you, this could also be an opportunity to get your name out. Always remember, getting a small loyal fanbase is much better than getting a disloyal huge one.

For example, we can take Denzel Curry who makes underground rap music.
Denzel Curry does not have many hits, neither does his music get played on the radio often. However, since he has a loyal fanbase he gets as much sales and recognition as the biggest artists are getting.

Famous Independent Record Stores

There are many indie record stores that started from indie record labels. And now, these record stores try to help indie artists as much as they can. However, I can talk all I want but all will be for nothing if I don’t provide examples to back up my talk, right?

Which is why, I have researched and got three of the most famous indie record stores around the world for you to know about, and maybe if you’re close to the store, you can pay it a visit.

Armageddon Store

Based in the U.S (Providence, Rhode Island, and Cambridge, Massachusetts), it contains an online store, two record labels and two record stores. It offers a wide array of genres including indie rock.

1-2-3-4 Go! Records

Based in Oakland, California, 1-2-3-4 Go! Records is an independent label, record store and online shop that contains music of many genres with a strong interest for indie music.

Dischi Carù

In Lombardy, Italy, we have the record store Dischi Carù. This villa of a record store has piles of CDs and vinyl all over it. They promote independent music and hold free concerts in the courtyard.

If you want to check more record stores, maybe these links could help:
https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2014/sep/01/10-best-indie-record-shops-around-world-readers-tips

https://www.discogs.com/record-stores/

Iggy Pop

Now I know this is a bit random to just put a name out of nowhere, or maybe you know who this is. Iggy Pop is an artist you may also know as the vocalist of the band “The Stooges”. And he got a lot of his early music knowledge from a record store. Surprising, no? It does prove though that it is not that complex to get to a good point in your musical career, and it is entirely possible to get a boost or to start off just at a small local record store.

Now Iggy Pop in particular has worked in a record label for many years saying in a video this about the record store when he was an honorary ambassador for Record Store Day 2012: “I got my name, my musical education and my personality all from working at a record store during my tender years,”. By his words, we can say that a lot of his success if not most of it came from that record store. If someone as big and respected as him got all of this from a record store, anyone can, including indie artists!

Conclusion

To conclude this whole article in a couple simple words, record stores support indie artists with: Consignment sales, In-store performances, Vinyl records and in-store promotion.

And with a wide repertoire of record stores around the world you can find just by walking down the street, 3 of the most respectable are: 1-2-3-4 Go! Records, Armageddon Store and Dischi Carù.

On top of that, if it doesn’t sound believable, you can take Iggy Pop as an example, who learned so much from a record store he worked at.

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Record_shop

http://www.musicbizacademy.com/knab/articles/why_we_need_independent_record_stores.htm

https://indiepulsemusic.com/2021/01/15/why-is-vinyl-so-popular-among-indie-artists/

https://www.discogs.com/record-stores/

https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2014/sep/01/10-best-indie-record-shops-around-world-readers-tips

https://www.altpress.com/musicians-who-worked-in-record-stores/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iggy_Pop