Record Store Day 2024 Live Blog

Janelle Sheetz
3 min readApr 20, 2024

Good morning, and happy Record Store Day! To the veterans, godspeed — may you get everything on your wishlist. To the newbies, welcome, and have fun! May you also find everything on your wishlist, and if you don’t, well, it’s part of the experience.

Last year, I decided not to venture out — not much on the list appealed to me. But the year before, I thought it might be fun to do a liveblog.

The formatting is wonky — I’ll fix it when I’m home, not typing all this on a phone — and I sincerely hope it’s not pushing e-mails to subscribers with every update. If it does, my sincere apologies. But hey, given the infrequency of my posts, this may be the last you hear of me for a few weeks!

The Wishlist:

Bolded items are must-haves. Everything else would be nice but isn’t priority…or, as in the case of The Beatles releases, I expect it to be long gone by the time I get there. I’m only willing to show up so early.

  1. Any of The Beatles releases
  2. David Bowie
  3. The Cure
  4. Fleetwood Mac - Rumours
  5. Elton John — Caribou
  6. Keane
  7. Various Artists — Even More Dazed and Confused

The Plan:

First stop, caffeine and a light breakfast, then head to the first store, CD Warehouse in Greensburg. Although Pittsburgh is closer with far more participating stores, they also get more crowded earlier, and I figured out a few years ago that my chances are better in Greensburg.

6:00 a.m.: I’m used to my husband’s alarm for work, so my brain immediately snoozed mine. And then it went off again a few minutes later, and I remembered it’s Saturday and Record Store Day. So off to the shower.

When I get out, I find that my three-year-old has climbed in our bed, so it’s him, my husband, and the cats all asleep.

7:00 a.m.: Out the door. First stop: Starbucks.

8:00 a.m.: First stop. Line is out the door, but not too long.

8:05 a.m.: The guy in front of me has a “Ticket to Ride” ringtone. My chances of snagging any Beatles just went down.

8:20 a.m.: Made it inside! Someone ahead of me has bailed and left.

8:30 a.m.: An employee said the line started at 7:30…last night. Taylor Swift also released an album yesterday, and although it wasn’t an official RSD release, it did result in newbies calling and asking about how Record Store Day works, to which I say: welcome, Record Store Day younglings! Music is sacred to me, and I ddon’t believe in excluding or shaking people for their taste or getting in on it late, especially when the point of Record Store Day is to boost revenue for indie record stores.

8:40 a.m.: Another one bites the dust — someone else is leaving.

8:50 a.m.: The store has a dog on staff named Maverick. He’s the best. Now that the line isn’t out the door, he has been freed from being gated behind the counter and is roaming the store, greeting people in line.

9:00 a.m.: The man with the “Ticket to Ride” ringtone is accompanied by a woman with an “Any Man of Mine” ringtone. My thoughts:

9:10 a.m.: Matchbox 20’s “Push” is playing in the store. I will forever associate this song with Barbie and can’t take it seriously, but that’s fine.

9:40 a.m.: Success! I didn’t get everything I wanted, but I did really damn good: Bowie, Elton, The Cure, and Dazed and Confused. The only thing I really wanted and didn’t get was the Fleetwood Mac Rumours, and I’m kind of surprised — I thought the Bowie would be the harder one to get and the Fleetwood Mac would have a good number of copies. The store took down my info in case they’re able to get more copies in when the day is done, but in the meantime, in the spirit of the day, I’ve decided to go ahead and try my luck at another participating store. The day is young, anyway, and this is part of the fun.

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Janelle Sheetz

Writer about music, pop culture, life as a new parent, and more. Formerly of AXS and Inyourspeakers. For my latest: www.janellesheetz.com