When Traverse City’s RPM Records first opened its doors in April 2010, both the business and the product it was selling were relative novelties. RPM is one of two Traverse City businesses that trades almost exclusively in vinyl LPs, and in 2010, vinyl sales in the United States accounted for just 2.8 million of the 326.2 million albums sold.

Fourteen years later, record stores are anything but a novelty. Last year, Americans purchased 49.61 million vinyl albums, up more than 14 percent from 2022. Pop star Taylor Swift alone moved nearly 3.5 million vinyl records in 2023, clearing 2010’s industry-wide total all by herself. The shift has turned once-niche shops like RPM into bustling businesses, and has built a whole new culture around a music format once left for dead.

Locally, that culture might reach its apex – so far, at least – this weekend. For one thing, Traverse City’s two vinyl shops – RPM, located on Hannah Avenue; and Eugene’s Record Co-op, situated in the basement below the Coin Slot downtown – are both gearing up for their biggest-ever celebrations of Record Store Day, the indie record shop holiday first conceived in 2007. For another, this weekend marks the release of two sure-to-be-massive vinyl releases: the latest from Swift, called The Tortured Poets Department; and Dark Matter, the new album from veteran rockers Pearl Jam.

“It’s our busiest day of the year,” says Riley McCutcheon, manager of RPM Records, when asked about Record Store Day. “Saturdays are always really busy anyway, but this day is 10 times busier than a normal Saturday. There will probably be a line of 50-100 people waiting to get in when we open. They start lining up at 4 or 5 in the morning, and then we’re packed all day.”

The popularity of Record Store Day, McCutcheon explains, is driven in large part by the annual list of RSD exclusives that can only be found at participating indie record stores. This year, RPM is getting its biggest-ever order of RSD exclusives to mark the occasion – as well as 25 copies of the new Swift record.

“[The RSD list] is a bunch of limited releases that come out just for that day, and once they’re gone, they’re gone,” McCutcheon says. “It might be reissues of things that are hard to find, or albums that have never been on vinyl before, or rare collectible color vinyl or picture disc versions. And people go wild for it.”

For years, the exclusive releases made Record Store Day something akin to a Black Friday shopping extravaganza, defined by early mornings, long lines, and intense competition for the biggest-ticket items. Those big-ticket items also tend to retain their glow long after Record Store Day is over. Last year, Swift dropped an RSD exclusive called Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions, which sold out nationwide; resale listings for the record on eBay now range from $300 to $1,400.

Exclusives remain a key aspect of Record Store Day’s identity, but as the culture around vinyl has become more expansive and inclusive, the holiday has morphed into an all-day festival-like celebration. For instance, when RPM Records opens at 9am Saturday, the shop will be giving out free coffee, donuts, and prize bags to its earliest and most dedicated customers. The rest of the day, a taco truck will be slinging food right out front, and the shop will be handing out souvenirs to all shoppers, from wristbands to buttons.

For Brian Chamberlain, the founder and owner of Eugene’s Record Co-op, that kind of communal, celebratory atmosphere is what vinyl is all about. It’s also the type of Record Store Day celebration that has eluded Eugene’s so far – first because of COVID-19 (the store opened in late 2019, shortly before the start of the pandemic) and then because of a series of shop relocations. “I just wasn’t able to put a lot of energy into [Record Store Day] in the past,” Chamberlain tells The Ticker.

This year, Chamberlain is hoping to make up for those missed years, with a big shipment of exclusive RSD titles hitting the shelves, free cookies, a Cuppa Joe coffee pop-up at the Coin Slot, live DJ sets from 3-7pm (Eugene's opens at 10am), and discounts/raffles for Interlochen Center for the Arts summer concerts. Interlochen is also partnering with RPM, where a “pop-up box office” will be offering “an exclusive 20 percent discount” on summer concert tickets from 9am to noon.

Beyond Record Store Day, Chamberlain has his mind set on bringing a different type of vinyl-centric event to Traverse City’s music landscape. On Thursday night this week, he planned to host the first-ever midnight release party at Eugene’s, to celebrate the arrival of the Swift and Pearl Jam albums. That event was ultimately cancelled, due to a later-than-anticipated delivery of the records in question. Going forward, though, Chamberlain vows to make midnight releases a regular cornerstone at Eugene’s, touting them as a way to build more community around music fandom and vinyl collecting in northern Michigan.

“It’s something I've been wanting to do for years,” Chamberlain says of the midnight release concept. Music fans, he notes, used to welcome new albums into the world that way on a regular basis. Records like the 1991 Guns N’ Roses twofer Use Your Illusion I & II prompted particularly famous late-night celebrations. With vinyl thriving again, Chamberlain wants to resurrect the tradition for those who used to love it and introduce the idea to a whole new generation.

“When I was growing up in North Carolina, we had stores that did that kind of thing regularly,” Chamberlain says. “It was really special, and you just don't have that experience anymore. I want to bring that back, because it just makes new music way more exciting than clicking play on Spotify.”