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Record Store Day 2025 Report: Swift Sales and Long Lines, But Weather and Economy Cloud Some Results

On Record Store Day 2025, releases by Taylor Swift and Gracie Abrams led to long lines and excitement, but bad weather dampened the day.

As Ilana Costa, who co-owns the 12-year old Vinyl Fantasy Records and Comic Books in Brooklyn with her husband Joe, puts it, “A mixture of the weather, the economy and the news about tariffs” impacted the sales at their store, which were down about one-third from the prior year. A few years back, Swift helped change the dynamic of Record Store Day, which used to be dominated by releases of legacy titles in colored vinyl that appealed to older, mainly male, customers. Like other merchants, Godfroy told Retail Track that the demand for the Oasis boxset and the double LP Wicked: The Soundtrack on green/pink glitter vinyl “was ridiculous.” But like most stores, Rough Trade only got one copy of each, and he wishes more were produced.

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