Mill Valley Music Sees Record Store Day Sales Surge

owner Gary Scheuenstuhl bailed out one lucky Phish fan last Saturday.

Having waited in line since 8 a.m. at Amoeba Music in San Francisco for a limited edition vinyl release of the jam band’s 1989 album Junta, a customer called him frantically and asked him if he had any more copies of it.

“Another customer had just decided to pass on my last one, so it was his lucky day,” Scheuenstuhl said.

It was a heck of a day for Scheuenstuhl as well, as the owner of the Miller Avenue music hub more than doubled his typical sales for a Saturday. The reason was Record Store Day, the 6-year-old annual celebration of independent record stores as a way to promote their importance in an era when digital and chain stores dominate sales of recorded music.

The event has grown exponentially in recent years, featuring a host of limited edition vinyl and CD releases, as well as in-store appearances by the likes of Bob Dylan, the Foo Fighters, Leonard Cohen, Jack White and Iggy Pop.

“It was a very good day.” Scheuenstuhl said. “Most of my customers got what they wanted and we had a great day of sales.”

Sales boomed at independent stores all over the county, according to Billboard.com, which reported that indie stores posted a 26.6 percent gain in album sales over the previous week and an 182.7 percent spike in vinyl album sales.

Co-founder/organizer of Record Store Day Michael Kurtz said in a statement that "with over 300 special releases, and over a million people who turned out to celebrate around the world, I'm excited, and a bit frightened, to say that Record Store Day was bigger than ever this year."

But as the hype around Record Store Day has grown each year, the number of big-name, limited edition releases has grown with it. That trend has a down side, Scheuenstuhl said.

Because of Record Store Day’s popularity and the limited number of copies the record labels release for it, prize items like Junta are hard to come by. For instance, Scheuenstuhl ordered 15 copies of a 12-inch vinyl release of the Grateful Dead’s “Dark Star” – a surefire seller in Mill Valley – but only received four copies. Those four sold within the first 5 minutes Scheuenstuhl opened his store on Saturday.

So despite a great sales day that brought in some new faces in addition to his regulars, Scheuenstuhl wasn’t completely thrilled by Record Store Day.

“I’m the kind of person that really wants my customers to get the stuff they’re looking for,” he said. “If people choose to come specifically to my shop for something and I can’t get them what they want, that’s frustrating,” he said. “But overall it was a good day.”