Episode 60 - Record Store Real Talk with Amanda Schutzman - The Women in Vinyl Podcast

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to the Women in Vinyl Podcast with Jen Dugenio,
founder of Women in Vinyl, and contributor Robin Raymond. This
podcast facilitates conversations with those working in the vinyl record
industry to educate, demystify, and diversify the vinyl community.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
Thank you for joining us on episode sixty of the
Women in Vinyl Podcast. Today, we're joined by everyone's favorite
record dealer, Amanda Shootsman. Amanda literally grew up in a
record store and is now the co organizer of the
Vinyl Revolution Record Show.

Speaker 3 (00:39):
She's a former.

Speaker 2 (00:40):
Board member of Women in Vinyl and an account rep
with all media supply. With Record Store Day just around
the corner, Amanda shares her expert insights on the most
anticipated titles, pricing strategies, how to navigate the post RSD,
flipping frenzy, and what she's been up to cataloging all
the record stores across the country and in a city
near you. This conversation is packed with valuable tips for

(01:03):
collectors and stores alike. We hope you enjoy. Be sure
to like, subscribe and leave us some comments below. Also
check out our resources our women Owned Record Store List
to support not only your local record store, but a
women owned one near you. We'll also leave information in
the show notes about Amanda's wonderful website with all of

(01:23):
the record store maps in your area.

Speaker 3 (01:26):
Enjoy Amanda's back. It's Aman Okay.

Speaker 4 (01:31):
Do you call you Amanda Schutsman?

Speaker 3 (01:33):
Still you didn't change your name, did you?

Speaker 4 (01:35):
I am I'm hyphenated now, I'm.

Speaker 3 (01:39):
Multi hyphen it. She's a multi hyphen and she does
it all.

Speaker 4 (01:42):
I mean, but my last name with my face is
still so confusing to people that adding Murray to it
is just like no, no, no, no, you're know what No?
So I just I just stay with Schutsman. Yeah, I'll
not make it harder for people.

Speaker 2 (02:02):
True, we know who you are, and like, yeah, listening
knows who you are. But maybe you could tell people
if this is their first episode, who are you?

Speaker 4 (02:12):
This is our first episode?

Speaker 3 (02:13):
So you get here, who are you?

Speaker 4 (02:15):
Better? Start catching up? So I am a man, susman.
I've worked at record stores most of my life. My
father owned a store in the eighties and nineties to
about two thousand and eight, which coincidentally was literally the
first record store day ever we closed. Then I went
on to being the manager. I was the buyer at

(02:35):
a store. I've just been doing everything and now I'm
on the wholesale side, and i work for a one
stop distributor, second largest in the US, which is the
way I like it. Don't want to be number one,
never want to be number one.

Speaker 3 (02:48):
I like being number one.

Speaker 4 (02:50):
So yeah, I am a sales rep for about two
hundred stores and I love it.

Speaker 3 (02:55):
And you do it so well, Yeah, I try, you do. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (03:00):
I like the little guys, though, if you're a big account,
don't give them to me.

Speaker 2 (03:04):
I like the little guys. I like the ones that
just slide under the rug. Well, and we're recording this
ahead of Record Sturday. We're actually going to drop the
episode just a little early in time for RSD because
it's two weeks early this year.

Speaker 4 (03:19):
It is very early this year. Yeah, so it's the twelfth,
and it's usually around the twentieth. So they have forced
us right out of Black Friday into another record store
Day like it never even happened. But I'm excited. The
list looks great this year. H stores seem to be excited.
Customers are excited, so happy to get right back into it.

Speaker 3 (03:41):
That's awesome.

Speaker 4 (03:42):
I love that. What are some maybe it's maybe it's.

Speaker 3 (03:45):
Different on your side of the border, but I'm not
that excited about it this year.

Speaker 4 (03:51):
I think the list is it's good. I mean usually
I'm a lot more excited, but I'm just boring old
Amanda who listens to Judas Priests every year, you know,
year after year after year. So the the Live eighty
two this year is really exciting because it's the Screaming
for Vengeance tour. The cover's terrible, don't know if you've
seen it.

Speaker 3 (04:10):
Not nice, but.

Speaker 4 (04:13):
Uh, it's a lot of pop stuff I've noticed, like
the Gracie Abrams, real big hit with people. Shouldn't be
that hard to find. I did list like maybe five
or so titles that I wanted to mention that We're like,
they're gonna be harder to find, they're gonna be easier
to find, They're gonna be really limited. So I did

(04:33):
make notes on all that. Yeah, which is great.

Speaker 3 (04:36):
I mean, hot tips, shopping list, we love it.

Speaker 2 (04:38):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (04:40):
I was scanning the list, now we'll put it in
the show notes.

Speaker 2 (04:42):
I was like, I know there's got to be a motorhead,
and I know there's got to be a cure, so
let's yeah, see.

Speaker 4 (04:47):
The same old Cure picture disc that you've been waiting
for for that. Yeah, George Harrison, So well your last
episode with Zoetrope Guy super Crude loved it.

Speaker 2 (05:00):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (05:01):
Ah, so they're doing like a triple LP Harrison All
Things Bus passed Zoetrope set, which I think looks really cool.
So obviously all the beetles nuts will go for that.
The Oasis box set is going to be very limited.
I think they're making, you know, like a couple hundred,

(05:22):
a couple thousand. I'm sorry, but there's gonna be like
only a thousand in the US. So, I mean we
have a thousand accounts just in our company alone. I
have a feeling most stores are just going to get
one or two, and they've stores have been going in
like ten thirty. Most likely everyone's gonna get cut to
one or two.

Speaker 3 (05:41):
Well how does that work?

Speaker 2 (05:42):
I feel like a lot of places are like very
upset about RSD and not getting titles and fans get mad,
and so how does that work?

Speaker 4 (05:50):
From a So I don't know how it works at
every distributor, but we do try to be fair. I
don't know if you remember that Mega Mars old to
box set that came a few years ago that I
spent half my rent on, but for some reason, they
just really didn't make enough. And I know that records
to day. It's it's more about you know, it's they're
limited titles. That's the point you're supposed to run out

(06:12):
to your store and grab them. The Sabrina Carpenter seven inch,
the Chapel Rowing seven inch from a few years ago.
Every store got like one or two and that was it.
I had a girl grabbing my ankles at the door, saying,
if I don't get this, I'm gonna die. I'm like, okay,
I'll just make sure you get it.

Speaker 3 (06:31):
But it's there's an ad located just inside the counter.
Thanks ma'am.

Speaker 4 (06:37):
She was the last person. We only got four of
that chapel. She was the last person to get it,
and I still think about her at night, like I'm
so proud. Yea, But yeah, we try to be a fair.

Speaker 3 (06:48):
Fight for it though, Like here I dangle this about
well swid squid game for you.

Speaker 4 (06:52):
But I think that's what's great about record store people
and customers and stuff, like you get to know the
line kind of as you're standing there, what are you
looking for what are you looking for? And once we
all kind of ordered in there, people are throwing things
up and it's not always for them, it's for the
guy that was behind them, which I think is really cool.

Speaker 3 (07:10):
Do you guys do a limited number of people in
the shop when you open?

Speaker 4 (07:15):
Needle and group kind of had to because we're just small,
so we'll let we try to get as many rows
as we can going so that instead of letting in
like three people for three rows, now we have five
people for five rows. So we do try to get
like five people in in a time, grab what you
want and then shop the rest of the store and

(07:36):
we let in more people.

Speaker 3 (07:37):
Right.

Speaker 4 (07:39):
But in terms of limited allocations for record stores, if
you ordered fifty of them or you ordered two of them,
if it's really super limited, every store is getting one.
I mean, I don't know how it works with like
other distributors, but we try to be extremely fair to
just if you ordered it, you're at least getting one
or two, no matter how big stores. But it kind

(08:02):
of depends on the pressing. So that goes for Elvis
Costello this year as well. Everyone has been asking about
the Elvis Costello, which I was really surprised about. But
it is direct through third Man, and this is the
one the one title on the list that you really
can't get from a one stop So unless you're a
store who has a direct account with third Man, you're

(08:24):
probably not going to be able to get it. I
think we're getting three hundred and fifty copies split between
all distributors one stop distributor, so you might not get
it from me.

Speaker 3 (08:36):
And that's I mean, And for all of the people
that are listening that are from Canada, that's not even
on the Record Store to Canada list, So I.

Speaker 4 (08:45):
Didn't want to talk to you about that too. If
there were any like Canadian releases you were very excited about.
I mean, I didn't look at the list yet. This year.
I know that two UK titles were added to the
US list, which I think are exciting, but a lot
of the UK stuff we can't get here.

Speaker 3 (09:05):
So totally. Yeah. I mean I'll be in the UK
for Record Stort Day this year, which I'm actually pretty excited.
That's Lucky in Japan, Yeah exactly, Well that's for you.
Jen the Boss is going on vacation finally. Yeah, let's

(09:26):
not dull the sparkle.

Speaker 4 (09:28):
With the Nile heads up about the Taylor Swift All
you Swifties out there, this will not be hard to
find they're making.

Speaker 3 (09:39):
Is it one of those ones where they're going to
do another seventy five thousand copies of something because like,
what is the point?

Speaker 4 (09:44):
Then yep, it is I think exactly seventy five thousand copies.
So if a store orders like a hundred because they
think they're going to get twenty, they're gonna have a
rude awakening when they receive all hundred. So I've been
telling stores not to overorder that you will get it totally.

Speaker 3 (10:02):
I mean, the one, the one that I'm that I
might venture into a record store on on that day
for is the hymn pictured this Because I love him.

Speaker 4 (10:14):
That's cool.

Speaker 3 (10:16):
I love him, and.

Speaker 4 (10:18):
I mean all the things that I'm excited about aren't
exciting other people. I've had two stores out of my
two hundred stores order The Wreckers, the Wrecords title that
came out in like two thousand and six. Yeah, I
don't know, man. I love Michelle branch Soon.

Speaker 3 (10:34):
Yes you do, Yes you do.

Speaker 4 (10:36):
I love that girl. I don't like a lot of country,
but that pop country record is perfect. From start to finish,
So I'm really happy they're finally putting that out as
an LP. I only have the CD, so.

Speaker 3 (10:49):
I feel like, yeah, there's just like kind of like
there's all I mean, like that Delorso Rodan one that
looks pretty cool too, just because she's a boss. But yeah,
I mean, I don't know, dude. The Post Malone record
is kind of interesting just because like he's doing a
cover record of Nirvana song. So that's pretty cool too,
I guess, But which is kind of I feel like

(11:10):
what the spirit of record Stored Bay was when it
was like the original where it was like, let's do
something weird, let's do a cover's record, let's do you know,
because it just to me, I mean maybe this is
me just like being a grouchy old person, but like
it just seems like the same thing every year.

Speaker 4 (11:31):
Well it is, and you're getting the doors for LP
se every year.

Speaker 3 (11:37):
Thing, a Zeppelin thing, a Motorhead thing, like a pre thing.

Speaker 4 (11:42):
Well the Sweet Desolation Boulevard. I don't want to talk
smack on because it's demos and it looks kind of cool.

Speaker 2 (11:48):
Yeah, but like that's kind of cool, Like that's cool,
but it's the anniversary.

Speaker 4 (11:53):
So yeah, Yeah, A lot of the stuff that I
get excited about is like that mid two thousand stuff
that you just don't see that often. So like Jet
Get Born, they're doing the demos for that. Yeah, I
don't know if anyone liked that record. I liked it
all the way through. Not just a hit.

Speaker 3 (12:10):
Yeah, but I mean like you're gonna you're gonna see
Chet Baker, You're gonna see mingos. You're like, it's just
gonna be Yeah, you see a Chet Baker record like
every single release order too, Like it's it's just.

Speaker 4 (12:25):
Bill Evans, Salonious Monk, the jazz guys. It's very standard,
every single every single year.

Speaker 3 (12:31):
How do you feel about the Sabbath record? Je, Uh,
it's not Ozzie Ra. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (12:37):
Oh it's it's very late, right, it's like, yeah, you're
sixteenth or something. Studio.

Speaker 2 (12:42):
I believe it's a Martin one, right, Like I think yes,
So all of those people have at it. Stay off
my back.

Speaker 3 (12:50):
Everybody is like, what do you think about Tony Martin era.
I'm like, I don't think about it so that right now.
I love it. I am here for it. But yeah,
I do love I mean the Chris Isaac record is
kind of exciting for me just because it's like all

(13:13):
those like Sun recordings, So it's kind of a kind
of a cheeky covers record. So and I mean, Chris
Isaac can do no wrong in my mind, so that's
kind of cool. I don't know.

Speaker 4 (13:25):
Yeah, there's a lot of new record stores opening up
every year, so and Record Store Day, believe it or not,
has been doing a pretty good job of going through
the submissions. And a lot of record stores don't really
know the rules of how to apply for Record Store
Day correctly. So a suit like before they open, they're
applying for, you know, to become a pledge store and

(13:46):
stuff like that. You have to be open, Your doors
have to be open. You have to have a brick
and mortar address. You can't share a location with like
a barber shop. You have to be a standalone you
have to be open forty hours a week. There's a
lot of requirements that go into being a record story store. Yeah,
and you have to read your email, which a lot
of people don't do. So do all of that do

(14:09):
or you apply? Yes?

Speaker 3 (14:11):
Are there other stipulations like that?

Speaker 4 (14:13):
Like there's a lot and they only go through submissions
twice a year, so anyone that applied between January and
June this year aren't going to get approved until for
Black Friday, like at the end of this year. So
don't expect to get an answer right away from Record Storday.
There's like three people who are a Record Store Day,
you know, it's Carrie and Mike someone else looking through

(14:36):
like thousands of submissions, and a lot of them don't
meet the criteria. So don't expect to just get an
answer right away. It's not a huge team of people
doing this. It's it's really like two or three people
looking at all these submissions.

Speaker 2 (14:50):
Yeah, once approved, they can host Record Store Day however
they want, right like yes, So theoretically, like we were
going to talk about Flippers a little bit during this,
they can say, like you can only have one title like.

Speaker 4 (15:05):
Per and Generation. When I was working at that huge
store in Manhattan, I mean we would get boatloads. I mean,
Generation would order fifty copies of something. We would still
limit one release per customer because it's just what's fair
is fair. Towards the end of the day, I mean,
they loosen those restrictions because they have stuff kind of
left that they didn't know they were going to have.
So you know, like a father and daughter come in,

(15:27):
We're not going to say no, just you know, you
could get to it's fine.

Speaker 2 (15:33):
Did something like that in Fairfax where that was like
our shop when we lived in DC.

Speaker 4 (15:39):
That's my boss's favorite chop is Mobius.

Speaker 2 (15:41):
Tobias is great. The owner's fantastic. And so what they
would do is they would actually stand behind a table
of the record store day titles and you would have
to tell them like, these are the ones I want,
and then they.

Speaker 4 (15:53):
Would pick them for you See, I always loved it.
I loved doing that, like I love the idea of that.
You just need a very competent staff to pull something
like that off, which unfortunately, sorry record stores, you don't
always you don't always have a confidence staff, so it
is tough to do, but it does make sense. It
makes the most sense.

Speaker 2 (16:13):
Yeah, And it was really smooth because you would just
get in, get what you wanted, and then people could shop.

Speaker 3 (16:18):
But it wasn't like chaos.

Speaker 4 (16:19):
Yes, or I went.

Speaker 3 (16:20):
Search searching for everything, looking through yeah, flipping flipping, flipping slips,
and I went to records for.

Speaker 2 (16:26):
Day in two thousand and eight, in New York. That's
two thousand and nine, and it was mayhem.

Speaker 3 (16:31):
I mean, just like people shoving and elbowing and like.

Speaker 4 (16:34):
I mean, just insanity, and because stores kind of do
it however they want, depending on the store you go to.
I mean, Newbery Comics is a chain, but they're not
publicly traded, which is another stipulation to staying a record
store d pledge store. You can kind of become the
biggest chain you want, but unless you're publicly traded, you

(16:56):
can stay an independent brick and mortar record storreday pledge store.
So Newberry their favorite thing to do is just to hide.
They just tied things. There's like seven inches on the
wall and there's seven inches in the bin, and then
there's l over here, but there's m on the wall,
and it's just like, dude, just come on, buddy, put it,
put it in one place.

Speaker 2 (17:16):
Yea.

Speaker 4 (17:16):
So it's like a scavenger hunt in Newberry's. And it's
it's rough on people.

Speaker 3 (17:21):
Yeah, I mean that stressed. I'd be sweating.

Speaker 4 (17:24):
Yeah, it's and it's for like no reason.

Speaker 3 (17:26):
I'd be like, I don't even want a record here.

Speaker 4 (17:28):
I just went yeah, Well, because I there's not much
on the island. On Long Island, there's like maybe only
five record Storday stores. The rest are just I mean,
we have like fifteen stores in total, but only five participate.
And I didn't want to take anything for my customers.
I just felt bad. I was like, well, I mean
at this point, I wasn't working for a distributor, and

(17:49):
what we got is what we got. Yeah, And I
couldn't like order on the side for myself, like I
kind of do now. So I would go to Newberry
in the morning because I was like the only option
I had. They were the only store that opened at
eight am, and at that point we were opening at ten.
So I was like, you know what, I'm just gonna
get online with all the common folk, and I want

(18:10):
to get what I want just so that I didn't
have to take it from our stock and our customers
and stuff like that. So I went through this gavenger
hunt m hm for the good for the good of
the people.

Speaker 3 (18:21):
I mean, You've always been, you know, one to do
everything for the common I try the unwashed man, this
is your champion in the stacks diag in like the norms.
I love it. I kind of am like I kind

(18:42):
of missed the the anticipation of record store day, like
from working at the store. I kind of like miss
being there a little bit. But and like doing the video,
I being like, here's what we got and like it's
going to be so fun and and all that kind
of stuff. Like those conversations on the day where I
was really fun too. I was just like kind of

(19:02):
want to make it like a little bit bigger, Like, yeah,
I'm like Sonic Boom in Toronto. All they have like
a performance space and they always have bands and food
and like other stuff to keep ranking event and they're there.
I mean, their footprint is huge. They're the biggest record
store in Canada. So I mean that's seeing something is

(19:24):
Canada's very big, very big. But yeah, I mean it
just feels like they just, I don't know, not care more,
but like are optimizing the space that they have and
being like woo woo, like let's let's do a thing.
We've got you know, three floors of stuff and wow
do they really Yeah, well, let less three three floors

(19:44):
more two floors plus like a little balcony type section,
but yeah, like the whole lower level is where they
like they have record players along the one side, they
have a bunch of used in the middle, and then
they have some new as well. And then on the
upper level it's like the checkout and it's beautiful and
it's like exposed brick and like some neon and like

(20:05):
big windows and all that kind of stuff. But in
there they have like a stage on that upper level. Okay,
you can have like a full on show. And they
still do, and they do like they do release things
with local bands and like bigger bands and whatever.

Speaker 4 (20:22):
That's very cool.

Speaker 3 (20:23):
Yeah, last year when I did a bunch of singles
for the Rkels, they did like an in store signing
and there's like people all the way down the block
and stuff. And they have a seven inch record dispenser.
It's called the it's called the I think it's called
a phono mat or a vinyl met and it's yeah,

(20:44):
you like put a token in and you turn the
thing and you get a seven inch record. That so fun.
It's so cool. I think it's the only one that
exists in Canada. I can't remember.

Speaker 1 (20:56):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (20:56):
A guy that I was making a couple of records
with us a couple of years ago, he actually like
made it. He made the machine. So oh wow.

Speaker 4 (21:05):
Yeah. So I haven't been to Toronto since I was
a kid, and when we'd go on vacation, my dad
felt really bad dragging me around to other stores since
I spent so much time in his So this is
a vacation for you. You're like, yes it is, let's go.
So I just really didn't get to hit any stores
in Toronto. I recently went to Montreal and did a
lot of the shops there and they were great. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (21:26):
Montreal's a great spot. It's very much the like the
European version of Canada.

Speaker 4 (21:33):
It's real artsy. Yeah, it's great.

Speaker 3 (21:36):
Yeah. And they just got for my people seventy centimeters
of snow for your people, it's almost three feet oh
in like four days.

Speaker 4 (21:49):
Yeah, oh boy, no thanks, Yeah here in New York.

Speaker 3 (21:55):
Yeah, we'll see what happens with a record stored. I
hopefully that all goes away. So people came from this
sidewalks and go and get to and fro. But but yeah,
I mean Toronto's cool. Is there places in that you're
doing buying for that do like bigger events like that?

Speaker 2 (22:11):
Oh?

Speaker 4 (22:12):
Yeah, Like I said, I don't have a lot of
bigger stores. I do try to take on like really
small accounts. Yeah, so that I know that they're being
taken care of, because I feel like a lot of
smaller stores are just kind of overlooked and I want
to give them like all the attention that you would
give to a giant store.

Speaker 3 (22:29):
But yeah, I just want to know what people are
doing that It's not just like ordering the thing and
getting people to come. That's what like, That's what I'm
passionate about for Record Start Day. I want to know
what the extras are. Do you have a popcorn machine?

Speaker 4 (22:42):
I mean, we've a stren near us. Like Looney Tunes,
they make a whole big thing out of it. I'm
sure Grimes Grimes in Nashville, they definitely make a big
thing out of it. There's there's more than a few
stores that make a whole it's a full day event.
And I like the idea of people who don't participate
in Record Store Day, like a non participating store just

(23:04):
having like a blowout sale, because I mean that that
matters too. Not everyone's into record storta exclusives. They just
they want a good they want a good deal and
they want a good day to shop for records. That
people that put out, even people like Plaid Room that
have that big warehouse. Now just sick to see just
putting out as much stuff as you can and having

(23:24):
people just come dig for the day.

Speaker 2 (23:26):
Totally sordered a faux pad to put out your record
for store day if it's not a record store a title,
because I see that a lot on my side of things,
mm hmm, like trying to capitalize on Record Store Day,
so their release date is like for Record Store Day,
but it's.

Speaker 3 (23:43):
Not recognized, not listed.

Speaker 4 (23:46):
Yeah, yeah, it's like a bootleg record store Day sort
of thing. Well, Black Friday is pretty annoying for that
for me on my side, just because it's a regular
street date. So you're kind of dealing with all of
these things that have a regular street date on top
of all the Black Friday releases. Whereas if it's Record Sturday,
it's Record store Day, it's a Saturday, there's nothing else

(24:07):
coming out, so you know it's a record Stournay title. Yeah,
I would say, what my one big pet peeve with
stores is trying to sneak in old RSD pieces with
the stuff from this year that is stop. Just don't
do that. Put them you know, in a back row,
put them next to your new record Storday stuff, twenty
percent off whatever. Don't mix them in and just try

(24:30):
to fool people into thinking it's release from today. It's
not worth it. It's not worth it to you. Your
customers are going to feel duped, not interested in that
behavior at all.

Speaker 2 (24:40):
Love end up an ear here, that's my favorite shop here,
and they do that. They set them aside. They're like,
all you're shopping for RSD here's.

Speaker 4 (24:48):
Which is great. That's a great idea. Yeah, I mean,
I love that idea. I just don't like the idea
of like just filing them in with you know, everything
that came out that that. Don't do that, please and
do that. I mean, I'm very particular though. I don't
like used mixed with new. That kind of makes me crazy.

(25:09):
I understand it makes sense for sometimes for customers to
just say, like, I can't find a used copy of this,
but in the same section there's the new reissue of it.
I get that. I'm just very neat. I like things
really neat. I don't like mixed new with used. I
like everything separate. I'd rather check for the Stooges in

(25:29):
two different places. Than yes, no, just now, yeah, I'm
with you.

Speaker 3 (25:36):
How can collectors find the participating stores in their area?
Do you? Is there a list of Record store Day participating.

Speaker 4 (25:45):
Yeah, you can go country. Yeah, I think so. I
mean we all have you guys all have your own websites.
So there's record stort A UK, there's record storred a
CI just Canada, and then there's record Sturday dot com
where you can just check for all the US stores.
It's as easy as just typing in your zip code
of your city and seeing all of the participating stores

(26:08):
and if there's a P next to it, that means
they're participating. If not, they're like a pledge store. If not,
they they were listed from a few years ago, but
they don't participate anymore. So you may see a name
on the list and say like, oh, yeah, they're going
to have it. They don't always have it, And there
are a lot of stores that you know, decide that
your the list is too long, it's too overwhelming, we

(26:32):
don't have the funds for it, and so they decide
not to order. So it's it's best to check the
list and then call the store and just double check
what they ordered or if they ordered.

Speaker 3 (26:43):
You keep referencing the pledge for record storative stores, Can
you tell the good people what the pledge, what the
pledge is, and why that is important it is, how
that is a differentiate or so I.

Speaker 4 (26:58):
Feel bad because a lot of stores, like I said before,
do not check their emails. So if you get you
get approved for Record Store Day, that's great. You can
tell everyone in the world that you had approved for
records Sturday. If you don't sign the pledge, yeah, you're
not a record Storday store. So you have to immediately
go onto the website sign the pledge, which is basically

(27:19):
just agreeing to a whole bunch of terms, like we're
not going to gouge prices, we're not going to do this,
we're not going to do that, and just kind of
follow the rules and you're fine. That's really all it is.
It's just making a promise that you're not an asshole.

Speaker 3 (27:33):
T Hey, can we get that to be like a
global thing? All sign the pledge humanity pledge that we
can make.

Speaker 4 (27:44):
Talk about.

Speaker 3 (27:47):
For this, But I don't question that.

Speaker 2 (27:49):
Our Women Owned list on Women in Vinyl does ask
people who sign up for that if they're a Record
storre Day pledge store, so people can also search that
if they.

Speaker 3 (27:59):
Want to support women own which is awesome. Yeah, that
are also pledged.

Speaker 4 (28:07):
I believe Vertical House. Vertical Vertical House is a very
cool store. They are my account, but they order mostly
for my competitors, so I don't get to talk to
her all that much. But she she has a great
Record Stortay event as well. Like it's just it's definitely
good to check the Women in Vinyl site for women
own stores. Loud Pizza, they do a lot of cool

(28:29):
stuff and they also own the Salt Shed so they
do a lot of you know, listening parties and yeah.

Speaker 3 (28:38):
And so how does work on RSD titles?

Speaker 4 (28:41):
Okay, so pricing pricing is pretty it's simple, but Record
Storday doesn't come out with the ms RP until it's
kind of too late for stores. A lot of stores
want to know, like what am I going to put
this out for? They might know the price of what
they're buying it for, but you do. You need to
stick to a specific MSRP that Records to Day gives you,

(29:04):
which is a manufacturer retail suggested price. If you go
twenty percent above that and they find out about it,
they will not allow you to participate ever again. So
you have to stay within at least twenty percent of
the MSRP.

Speaker 3 (29:23):
Just like buying a car.

Speaker 4 (29:24):
Yeah, I mean, I have an ASRP list. I make it.
I make it as soon as the list drops. That way,
if stores are like, well, if I'm buying this for
this amount, when am I charging my customers? It's a
little scary that you can't do the math sweetheart and.

Speaker 3 (29:40):
A store.

Speaker 4 (29:41):
But I do have ASRPS, which is Amanda suggested retail price,
and I love that I have. I have an ASRP list.
I'm happy to give to stores if they need it.

Speaker 3 (29:52):
Yeah, of course you do. That's awesome. Of course you do, Helena,
you gotta have it. You know, she's a gift with purchase, Yes, truly. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (30:06):
Stores have a lot of questions like that, allocations, you know,
like what should I expect about this title? Padding your
order is a really big question that I get.

Speaker 3 (30:17):
They're ordering eight so that you get three?

Speaker 4 (30:19):
Right?

Speaker 3 (30:20):
Uh?

Speaker 4 (30:21):
Would I try to tell people it's okay to you know,
pad it a little bit, but please don't order fifty
if you want ten, especially if we don't know how
many we're getting. If we don't know how limited it is.
Usually they're on the record storre day side, it'll tell
you how many it's limited to. But sometimes it doesn't.
Don't just assume. Don't assume you're gonna get cut. Sometimes

(30:43):
you get your full fill and it's okay to you know,
I don't want five of these, that just want three.
That's actually great for me because I guarantee you I
know another store who would love those two. So I
always tell them it's kind of a win win to
pad your order a bit because you might be helping
a friend down the road who didn't get as much

(31:03):
as they wanted.

Speaker 3 (31:04):
So right, I mean, so like with respect to record Land,
like we would put the list up like I would
put it on the Instagram or whatever or tell people
like here's where the list is, and we would we
would make like the differentiation where we're like we are

(31:26):
in Canadada, so you need to look at this one.
And then like I don't know how other stores were
doing it, but I was like messaged me so that
we can kind of figure out what the general population
like wants, Like there were a few heavy hitters, so
we're like, oh yeah, like we obviously, like you have
to get Taylor, you have to get Chapel, like you

(31:47):
have to get those ones. But like, how are your
stores basing like figuring out what to order, because that
is a lot in itself is just like it was
so chaotic. Yeah, managing expectations for like a limited product
is just like oh boy, yeah and boozling.

Speaker 4 (32:05):
So a lot of my stores choose social media like
they'll post, hey, the list is up, let us know
in the comments to what you want to me. That
just seems bananas. There's gonna be so many people commenting
that aren't coming to your store. They're just like saying
things to say things. I don't really want someone's opinion
from Arkansas. I'm in New York. I'm sorry, I just

(32:27):
don't you're not coming to my store. So what I
do do is do do is make a Google form
and I'll send that out to stores and say like, oh,
if you want, just link this to your make a copy,
link this to your website with like, you know, your logo,
and have them just fill out the form. Yeah, online,

(32:49):
which I think honestly is the best way. So when
I'm going through my order, I do this With a
few stores that just use my Google duck. You'll see
like twenty nine requests for a Gracie, twenty two requests
for Taylor Swift, three requests all the way down, so
that you can account for that when you're when you're
doing your order.

Speaker 3 (33:08):
That's a great idea.

Speaker 4 (33:09):
That is the way to do it is a Google
Google form, Yeah, Busiest, we have.

Speaker 3 (33:15):
Yeah, No, that's I mean, that's a great suggestion. If
there's record store people out there that aren't part of
the Shadesman team already. I mean, I'm sure you could.

Speaker 4 (33:27):
I got a form for you, babe.

Speaker 3 (33:28):
Message our girl and she'll hook you up with all
the administrative tools that you need. Just check your email.

Speaker 4 (33:33):
I do that all within like the week that the
list is dropped, Like my ASRP list, my Google form,
it's all kind of made and put in a folder.
And what I should do is link in to my website.
Yeah I don't, but I mean I do have that
on my site. Like I have a special order form
that you can make a copy of for just your
everyday special orders. I have an expense report that you

(33:56):
can use for like buying used LP's new LPs however
you want to do it, you can steal all my docs.
They're public.

Speaker 2 (34:05):
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the business of making records, you already know that things
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(34:27):
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Speaker 3 (34:49):
And we're back and we're back.

Speaker 2 (34:52):
Hey, hey, so let's talk about the titles that people
should know about, because we were going to talk about flipping. Yeah,
yeah that, So what title should people known that they
don't need to like, hurry up and get.

Speaker 4 (35:12):
Number one is going to be the tailor, the Taylor
Swift is going to be pretty easy to find. Every
record store is going to order it by the boatload,
and every store is going to get it by the boatload.
So don't don't. I mean, this is the one thing
I'm going to stress. Please just go to your record
store the day of. I do have and he's one
of my favorite people, and he's one of my accounts,

(35:34):
and he may be listening, and I'm sorry to put
you on blast, but please stop telling people to go
on discogs like the day later because the prices are
going to drop to wholesale. And so you own a
record store, dude, I know that you think you're a
man of the people, but that's not helping stores at all.
Go get what you want day of, pay the retail price.

(35:57):
It's okay. It's supporting the store that you're going to
go back to next year and the year after that
and they're going to take care of you. I have,
We can't. So the one main thing about records Sturday
is that we're not allowed to hold anything. So I
know that you think you're special, and you are, but
I can't hold things for you, even if you're my
favorite guy on the planet. So just go in and

(36:18):
grab it that day. The one thing that is probably
going to become very expensive online is going to be
the Elvis Costello and the Oasis. And I say that
just because I think most stores aren't going to get
the Elvis Costello unless they have a direct account with
third Man and the Oasis. There's just not enough to
go around. It is going to be an expensive title.

(36:41):
I think it's a four LP set, so it might
be really expensive the day after. Just don't feed into
the flippers. Please don't do that, and most likely the
flippers aren't going to be able to buy a lot
of them anyway. If you're an Oasis fan and you
immediately flip it, who are you? I mean, it's a
cool set. Just keep it.

Speaker 3 (37:03):
It's also a title that we're not getting in Canada.

Speaker 4 (37:06):
Oh is that true?

Speaker 3 (37:07):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (37:07):
Okay, I think about what they said, like it was
like three thousand worldwide.

Speaker 3 (37:12):
Yeah. I'm looking at the list right now and there's
no Oasis on here.

Speaker 4 (37:15):
I think, well, obviously the UK is going to get
it the lump sum of it, so I'm sure maybe
two thousand for the UK and a thousand for the US,
which is not nearly enough, there's there's a thousand participating
record stores.

Speaker 3 (37:29):
But I mean, like going back to like pricing just
for a hot second, like those box side prices are
getting like a bit steep though.

Speaker 4 (37:37):
Yeah, and I want to say it's you know, the
packaging is getting better and better too. I mean they're
more elaborate. You are paying kind of sort of for
what you're getting. So four LPs, but every LP is
a gatefold inside this you know, fancy box and I
believe I think one of them is coming with like
one hundred page book and all this The new Yeah,

(37:58):
the new rush box is coming out with like one
hundred page hardcover book and it's like six LPs, four
CD set hardcover books to lit those you name it.
It's gotten so all those rush heads will go crazy
for it.

Speaker 3 (38:15):
But totally, which is I mean, that's that's so fine.
But I mean, like that was one of the things
that kept the record store like record Land, from ordering
some of those titles for record storting, because.

Speaker 4 (38:26):
They're just like they're exuberant.

Speaker 3 (38:28):
Yeah, No, nobody in our market is going to pay
like one hundred and sixty dollars for a like a
four like a four LP box set. Or whatever or
three hundred or whatever, just because.

Speaker 4 (38:40):
Yeah, And I think a lot of people blame the
store for that, like they're gouging us, but you're not. Well.
I mean, it's like ninety dollars for us and one
hundred and twenty dollars for you. So we're only making
thirty bucks, yeah, off that one title, and most likely
we're only getting one or two. Yeah, Charlie XCX, there's two.

(39:01):
There's two titles once a seven inch ones an LP.
I think it's number one. Angel. It's going to be
the full length probably won't be very hard to get,
but the seven inches with Billie Eilish, who is bought
right now, so most likely that will be gouged as well. Right,
Just just be careful. There's certain things that you're going
to want to go out and get day of make

(39:23):
sure you check what it's limited to and go get it.

Speaker 3 (39:26):
M hm. And is that always and like for for
those people that I mean, because sometimes that is available
on the list and in the in the UH it is.

Speaker 4 (39:38):
Yep.

Speaker 3 (39:40):
I mean that also seems to be a little bit regional.
M I feel like the US list is maybe a
little bit more imbued with information than the Canadian list
is so I mean unfortunately, that's you know, the only
place that they can kind of get that information. There's
no other places would have that kind of knowledge, right right.

Speaker 4 (40:04):
And then there are a lot of things. I mean,
the Taylor Swift, I don't think it is listed, how
many it's limited to? I don't think they want you
to know that, but most likely your record store does
know that. So it's okay, I mean that's their job
all unbother your local record store and just ask them questions,
do you know what this is going to be limited to?
Do you know how many you've ordered versus what you're

(40:25):
going to get? Even if they don't know just yet,
they should have a basic idea. So bother us please,
I mean bother me, bind me on Instagram and bother
me about it.

Speaker 2 (40:37):
Looking at the list too, it has a key on
it where it's like he's exclusive releases, Elle's limited run
slash regional focus, Like what does that mean to people?
How do they know if it's in their region? Would
that just be contacting your shop as well?

Speaker 4 (40:52):
Yes, yeah, contact your shop. If it's an RSD first,
that just means it's going to come out again, you know,
on a different color or just standard black.

Speaker 3 (41:03):
So it is another couple of weeks or whatever, maybe in.

Speaker 4 (41:06):
The next few months. And there are some that don't.
They don't ever come back, but they just you know,
anticipated that they will be released again. So most people
that see like RSD first on the list don't go
crazy like I don't need this specific copy. And that
goes back to the Sabrina Carpenter in the Chapel roone
seven inches from a few years ago, where everyone got

(41:28):
one or two. They're selling directed consumer on their site
by the boatload right now, so it's not hard to get.
It was just hard to get in that color. I
hate to admit it, but I do, like, really love
Sabrina Carpenter. I think she looks like a Barbie Dooll
and she's just so cute. So I did wind up
getting her seven inch, but I got it on like
Sparkle Pink. It just wasn't that record store ain a one.

(41:51):
So yeah, keep an eye out if it says first,
you know, don't kill my firstborn child for it. It's
coming back.

Speaker 3 (42:00):
Don't even put that out here, right.

Speaker 4 (42:04):
Psych you're gonna get it.

Speaker 3 (42:09):
These people can be a little unhanged demand, do please listen?

Speaker 4 (42:12):
Hey, I know I do not know it. Yeah, but
I think it's okay. Like I think most of the time,
if fits an RSC first, what you're getting is it's
either like a specific color or it might have like
a signed insert or something very cool in it that
you can't get with the standard pressing. But if what

(42:34):
you want is the music, don't go crazy. You know,
regional releases, yes, call your local store, and if it's
an RSC exclusive, get it well tought, because it might
not you might not see it again.

Speaker 2 (42:51):
So with flippers, how can we deter them? What can
we do as a community to say enough's enough?

Speaker 4 (42:59):
Don't buy them? Honestly, my I think my one thing,
and I have been doing it for quite some time.
I will buy up like five copies of something that
I know is going to go online for a lot
of money. So I'm trying to think of what it was.
It wasn't the It might have been Tailor Swift long
pund Sessions, which was online for like a thousand dollars

(43:23):
or something like that. And there was a Tailor Swift
seven inch a few years ago that we got really
lucky as a distro to get like a few extra
hundred copies after the fact, and they were online for
hundreds of dollars. It was a sixteen dollars seven inch
wholesale and a lot of my stores, you know, were

(43:45):
like jumping at it, and I was really excited, and
Needle and Groove had gotten an additional ten copies. So
what I did the owner still met at me about it,
was I didn't give him any of those copies. I
bought them with my own money and then I shipped
them out for free for anyone who was looking for them.
So just don't buy them from the flippers. Don't do it,

(44:07):
and the prices are eventually going to come down and
they're going to be reasonable. It's the fact that people
buy them that they know they can get.

Speaker 3 (44:14):
Away with it.

Speaker 4 (44:15):
So because as soon as I would, they don't do
that and just try to get it that day.

Speaker 2 (44:20):
Yeah, because as soon as that discogs medium prices two
hundred five hundred, then people are just like, cool, that's
how much.

Speaker 4 (44:28):
Cross, that's what it goes for. Yeah, that's not true.
And I think in order to deter them is that
make sure they're not the first person online. Make sure
you're in line too, make sure that the fans get
them first, because it's a lot of those people that
like they go to the store because I hate to
say it, you're lazy and you don't want to do that,
so you wait for it to show up online the

(44:49):
next day. Just beat them, beat them at their own game,
and go get what you want and get it before
them so they're shut out. Yeah, but yeah, just don't
don't buy anything on discogs the next day for seventy
five dollars if you know it costs twenty four to
ninety nine that day in the store. Just save yourself

(45:11):
the hassle and drive to your local store and get it.

Speaker 3 (45:15):
Yeah. You mentioned that you get a lot of inquiries
from record stores and things, and that you were surprised
with some of the questions that you get. I mean,
without naming names.

Speaker 4 (45:30):
I'd love to name some names.

Speaker 3 (45:31):
I know you would. I'm trying to protect you here.

Speaker 4 (45:34):
Girls.

Speaker 3 (45:36):
Can you can you share what with some of the
I mean some of the regular of a hues and
some of your like really questions.

Speaker 4 (45:44):
So I have a lot of stores that want to
wait until everything comes in to the distributor and they
ship everything at once, and I know that that's easier
on the store in terms of pricing everything. You get
it all in one lump sum. But that is not
how it comes into distros. We're getting shipments, pallette pallets,
pallette palette of stuff that's not Record Store Day, that

(46:06):
is Record store Day. It's really hard for us to
just kind of prioritize all the Record Store Day pieces
that are coming in at once. So it's better for
us to ship you things as it comes in. Take
the small batches as they come. No one's perfect, and
that goes for shipping labels as well. So when we

(46:29):
get in let's say we're supposed to get a thousand,
and we only get in like nine hundred and ninety six.
Those four copies that are in our system are fictional copies.
They're just they don't exist. So if you're like the
last store to ship out those copies, what might be
on your shelf isn't coming to you like they're just

(46:50):
they're gone already, So it's best to just take it
when it comes in. So that is my advice to
stores that want to wait for everything at once, don't
do that. Just take your small shipments, price them, put
them in a box, alphabetically and wait for your next shipment.
Do not wait to get everything at once. Credit terms

(47:14):
is another big question that I get in terms of
applying for a credit line as a store. Make sure
you get all of your information to me early. If
you've put in a fifteen thousand dollars order and you
want ten thousand dollars credit line or something like that,
I can't know the week before. Oh can I just

(47:34):
get ten thousand dollars. No, that has to go through accounting,
and I'm not that guy. So yeah, please just be
as direct with your reps as possible if you need
a credit line. If you have any questions just about
like when we start shipping, keep in mind you don't
pay until we ship. It's not like I'm just going

(47:55):
to charge you fifteen thousand dollars once you place your order.
We don't know how many we're gonna be able to
give you to begin with. You could order fifteen copies
and get seven, so we're not going to charge you
off the bat for fifteen copies, So you pay as
you ship. My suggestion would be instead of paying by
credit card, to pay AH which is a bank transfer.

(48:18):
That way, you're not.

Speaker 3 (48:19):
Paying any interest.

Speaker 4 (48:22):
Yeah, anything like that. I mean, I know it's easier
to put it on a credit card to pay back
thirty days later. I totally get that. That's fine, but
there are credit card fees involved with credit cards where
if you're paying direct from the bank, you're skipping all
of those fees. So I have a big account Noble Records,
which everybody knows who is paying by credit card. Like

(48:43):
a few years ago, I'm just a loser and I
sit there and I do math a lot. So I
had called him and I was like, listen, I'll be honest. Annually,
I think you spend like two thousand dollars on credit
card fees, you'd be saving like two k a year
if you switch to ACCH And he did and he's
much happier now. So I think, just.

Speaker 2 (49:03):
For everyone's favorite rep, just really talk to your rep
about it, but make sure it's in advance, and make
sure you have all your ducks in a row.

Speaker 4 (49:12):
And we're happy to help any way we can. M Yeah,
just be transparent with your questions. We don't you know.
I think questions are stupid, but there's no stupid questions.
I'd rather answer them than get the stupid question six
months from now.

Speaker 3 (49:27):
So like, what is a stupid question though, because you
definitely get them.

Speaker 4 (49:31):
Oh so many. But I mean everyone has their own worries,
and there are big stores and there are small stores,
and everyone comes across problems in their own way. I think,
I think the biggest thing is just getting ahead of it.
Just if you have a question, if you're sitting there

(49:52):
scratching your head, ask it.

Speaker 2 (49:54):
M.

Speaker 3 (49:56):
Yank God, your girl shall help you.

Speaker 4 (49:59):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (49:59):
Yeah, I mean all of our allow subscription price.

Speaker 4 (50:02):
Of TVD yeah right, No, just all of our reps
came from stores. Like, we've all worked at stores.

Speaker 3 (50:13):
And it was great. I mean that that kind of
knowledge is invaluable when I mean you're a baby record
store and you're just like, I don't know how to
do all of these things. There's math, there's buying, there's selling. Yeah,
there's all of those things, and then you add records
starting on top of it.

Speaker 4 (50:30):
Yeah. Just keep in mind, I don't make commission. I
don't care what you spend. I don't know.

Speaker 3 (50:34):
I wish you did.

Speaker 4 (50:35):
It doesn't matter to me. I just want to make
sure your store is happy. So we're all thinking about
it from your point of view, because we were there once.

Speaker 3 (50:45):
M hm. And as those people that were there once,
if there is someone that is just deciding like, oh yeah,
records are cool, maybe I should start a collection. What
would be like if you had to go all the
way back and start your collection, what would be like
your hot tips to be like, Okay, here's what you

(51:06):
do to set yourself up for success to be a collector,
Like not getting the turntable because like, I mean, let's
let's give them that out of BOYD that they've got
a nice turntable in the setup. All right, but what
would what are your tips about collecting in general?

Speaker 4 (51:20):
Well, I guess this doesn't go with three issues, but
check condition. Don't just don't just go out and start
buying your favorite titles off the cover. Condition matters. I
know that hurts your feelings, Robin.

Speaker 2 (51:33):
But.

Speaker 3 (51:35):
No it doesn't. I mean just because they don't organize,
it doesn't mean I don't care about them.

Speaker 4 (51:40):
I like beater copies too, babe. But no, I think
I my first like few months of buying, I really wasn't.
I was like, oh, this is a great record, and
I would just buy it. I'd take it home and
be like this is unplayable. Yeah, just make sure you're
buying something in decent enough condition so where you're not
replacing years down the line, Like I could have bought

(52:03):
this in better shape and now I'm just sitting on
this beater copy. That's my number one tip.

Speaker 3 (52:08):
Yeah, that's good.

Speaker 4 (52:09):
Yeah, yeah, because I was very guilty of that. I
think that was like the worst decisions I had made
my first few months of collecting. Was just like buying
everything I thought was cool and not checking it.

Speaker 3 (52:22):
But I mean, you don't know what you don't know
at a point, and that's kind of that's kind of
good too, Like to have a beater copy to be like, oh, okay,
so it could sound better. Yeah, and maybe you didn't.
You know, you spent like two bucks on it. So
then you're just like, oh, well that movee doesn't sound great,
but maybe it could sound better because I don't like
whatever that noise is. Maybe that maybe that sponsor journey

(52:44):
of someone that will eventually work in a QA department.

Speaker 4 (52:49):
Well, I run record shows, and I'm not saying don't
don't buy records at record shows, but the best people
to talk to is people at your local shops. They
know the records that they've cleaned and priced and put out.
Ask them there's nothing wrong with saying, like, I don't
really know how to check condition in good shape? Is
this worth buying? Why is this one fifteen dollars? Why

(53:11):
is this one thirty five? Those are all valid questions
really that a store owner or employee would be happy
to answer, So.

Speaker 3 (53:20):
As long as they're not an Ahle store.

Speaker 4 (53:24):
Right, which you'll come across. But again, if you've become
a regular, there is some sort of trust built in
and some sort of respect there where they won't deliberately
try to screw you over totally.

Speaker 3 (53:38):
I mean, let's talk about the Vinyl Revolution show, shall we.

Speaker 4 (53:42):
Oh, it's March thirtieth, so this might be coming out after,
but this is our biggest show of the year. It's
about eighty tables, and we have more vendors than we've
ever had. So even though it's eighty tables, it doesn't
mean there's always eighty vendors. Some vendors have two or
three tables. We have a lot of first time vendors

(54:05):
and a lot of like local record stores that don't
always participate. So we have four local stores participating and
a lot of new vendors that are selling personal collections,
which is actually really exciting. So it's probably close to
sixty vendors total.

Speaker 3 (54:21):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (54:22):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (54:22):
Yeah. The WFMU, which is like the biggest New York
shows about two hundred tables, but they're not always all filled.
A lot of those, A lot of the guys that
come from out of the country will buy a table
just they have a place to like store their stuff, I.

Speaker 3 (54:42):
Don't know, they go buy from everybody else.

Speaker 4 (54:44):
Yeah, and get in, you know, with the vendors for
early admission, and I mean, it's a good way to
beat the system. But I hate going I hate going
into a show and then just like seeing empty tables everywhere,
Like this isn't isn't a two hundred table show If
there's one hundred and fifty tables taken and every other
table's empty, right, it's a great place to put my
city maps and my and my stickers out, which I

(55:08):
did at WFMU this year. But we like to fill
the venue.

Speaker 3 (55:12):
So yeah, And the venue again is.

Speaker 4 (55:16):
Oh, the field House at Saint Paul's, which is this
huge old uh it used to be an old school,
but it's like this gothic brick building it's so sick
and it's right. It's very central on Long Island and
Ston Garden City.

Speaker 3 (55:31):
Great. And will there be another show this year?

Speaker 4 (55:34):
We are working on in a story show. We do
the same same venue every time. It's Bohemian Hall and
Beer Garden, and we get a lot of people for
that show. It's a smaller show, it's like fifty five
to sixty tables. But the plus is that there's beer
and parogis. So I love a paroy Oh god, I
love parogy's.

Speaker 3 (55:55):
Yeah yeah, So I mean, how does she keep it
all balanced? This is the question? True, I don't.

Speaker 4 (56:03):
I just.

Speaker 3 (56:05):
I that we're all here for though, because we're all that,
we are all that.

Speaker 4 (56:10):
I sleep four hours a night and I cry the
rest and then I get up and I do it
again perfect well.

Speaker 2 (56:19):
And is there anything else with Record Store Day or
the Vinyl Revolution record Show you wanted to talk about?
Because I know that you also wanted to talk about
the women in vinyl community.

Speaker 4 (56:30):
I really do, so.

Speaker 3 (56:34):
Anything else before we go on to that?

Speaker 4 (56:36):
Oh no, thank you to everyone who supports my record show.
It's wonderful. You're wonderful. Come down if I know you.
I'm a softie. That's why they don't put me at
the admission table, because I'd let you all in for free.
So yeah, come down March thirtieth, Happy to have you
and for Records Store Day. If you have any questions,
I don't care if you're my account, I don't care

(56:58):
if you're this guy's account. I don't care. If you
don't even order from AMS and you order from Alliance,
contact me and I'd be happy to help.

Speaker 3 (57:05):
There's a question that I have just that has just
popped up for me. How many distributors is there are there.

Speaker 4 (57:11):
For a Record Store Day? It used to be Ingram,
AMS and Alliance. Ingram is now dissolved, so it's just
us two. It's Alliance and AMS. U RP does order
Record Store Day stuff from Alliance and AMS, so they
will carry it after the fact. But that's it. It's

(57:31):
just the two of us.

Speaker 3 (57:32):
How does like red Eye and stuff fit in to that?

Speaker 4 (57:35):
But you can get stuff DIRECTA yeah, if you have
direct accounts, it's very it's easy to order direct, small
small break, but it's really kind of all the same price.

Speaker 3 (57:48):
Okay, Well, I was getting a little bit confused with
like the numerous lists that would come to the store.
When I was there, I was just like, who are
these people? And what is this now? And this purchase
list like this comes on both of these lists.

Speaker 4 (58:03):
Like yeah it is. I mean that's my number one
tip is just check pricing. Alliance has a lot of
like amped exclusives and stuff like that. A lot of
the time they are going to be cheaper from Alliance.
And I tend to be very hands on with my accounts,
so all to go in and do the order with you.
If something's cheaper at my competitor, I'm going to be

(58:24):
the first person to tell you order it from there.
But AMS actually on this side this year seems to
be even cheaper with some of the Alliance exclusives on Alliance.
So my tip is to have both sheets. But we'll
send it in a spreadsheet and know a lot of
people do it online. Double check the pricing on both ends.

(58:46):
And I'm not saying put all your eggs in one basket.
It's best to just like, even if it's the higher price,
do six and four and put your lower quantities on
someone who's a little more expensive. But just to make
sure that you get what you want.

Speaker 3 (58:59):
Right, Yeah, not all of your eggs in one basket,
don't do that? Love it.

Speaker 2 (59:07):
So, as a member of the Women in Vinyl community,
even though you're not technically on the board anymore, you're
obviously family. So you wanted to talk about some of
our new board crew.

Speaker 4 (59:19):
I kind of want to ask you questions about everyone.
I was just very excited to see that Piper was
on the board as community involvement because I've absolutely just
like loved meeting her. She was just so much fun. Jen, Emily, like,
they're all just great people, and I just kind of

(59:41):
wanted you to give like a little introduction to the
listeners out there about what they're all about. So can
we start with Jen Keenan?

Speaker 2 (59:48):
Yeah, I mean John runs the Queen Bee Vinyl Cafe
and store in Arizona and Jerome, where her and her
husband Maynard are taking over that city pretty much in
a really cool way.

Speaker 3 (01:00:05):
We got to go out there.

Speaker 2 (01:00:06):
Last year for the vineyard opening and thrilled to have her.
She's a huge part of the community and she's gonna
be great.

Speaker 4 (01:00:17):
So I loved meeting her in New Orleans. Her whole
staff are just so fun to hang out with. We
all went to Sisters in Christ and shop together and
hung out together. It just seems like she runs such
a cool establishment and she keeps expanding. It's just cool
to see her part of the board.

Speaker 3 (01:00:37):
Yeah, who's next.

Speaker 4 (01:00:40):
Emily, Emily Ravita. So what I love about her is
that she she just didn't think that she was capable
of being on it. She's like, I don't know, I'm
just I'm so new and I just just trying to
get my feet with my girl. You're in, I mean,
you're part the whole thing.

Speaker 3 (01:01:01):
Yeah, you're literally doing it, yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:01:03):
Physically right now. So Monster Music is in Charleston, North Carolina? Right,
what does she do there?

Speaker 2 (01:01:14):
Fun fact about Emily as well as fairly early on,
we got a really sweet letter to women in Vinyl
when we didn't even have a board. It was just
kind of the four executive peeps like Robin, Me, Ray, Amanda,
and Jet and she was.

Speaker 3 (01:01:35):
Like expressing how important she thought this was and how
like big of a deal it was for the community.

Speaker 2 (01:01:40):
It was so sweet and it made us all just like,
oh my god, like reinvigorated and this is like why
we're doing it. So full circle moment when ward applications
opened and she was.

Speaker 4 (01:01:52):
Like, should I do it?

Speaker 3 (01:01:53):
Should I not? And we were like, hell, yeah, join
us please? Yeah, that was that was cool. I mean
I remember when we got that letter and I was like.

Speaker 4 (01:02:06):
She's so sweet and she just doesn't she doesn't understand
how important she is herself, which is yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:02:12):
And they're like they're very much account is really fun
to just like watch too. They put a lot of
thought and feels and stuff into the things that they
do and it's just like, looks like a really fun
stort to just hang out at her.

Speaker 4 (01:02:25):
And Galen are. They're just great employees and they really
know what they're doing and they really care about their customers,
which is, you know, one hundred percent of the battle.
My last inquiry was Raquel because I've never met her,
I don't know much about her.

Speaker 2 (01:02:40):
We met her really through the application process. Is a
DJ here in Austin. Yeah, going to be exciting to
have someone sort of boots on the ground with me
here for events or anything that we do kind of help,
you know, have some support this year. Thankfully, we're not
doing a huge buy thing, but you know, for instances

(01:03:03):
like that, it's nice to have someone else here.

Speaker 3 (01:03:06):
And she really brought some great.

Speaker 2 (01:03:09):
Connections and I think, you know, with her and Robin
both their event planning type skills, like, maybe we can
actually get this meet up off the ground. So that's awesome.

Speaker 4 (01:03:23):
Well, then my last shout out would be Riley because
Riley is adorable and I love her so much, oh
my god. And her dad owns Clereizio Music Center, who
is one of my accounts, one of my favorite accounts
right here in good old Jersey.

Speaker 2 (01:03:44):
So Robin can attest to this. But anybody that knows
me knows I am a bit of a control freak
OCD person.

Speaker 3 (01:03:54):
Say a freak, I would say that you have an
awareness of the important work that you're doing and that
we're all trying to do, and you want to do
it in a meaningful way and you don't want that
to get diluted. And it's hard when you're doing something

(01:04:14):
that you hold so close. Oh my god, am I
getting emotional?

Speaker 2 (01:04:17):
Oh?

Speaker 3 (01:04:19):
You hold so close that you know, it's like you're
asking people to join you on this like weird journey
and do it right. And I mean sometimes it's hard
to be like, but are they going to do it right?
You know, we've all been let down by so many
people before that it's hard to be like, can you
just do this one thing, because sometimes when you ask

(01:04:40):
someone to do that one thing, they fucking don't do it,
and then you're like, now I got to do the
dumb thing again, Like so you've got to do the
dumb thing, and I mean it just like puts you
backwards by like having to you know, circle back and
do it yourself over again.

Speaker 2 (01:04:56):
So so bad at asking for help, and it's like,
so I think that she's been sort of helping a
little bit here and there over the past year, a
little bit, you know, like she does some stuff. But
this year I have officially given her access to our
email and she has access to our social media, so.

Speaker 3 (01:05:18):
Now we have two people to check that email, not
just one, but two.

Speaker 4 (01:05:23):
And she's doing a lot of the.

Speaker 2 (01:05:24):
Outreach for me, so a lot of our feature requests
that we do literally every Saturday and setting up this podcast.
In the past, like I've been doing all of that outreach,
all of that follow up, and it just became to
be where I couldn't take on some of the big initiatives.

Speaker 3 (01:05:41):
And I think something we.

Speaker 2 (01:05:42):
Learned from our last board term was that I needed
to give some of that away so that I could
focus on some of the bigger things. And so she's amazing,
Like she's she's been so helpful.

Speaker 3 (01:05:54):
She helped set this up, and we all know each other.

Speaker 4 (01:05:57):
Yeah, I got the email. I'm like, oh wait, this
is Riley. That's awesome. I was just so excited. Yeah,
so it's really great to see her involved because she's
she's definitely gonna be an asset. Yeah, you got a
good crew. You got a good crew for the next
two years. Very happy for you.

Speaker 3 (01:06:12):
Yeah, we have heavy heat, hitter heat, sweet heat, my bro.
I love that dude so much it hurts. I Like,
there's sometimes I'm just like I wish I could just
like be in Cleveland because I mean we would make
the best barbecue of all time. And I mean not

(01:06:34):
for nothing, but I think we would make some pretty
fucking cool records. Also, Yeah, totally so and liked it.

Speaker 2 (01:06:40):
I mean with Robin and him, like innovation in this space,
like that's huge, I think, you know, and part of
what we need. So I think he's going to be
a great advisor. And then Piper is doing all the things.

Speaker 3 (01:06:53):
I mean, always love that girl.

Speaker 2 (01:06:56):
So yeah, I mean I think her experience too on
various other boards and pressing and cutting and all of
the things is going to be a huge help as well.

Speaker 3 (01:07:11):
And then we have.

Speaker 2 (01:07:13):
Crystal who's a mastering and cutting engineer, so super excited.
She's our one overseas gal this year in the UK.
And Christy Coyle Nola Yeah oils at Red Eye. She's

(01:07:34):
going to really help our job board. It's going to
be amazing.

Speaker 4 (01:07:37):
That's great.

Speaker 3 (01:07:38):
I'm just like and I mean, and if anybody is
listening out there that has a job adjacent to the
record store or the record pressing plant or anything along
the manufacturing chain, please let us know. We want to
help you get a person in that job. And we
have the audience. It's like, yeah, so many enthusiasts globally

(01:08:03):
help us to help you, to help everyone.

Speaker 2 (01:08:06):
The only one we haven't mentioned is Rachel right, Yeah,
Rachel Gardner, musicology musician as well doing a lot for
her local community. Before we were even officially like set
up with everybody in their new roles, she reached out
for something she was hosting, got some stick stuff.

Speaker 3 (01:08:27):
So awesome.

Speaker 4 (01:08:28):
Yeah, really excited.

Speaker 3 (01:08:29):
Great, Yeah, it's cool. I mean it's not for nothing.
But like the last sport that we had was like
full of dynamic individuals and humans too that had you know,
crazy cvs as well. We've been very blessed to just
kind of rotate in the circles that we're rotating in.
And I mean, I love that we were just like

(01:08:53):
expanding the network a little bit more. And you know
it just because it's done doesn't mean it's so we
still want you to, you know, do all the things.
It's not like, you know, we're like by Amanda. It's
couldn't if you wanted to know, and I would never
I mean, it's and that's the whole point, right is

(01:09:15):
like you need to kind of renew and rejuvenate those
positions to just like expand that network. It's just like
growing a plant, you know, the leaves get bigger and
longer and whatever when you're doing it right. And that's
that's kind of the thing. We would need to infiltrate
all of these different cities and countries in these meaningful ways.

(01:09:40):
And the only way to do that is to by
like expand the network, get more people involved, spread the message.
You know, eventually have you know, maybe regional situations for
people that they can have like meetups or scavenger hunts
or something where it's you know a little bit more
evolved too. That's that's my vision.

Speaker 2 (01:10:01):
But yeah, and I mean, to Robin's point, it is
it's really overwhelming and like.

Speaker 3 (01:10:08):
Exciting.

Speaker 2 (01:10:08):
I mean to see these people like apply every year
and the caliber of people that are applying is really
exciting me. And that's why sometimes it takes us a
while to get through it because we're just like.

Speaker 3 (01:10:19):
Wow, what do you want to hang out with us?

Speaker 4 (01:10:21):
What?

Speaker 3 (01:10:23):
That's so cool?

Speaker 2 (01:10:24):
And now with this previous board transitioning over, we've officially
created the volunteer form. So if we're to start having
these meetups or events or things like that, you know,
we could call on people to participate and help host.

Speaker 4 (01:10:40):
And yep, yeah yeah. When I when I was off
the board, I was like, well, who am I know?
And then I had to change my business card from
board member and I was like, no, I'm just literally
dubbing myself street Team. I don't care who invited me.
I'm just gonna be street Team. So on my business
card does say street Team.

Speaker 2 (01:10:59):
Well, we have something, you know, exciting that we've been
working on that you've helped sort of spearhead for not
only the maps that people need to check out, but
also uh some potential record store buy in stuff for
safe spaces.

Speaker 4 (01:11:17):
So that's awesome.

Speaker 3 (01:11:19):
Yeah, so I'll be hitting you back up on that
here soon.

Speaker 4 (01:11:24):
And that all just kind of came out of the
five year anniversary meetup that we had. We were just like, oh,
let's just do a little map of Chicago, and then
the record store crawls happened and like, Okay, we'll just
do Austin and Seattle and New York City. We'll just
keep going. And now that's the next year of my
life is making city record store guides and I'm very
happy about it.

Speaker 3 (01:11:44):
So it's awesome.

Speaker 4 (01:11:46):
Yeah. Yeah, people seem to love them. And the custom
maps on my site have been crazy.

Speaker 3 (01:11:52):
So again that should be behind a pay well.

Speaker 4 (01:11:57):
I get. I love getting submissions like that, like, oh,
I'm from so and so this town, and I'll ask you,
like if you're flying or if you're driving, so that
I don't give you things on the way if you're flying,
and I'll make you a custom map based just on
what you buy or what you're usually shopping for, whether
it's CDs or Fassetts, doesn't even matter if it's specifically
LP's new used jazz rock. That way, you're not going

(01:12:20):
to all these different shops that aren't going to necessarily
have what you want.

Speaker 3 (01:12:24):
Oh my god, please charge for that, Jesus Christ. It
is a concierge service like tailor made for like a
record exactly, and you should get paid for that, girl,
Come on, I know, seriously, it's like your whole it's
like a whole side business that is just like sitting
there and giving away all this like work for free. Girl.

Speaker 4 (01:12:48):
I just like the idea of like you going to
a store you would wouldn't necessarily get.

Speaker 3 (01:12:53):
To yeah, exactly, And I mean for a nominal fee
of like three dollars. Yeah, I should have that experience absolutely.

Speaker 4 (01:13:04):
Oh my god.

Speaker 3 (01:13:05):
Coffee while you're doing it, yeah exactly. I mean just
like or.

Speaker 4 (01:13:10):
You know, I can only have one coffee a day now.

Speaker 3 (01:13:12):
I was gonna say, delicious folic acid like it's you know,
get that natal tube development. I mean, please.

Speaker 4 (01:13:23):
Cheap. They aren't, I know, not even when there's subscribe
to you.

Speaker 3 (01:13:28):
Yeah, so please please please, yes, so let us please
get this money, girl, Let us help you get this
bank my god.

Speaker 4 (01:13:38):
For now, the custom maps are free okay, so if
you want to, if you want to give me two
ninety nine, you can mendo me. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:13:45):
I mean we don't have but like get a PayPal
or something and we can start it out. But I
would love to chill for you, my god. Well, since
we need a peanut, peanut, I'm here for you, in here.

Speaker 4 (01:14:02):
Ruin.

Speaker 2 (01:14:05):
Since we are almost at our time, this is the
third time get to ask you our special question round three.

Speaker 3 (01:14:15):
So I feel like we should make a super cut.
We need to go back in the archives and be like,
all right, so what is it this time? Seven inch?

Speaker 4 (01:14:28):
See, I wasn't actually prepared for this. I thought maybe
the question would change.

Speaker 3 (01:14:33):
Oh no, I wouldn't. It's so good. I put so
much thought into it, and it's so many people.

Speaker 4 (01:14:39):
It's like I told you, I made notes. I made
notes for the whole episode. This was one thing I
really didn't think about at all.

Speaker 3 (01:14:44):
Surprise aye ya yai.

Speaker 4 (01:14:48):
Okay, all right, just let me just pink. You're just
gonna You're just gonna peak.

Speaker 3 (01:14:54):
For those of you that can't see the wall of
records that she's went looking at all of those still listening.
And also that.

Speaker 4 (01:15:02):
So my first, my first one was like a c
DC and knacking Cole I think, or something ridiculous like that.

Speaker 3 (01:15:10):
Yeah, that's familiar.

Speaker 4 (01:15:12):
We're gonna have to go like as outlandish. So maybe
side a bed brains how low can a punk get?

Speaker 3 (01:15:24):
Oh now we're talking.

Speaker 4 (01:15:27):
B side Michael Jackson p yt Oh.

Speaker 3 (01:15:34):
This is why we're friends though, you know what I mean, Like.

Speaker 4 (01:15:37):
You just just out here doing.

Speaker 3 (01:15:39):
It, babe, fundamentally get each other on so many levels.

Speaker 4 (01:15:43):
I'd love it so much it'll be sole decision next time.

Speaker 3 (01:15:45):
So hey, there's got to be some kind of a
Canadian connection truly. I mean, if I ever find that
on uh you.

Speaker 4 (01:15:53):
Don't have that, I'll ship it to you. Of course
I have it.

Speaker 3 (01:15:57):
I have I have a seven inch that I need
to send you actually, so I'm mean.

Speaker 4 (01:16:01):
Yeah, I got that single. I found it. I got
it online from Man where was like the Netherlands. I
got for like a dollar. I mean I paid twenty
five dollars shipping, but it was a dollar.

Speaker 3 (01:16:14):
I mean sometimes the shipping is okay. Oh we just
I just got a Tananaka record from Japan. It was
like the original nineteen seventy seven release, because I mean
that's what discogs for me is for yes. It's like
I am missing this thing in my life and it's
like original Obi strip like all the things. And I
was like, take my money, shut up. I was here

(01:16:36):
from Japan in three days. Yo. Yeah, yeah, how can
you complain? You really can't not And I mean he
might not even understand me, so that would be the best.
I just say it with a smile and everybody thinks
that you're saying the right like nice things and you're
like great, love it all right, Well, I guess we

(01:16:56):
gotta go.

Speaker 4 (01:16:57):
Thank you lovely for having me. I'll invite myself back
on for episode ninety. Yeah, there you go, right, yeah,
back every thirty episodes. I'm just gonna keep coming back.
It's great, like nothing you can do about it, just
a disease, Nor.

Speaker 3 (01:17:12):
Would we want to don't. No, you can bring the
tiniest ally in vinyl.

Speaker 4 (01:17:18):
Yeah, there we go. I'll have him choose the seven inch.

Speaker 3 (01:17:22):
There you go, start him young. Here we go.

Speaker 4 (01:17:27):
It means.

Speaker 3 (01:17:29):
Your family, we love you the most. Go to weearsmelly
dot com. Yes please, and while it's not behind the
pay well and pillage all of the resources there, hit
our girl up. If you have questions. She has answers.
She's all the answers I do. Yeah. Yeah, hit up

(01:17:53):
Women in Vinyl dot Com. Go to the Patreon give
us give us some of your money too. That would
be great, doing some cool thing I do that mm hmm, yeah,
even gives us money.

Speaker 4 (01:18:05):
Update my subscription.

Speaker 3 (01:18:11):
Yeah's the best. All right, Well, this is coming out
after Record Store Day, but we hope that you had
a great one. Whatever part of the world you were in.
Probably have videos from Japan and England and New York,
New Jersey somewhere in the States.

Speaker 2 (01:18:30):
Yeah, yeah, great, Like subscribe and we'll see you next time.

Speaker 3 (01:18:36):
Hit us down below in the comments and let us
know the record store aid titles that you're after that
you got. Let us know what you were, what you
were feeling.

Speaker 4 (01:18:45):
Did you get the Oasis box out?

Speaker 3 (01:18:46):
How do you feel about it? You know, tell me,
tell me all the things. One I know, don't flip it,
don't you dare unless it's just the A side and
the B side. Hey, yeah, bye for now.

Speaker 1 (01:19:05):
This episode has been brought to you by Women in
Vinyl and Red Spade Records. Thank you for listening. Please
remember to subscribe and you can always contact us directly
by visiting www dot Women in Vinyl dot com

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Episode 60 - Record Store Real Talk with Amanda Schutzman

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Episode 60 - Record Store Real Talk with Amanda Schutzman