Record Store Day was nuts at my store. We did really, really well. There was a line of about 150 people when we opened. Some people had been waiting since 6 AM when we opened at 11. I worked for 12 hours and drank way too much beer. I loved every minute of it.

I only ended up getting the Husker Du and Public Image Ltd. 7"s. I may end up getting more. I wanted the Drive soundtrack but we didn't get any. Hopefully some will show up later.

Wayne Coyne came in the day before and took a picture of me and my boss with the silver vinyl copy of the Terror that we were putting out for RSD.

I heard that there were distribution problems with the Drive vinyl and that only a few spots close to the distribution center actually got them. The rest of the product will find its way into the marketplace in the next few days.

I'd stay away from that place and go to a smaller, more intimate store then.

This was my third proper RSD, fourth including one Black Friday event that I went to. I kept my spending down, only getting releases by David Bowie, Placebo, Willie Nelson, Rob Zombie & Daniel Johnston.

My Rob Zombie vinyl is on a truck somewhere about to get delivered, but I remembered that Amazon now does Auto Rip. I went to the Amazon Cloud and it wasn't there and noticed on the product page that it did not have the Auto Rip banner on it. I figured it wasn't eligible for it, so I chatted up an Amazon rep for clarification. I was right. They basically said that not all vinyls bought through Amazon directly qualify for Auto Rip and that they were expanding their offerings. I asked if once those items that were not eligible for Auto Rip now become eligible in the future, will they be added to the Cloud retroactively? They said no, but that that was a good question and it would be forwarded to the MP3 department.

Does the album not come with a digital download code?

Nope. That would have been too easy. Mr. Zombie is a businessman. He doesn't give shit away anymore.

The album is 180g and comes in a gatefold cover. The interior has the same artwork that the RSD record had but is severely cropped. I'll be spinning it in a bit.

There's another place called Record Surplus, but they kind of suck now and they overcharge a ton, so I'm worried that if I try to get exclusives there, they'll charge me an arm and a leg.

Frankly, I don't care too much about exclusives. I think next time I'll just roll in around 2 and see what exclusives are left at Amoeba.

Speaking of the RSD release, I was a moron and not only put the needle on the inside portion of the record (like you're supposed to), but also put the drive in reverse, thinking that's what I was supposed to do.

Big time face-palm moment there.

That's weird, up till now all my purchases that become eligible for AutoRip have become automatically eligible.

And as for not including a download code, that's just cheap, and an invitation to pirate, or rip your own MP3s off the vinyl.

Now that I have the full vinyl version of the album I'm leaving my RSD sealed. There's no way I was going to mess with that one by experimenting with the needle.

Agreed. If I have the album on vinyl, and you don't include the download card - I'm not buying the CD simply to have the songs in digital format. I'll find other ways of obtaining it.

Just finished spinning the Zombie album and I must say that it rocked! It's catchy and a lot of fun. It's way better than Hellbilly Deluxe 2, which was sort of a bore.

My favorite track was the electronic infused "Revelation Revolution."

Especially when you consider that vinyl is a niche format at this point, and that a new vinyl record almost always costs more than the CD or MP3 version of the album. You're not getting ripped off as an artist by including a download code with vinyl copies of the album.

There is absolutely no reason for a label not to include a download code in their record releases. It's just laziness. It costs almost nothing to include a download code. They could charge me a dollar extra to include the code (about 10 times what it would cost them to do it) and I would be completely okay with it to guarantee that I get a download of the album.

I shouldn't have to rip the album or download someone's rip of the vinyl. Plus I'd rather not have the mp3s sourced from vinyl.

Was able to pick up a UK RSD copy of Mad Season Above for about $45 shipped on discogs.com. I was going to grab the UK release of Porno For Pyros, but I really like the US tie die version.

Can't believe that Zombie's new album isn't an auto-rip album on amazon. $35 is steep for an LP, you'd think it's the least the label could do.

Some vinyl sourced MP3s can sound excellent, especially if the CD is brickwalled when the vinyl isn't. I have a vinyl rip of Graceland that puts all the CD versions I've heard to shame.

Broke down and bought the reissue of Nick Drake's Pink Moon. Figure I'll never see an original I'm willing to buy.

Yeah, I have a lot of vinyl-sourced mp3s in my car for that very reason.

Strangely I just bought a record which contained a download code for a needledrop of a test pressing of the record and it was really bad. Lots of hissing, pops. I listened to that first and assumed the record would be terrible, but it was actually perfect: flat, quiet. I wonder if they did that on purpose just to make it obvious it was a needledrop, which would be an odd choice. Why not use a quality record player or even just use whatever was used to create the test pressing?

So this is interesting: https://feedbands.com/

It's basically a record of the month club, except they're pressing the vinyl themselves, for bands without record labels. It's $20 per month and if you don't like the record, you can return it for a refund.

Each album comes with a download code for the MP3 version, and the card with the code is biodegradable with a wildflower seed in it, so you can plant the card once you redeem the code and grow flowers.

They have a mobile app where you can listen to music from their bands, vote for the best ones, and I guess the one that gets the most votes each month get their record pressed for the vinyl service.

Sounds like a cool way to find new music. Just wish I could find some reviews of the service before deciding to take the plunge.

You know what? I'm going to go ahead and give it a try. I like the idea and I can cancel whenever, and can return any record I don't like.

^ Sounds neat., I see that they also have a certain amount of subscriptions per month. I would have loved to have gotten into the Dead Waltz subscription service, but that one was also limited and about 10 times more expensive.

Yeah, I'm not sure I'm willing to pay that much for Death Waltz. I'll probably eat those words when the next subscription is available.