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On January 20, organizers of Record Store Day announced Taylor Swift as their first global ambassador ahead of the event's 15th anniversary since its inception in 2007. This year's event is slated to be held on April 23.
Previously, Taylor Swift has also released exclusive records to celebrate the annual event. In a press release, the singer said:
"I'm very proud to be this year's Global Ambassador for Record Store Day. The places where we go to browse and explore and discover music new and old have always been sacred to me. Record stores are so important because they help to perpetuate and foster music-loving as a passion. They create settings for live events."
The All Too Well singer also noted that these record stores had issues with their operations amidst the pandemic and hence required a lot of support. Swift's ambassadorship is not surprising as the artist has supported independent record stores throughout her career.
Record Store Day - What is it?
It is essentially an annual event that has been held since 2007 to celebrate independent record stores and the cultural significance of vinyls and records. The event began in the United States and has spread globally. It is officially celebrated in multiple countries like the UK, Mexico, Japan, Australia, and Ireland.
The event reportedly has thousands of record stores participating globally, with over 1400 stores in the US alone. They also claimed that the stores are scattered over all continents barring Antarctica.
According to RSD's official website:
"This is a day for the people who make up the world of the record store—the staff, the customers, and the artists—to come together and celebrate the unique culture of a record store and the special role these independently owned stores play in their communities."
Over the years, the global event has also been credited with heavily boosting vinyl record sales during Record Store Day's yearly drops of exclusive vinyls from artists.
In 2020, Official Charts Company data showed over 124,000 vinyl sales during the week of RSD's final drop. In total, this enabled vinyl album sales to increase by 27.4% since the previous year.
As per MRC data from last year, Record Store Day's first release from June 12 recorded over 1.3 million vinyl albums in US sales within a week. In their recent press release, Taylor Swift addressed the sales:
"It's been a true joy for me to watch vinyl sales grow in the past few years and we, the artists, have the fans to thank for this pleasant surprise."
With the artist's close involvement with the global event, it is expected that the upcoming drops of RSD will promote more vinyl album sales.
