Guide
how to get Record Store Day alerts
Record Store Day is the one day in the calendar where stock is genuinely unpredictable. Allocations are split across hundreds of independent shops, every shop decides for itself whether to sell online and when, and the titles that sell out nationally in ten minutes are often still sitting on a shelf in a shop three counties away.
There is no central stock list. Watching one shop's website means missing the other two hundred, and leftovers from the day itself trickle back online for weeks afterwards at shops that did not sell their full allocation.
Developed for mobile:
what makes RSD unpredictable
Staggered online listings
Some shops list RSD titles at midnight, some at 08:00, some only once the in-store queue has cleared. The spread across the day is where the opportunities are.
Post-day leftovers
Unsold allocations go online in the days and weeks after. This is the most reliable way to get a title you missed, at retail price, not resale.
One-per-customer rules
Most shops limit RSD titles to one per person, so a basket with three copies tends to get cancelled. Plan on several separate orders.
RSD stockists tracked
Australia & NZ
The Sound of Vinyl
United Kingdom
Banquet Records, Blood Records, Decca Records, Disney Music Emporium, Epitaph Records, Rise Records
United States
Decca Records, Epitaph Records, Magnolia Record Store, Rise Records, The Sound of Vinyl
keywords for an RSD title
Keywords filter every store you track, so one list covers all of them. Start broad, then cut it down once you have seen a week of alerts.
- rsd
- record,store,day
- exclusive
- limited
- 7,inch
- picture,disc
how to actually get a title
Set the keyword to the artist rather than the event
Shops rarely put RSD in the product title. The artist name and the release title are what actually appears on the page, so those are what to filter on.
Keep alerts on for a fortnight afterwards
Most people stop looking on the Monday. The leftovers appear later, which is when the competition has gone.
Spread across shops, not across titles
If you want one specific record, tracking twelve shops for that one title beats tracking one shop for twelve titles.
questions
Can I get an alert when an RSD title goes online?
Yes. Pick the participating shops you're able to order from, set a keyword for the artist or title, and you get a push notification when it appears. MerchVault covers over a hundred Record Store Day stockists.
Do you cover the official Record Store Day site?
The guides for a specific year list the official release pages, and MerchVault tracks the shops that actually sell the stock. See the Record Store Day 2026 page for that year's featured titles.
What about RSD Black Friday?
Same approach and the same stockists. There is a dedicated page for the Black Friday drop with the titles involved.
Will I get an alert for in-store queues?
No. Alerts track online stock. For in-store, the shop's own social accounts are still the best source on the morning itself.
start tracking Record Store Day
Install the app, add the stores from the coverage list above, and set your keywords. The free tier includes three music stores, and Premium removes the limit along with Shopify Scanner and price drop alerts.