IN six days’ time, Record Store Day will sweep across the country for the ninth year in a row.

What started in 2007 as a handful of record shops holding parties and opening early has now become THE most exciting day of the year for an ever-increasing number of vinyl lovers, with more than 200 shops participating this year in the UK.

But the event, intended to boost footfall and profits to independent record shops in the face of economic doom and gloom, isn’t helping retailers as much as it was intended to, according to Scots record shop owners.

Scottish retailers say the event has turned in to a money-making enterprise for record labels and a chance for out-dated one-hit wonders to be reissued only to be sold in 99p bargain bins years later.

In the early days, a small number of new or limited edition releases were produced specially for the event, and avid vinyl fans could only get their hands on copies by physically visiting a participating independent record shop on the day.

But the number of releases has steadily grown, and this year hundreds of bands have agreed to participate – everyone from the Libertines to Justin Bieber seem to have a special release. And despite the increased participation and the so-called vinyl revival, record shops across Scotland are still closing down.

Glasgow’s Volcanic Tongue, for example, closed its doors in January last year after 10 years of trading, while stalwart retailer Avalanche in Edinburgh shut just this month after serving customers for more than three decades.

Avalanche owner Kevin Buckle, who was one of the first shops in the UK to hold an event for Record Store Day (RSD), said he was contemplating keeping his shop open for the event until he saw this year’s list of special releases.

Buckle said: “I think it’s a great idea to have it but I’m a bit disillusioned with how it’s evolved. We were going to stay open to RSD but then I saw the list and I thought it wasn’t worth staying open for.

“Even the things that could have been of interest were just a single … even with the vinyl revival, seven-inches are completely dead. You might get the occasional PJ Harvey thing or something which will generate interest but on RSD there are so many seven-inches.”

He explained that the day was supposed to highlight the record shops and entice people in, not just make money for big record labels.

“It was meant to be a celebration of record shops. It wasn’t about the support for vinyl, and that seems to have been lost,” he added. “One shop owner summed it up perfectly – it is shops selling releases they don’t normally sell, to people they don’t normally see, at a time they’re not normally open.”

Buckle added that shops have now been allowed to sell the releases a week later online, which also detracts from the original idea of getting people in to the shops and keeping them as a returning customer all year round.

Darren Yeats, owner of VoxBox in Edinburgh, said although he is a fan of the event his business suffered two years ago after overestimating the number of releases he should buy.

He said: “RSD done well can help a shop pay its rent for a year. Done badly, it can risk putting a shop out of business. We were stung two years ago because we bought probably too many records and it took a long time to sell the overstock that we had. All the profit is tied up in the overstock too – it’s a two-edged sword.”

Last year, Yeats didn’t buy any of the RSD releases and held a party in his shop with live music anyway, which he claims made him “almost as much profit” as he had previously.

Yeats added: “Is it past its sell-by date? I don’t think so. It’s about what you put into it.”

For Dep Downie, who owns Glasgow’s Monorail Music, the day is “bigger than Christmas” and without it he says he would struggle to pay his bills.

Downie said: “It’s our busiest day and it really helps us out, it is great advertising.

“I do think the major labels have kind of destroyed it a little bit by releasing it too much.

“This year there are 500 plus releases, that’s a bit insane.

“Some things you can’t get enough of and some things you can get, but you can still get it in six months’ time.

“I’d like to change that as there are certain records you order 30 copies of but you’re only given two copies.

“If people have been queuing outside the shop since 2am, and you’ve only got one or two copies of something then they might not get it. I always feel really bad about that.”

Record Store Day co-ordinator, and chief executive of the Entertainment Retailers Association Kim Bayley said retailers are under no obligation to buy the exclusive releases.

She said: “At its most basic, RSD is just a celebration of independent record shops.

“Many people who take part go to enjoy the events put on at stores and the party atmosphere, not just to buy exclusive vinyl releases.

“There are a lot of releases but no record shop or fan has to buy any of them if they don’t want to.

“The releases cater to a huge array of tastes and stores, so each shop stocks those releases relevant to their customers.

“Part of the skill in running a record shop is selecting the right releases for your customers – that’s what shops do every day of the week, not just on Record Store Day.”

Bayley added that the allocation of records to shops are the responsibility of the labels but due to the “exclusive nature” of the releases, it means not all fans will be able to get a copy, particularly as often only 500 copies are produced.