RSD is a new event which will be taking place in Berlin alongside the BerMuDa festival on the 5th of November. The idea behind the event is to create a special day for record shops across Berlin who will offer one-off exclusive releases from leading record labels and in-store performances from affiliated artists. Some of the labels that are taking part on the release-side are Dirtybird, Get Physical, Monkey Town, Wolf & Lamb and Hypercolor, and more.

For the occasion, SLIM spoke with Oye record store owner and DJ Markus Lindner a.k.a. Delfonic.

Let's start simple. What is RSD? What’s the idea behind it, and how did it come about?

The international RSD has existed since 2007 in the USA and Tamara Deike (Ponyup/Items & Things) suggested the idea to me to create a RSD in Berlin for the first time ever. The idea about RSD Berlin is that local music fans and those in town for BerMuDa will be able to join in something unique to Berlin, while also scoring special releases from labels that are strong here in our city, and perhaps discovering new music as well. Berlin has some amazing record shops and is unique compared to other cities around the world because these shops are still thriving! We hope to showcase our stores, shine the spotlight on music that is hot here in Berlin, and bring the fans back to the record shops, a place for community and exchanging our love for music. Also, you can check the recent news about labels, stores and releases on our Facebook page (www.facebook.com/RecordStoreDayBLN) and the forthcoming blog.

You're a record store owner yourself (Oye Records). Is this another way to draw the clients back in the stores?

They never went away. It’s about giving the music lovers something back, and I am still surprised how big the feedback from the labels/producers is! You never can force someone to go to a record store or to play vinyl. It’s just about having so many people who still love this vinyl thing. Looks much better in the club when you play vinyl and the quality is still the best (not the loudest!). Also sometimes we have in-store gigs for some releases (i.e. DJ Kicks with Soul Clap/Wolf+Lamp or Man Recordings). Our monthly late-night shopping with tons of second hand vinyl just started and is really successful.  

Do you see a future for vinyl? What does the future hold for record stores?

The time when records stores held the holy grail of music and information about DJ music is definitely over, but people still love to go to a record store and spend money for music. Especially when you buy a vinyl album, most often now you get MP3s or CDs for free! But you have a nice cover and information about the band/producer in your hand, something that is forever! So, real music fans spend money for records because they wanna support the artists. Otherwise, you still can recommend new music to the customers and have good conversations about the music scene and party scene as well. A lot of tourists interested in music come to the record store to get information about the hottest parties in town and buy a record from Berlin artists/labels as a nice gift or for their collection.

As a successful DJ yourself, you've created events like the radio show you do for Sweatlodge Radio streamed straight from Oye. Are these the kind of ideas that today’s shops need to do to pull the people back in?

I would say definitely yes. Every two weeks, we have an OYE radio show on Sweatlodge Radio, where we present the recent news from our store, a wide range of music, and this is a lot of fun for us and another way to reach the music fans out there beside Facebook, our newsletter, etc. Also we have some residency nights: every first Friday of the month at Kater Holzig called OYE Night, first Saturday at Klub der Republik called OYE Allstars, second Thursday at Farbfernseher called Deep Riot. This is a chance to give some unknown DJs a chance to play and also we book well-known DJs because we love their style and records. Altogether, you can call a record store a network for music lovers, promoters, DJs, collectors, producers and label managers. It's always more fun to communicate face to face with other people. Real Life = Real Music.

Taken from SLIM Mag October Issue

OYE Records Radioshow will air Sunday October 2nd at 20:00, and repeat Monday at 10:00.