On Saturday, March 26, Monster Music conducted the first Charleston Record Expo, the first record convention to convene in Charleston in at least 17 years. The genesis for our show came about after we made a particularly large used record buy a couple of years ago. We had a lot of really good stuff, and we felt that it had potential far beyond local buyers. We slowly amassed vinyl since then, and about a year & a half ago we set up a couple of tables at the Savannah Record Fair and were quite surprised at our success. Kids there were hungry for vinyl and had no other outlet.
Our idea stewed. As time went on, and our collection grew, we continued to talk about it, and people encouraged us to do it. A lot of people said they’d want to help out or man a table. This past fall, we took the plunge and committed to a date. Our landlord graciously agreed to let us use an empty space down the sidewalk from us. Our initial marketing consisted of word-of-mouth only, and people were pretty excited about the idea. Our actual marketing campaign didn’t begin in full until January. We mailed flyers to everyone we could think of in the southeast – media, record stores, anyone relevant for whom we could find an address for. We posted it on Record Shows of America, which yielded good results. From there, we built a campaign involving local print and radio, internet, blogs, email, Facebook & Twitter, vinyl customers, label reps, and a street team at the College of Charleston. (Credit goes to our friends at Captains Comics for that one.) South of Philly Pizza, who sold pizza & drinks at the event, put flyers on their pizza boxes.
Pretty quickly, interested vendors started contacting us. I think the first one was a guy from Seneca, SC. The next was from Wilmington. Then we got an email from a guy in Detroit, saying he was familiar with Charleston and could we give him some more information. I didn’t think he’d follow through, especially given this was the first time around for this event, but he most certainly did.
Then some local people signed on. Then a fellow from Pensacola, then someone from around Columbia, SC. Pretty soon it was a virtual sell out. I was most afraid of throwing a show and having only three or four vendors sign on, and falling on our faces. But at the event’s eve, we had 11 vendors, representing 23 tables (plus our own, of course). We were pleased.
We got a great write up in the Charleston City Paper on Wednesday, and Thursday’s Charleston Scene did an excellent feature as well. Friday morning I did an interview on WCOO radio (105.5 the Bridge). The Bridge and their sister station WYBB (98 Rock) gave it so many incredible mentions, I can’t thank them enough. They took my press release and condensed the whole thing into a liner, and saturated the airwaves.
We’re still somewhat new to Facebook and Twitter marketing, and we don’t have a ton of followers like some stores do. But we did spend a little money on targeted ads on Facebook for a week or so leading up to the event, and we saw a marked increase in page views and followers.
Channel 2 came out on Saturday and shot some footage. A brief story ran that night.
The City Paper article is here: http://www.
The Charleston Scene article is here: http://www.charlestonscene.
It also was posted on several blogs. In fact, if you google Charleston Record Expo, the first five or six pages of hits are specific references to our event.
Photos we took can be found here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/
After the City Paper article on Thursday, we received numerous phone calls from people wanting to sell their vinyl. Most of them I think were older and had less desirable stuff – easy listening, show tunes, pop vocal. I told people that we or someone might be interested in buying on Saturday, but the best bet was to bring them in to us sometime during the next week.
Three of the vendors showed up on Friday to check out the place & get acclimated. Probably my favorite aspect of the event was meeting the vendors. What a great group of guys, and they help remind me why I’m in this business. Everyone arrived first thing Saturday, as expected, and set up was very smooth.
So, how did it go?
First of all, my expectations going into it were modest. I was just hoping to not be embarrassed. A lot of people took a big chance by signing on to it – again, our first one – and traveled a good distance to get here. At 10:00, when the show opened, a few people trickled in. But somewhere around 10:15-10:30, it became wall to wall people, and it didn’t let up for a couple of hours. And even when it did let up, traffic was still quite brisk. It didn’t slow down to a mellow pace until after 3. And at closing time, 5:00, there were still a few people browsing.
One of our vendors, Greg, told me earlier in the day “to call this a big success would be a gross understatement!” Another of the vendors, who has been doing record shows for years, said he never does as well as he did that day. I polled vendors afterwards, and most everyone did splendidly. Turnout and gross sales surpassed all expectations.
There are a few things I’d do differently – but not much. We really did emphasize vinyl, vinyl, vinyl, all along, but when we initially pitched it, we imagined the show would be a little more all-encompassing – CD’s, DVD’s, boots, collectables, memorabilia, etc. Vinyl is obviously the main selling point for such a show, but towards that end we didn’t promote very well the fact there would be other vendors, selling import CDs, concert posters, comic books. Next time we’ll have a better idea going in what everyone’s going to have, and make sure to promote those items.
Other than that, next time we might need a bigger space.
I’ve copied all the vendors here I had email addresses for. If any of you have other comments or suggestions, please feel free to reply back & give me some feedback.
We didn’t overwhelm the event with our own merchandise. Considering our store was just a couple hundred feet down the sidewalk, we didn’t feel that was particularly necessary. But we did was to use this as a springboard into Record Store Day – April 16th. We will see how well that succeeded shortly. If nothing else, I think there will be a nice glow effect for a little while, more people who are aware we sell (and buy) vinyl (and that we exist at all), and hopefully more attention drawn to the coastal southeast for record shows. Savannah’s Record Fair has really grown in the last year or so. Interest in vinyl is huge, and people are willing to travel for it.
And there is strength in numbers. Fellow vendors and show originators should, and need to, band together to make sure these events bounce off of one another and that we don’t leave the public eye. We can’t forget the abuse the music retail industry has taken in the last several years in the media and the public perception. When we see a success such as this, we can’t let the flame die. It takes multiple people to carry it. So hopefully people will talk about this show, and in the meantime go to the Savannah show (go to Record Store Day at Monster or your nearby record store too!) and others, and we won’t wait too long to do the next one. We certainly have our eye out for other vinyl collections and will have a lot of new stuff to show next time.
If nothing else, we are still the only independent record store in Charleston, probably the biggest CD & LP store in South Carolina, and we quite possibly lay claim to the biggest new & used vinyl retail selection in the southeast. If nothing else, we’ve got to be in the top 3 or 4. Hopefully people have taken notice. Not just of us, but also of the fact that demand is impressive enough for about ten record vendors to be thrilled with their results in the first ever Charleston Record Expo.
Thank you very much to all of you who participated, sold, bought, wrote about it, advertised it, blogged about it, talked about it, or helped out in any other way.
Galen Hudson
Monster Music & Movies
946 Orleans Rd
Charleston, SC 29407
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