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Record Tokens return

By | Published on Monday 12 March 2018

Record Tokens

The Entertainment Retailers Association last week confirmed that it is bringing back good old fashioned record tokens. Your gran will be pleased come Christmas. I know she’s been panicking about what to get you.

Back in the 90s, the Christmas gran market made record tokens a multi-million pound business. But as physical music products became less of a thing that The Kids wanted, the demand for them dried up. Which is why your gran now gives you handkerchiefs every year, which can’t be traded for anything.

From May though, the tokens will be back and accepted in independent record shops across the land. It’s all being administered by the company behind National Book Tokens, which are apparently still a thing. You should have told you gran about those. But now there’s no need. Don’t run the risk of having to own a stinky book, when you can have a new piece of fragrant vinyl in your hands.

It’s the ‘vinyl revival’ that’s apparently prompted all of this. ERA reckons enough people are now buying physical records that it’s worth having a multi-retailer token-based gift system in place once again.

“There has never been a better time to bring back record tokens”, says ERA boss Kim Bayley. “We predict they will be much coveted gifts this year for music fans of all ages. The unstoppable growth in vinyl sales, and year on year increase in independent record shop openings, show that the UK’s love affair with vinyl is here to stay”.

The tokens will be available on 14 May online and from participating indie stores. Email your gran with a link to the record tokens website by early November to avoid disappointment.



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