It focuses on Richie Finestra, American Century Records founder and president, whose passion for music and discovering talent has gone by the wayside.
With his American Century Records on the verge of being sold, a life-altering event rekindles Finestra's professional fire, but it may leave his personal life in ruins.
According to Nielsen Media Research, the episode was seen by an estimated 0.577 million household viewers and gained a 0.21 ratings share among adults aged 18–49.
He also informs Zak (Ray Romano) that they need to secure funk star Hannibal (Daniel J. Watts) for the company and warns him in leaving him alone.
In March 2016, HBO announced that the fourth episode of the series would be titled "The Racket", and that it would be written by Debora Cahn and directed by S. J. Clarkson.
Matt Fowler of IGN gave the episode a "good" 7.8 out of 10 and wrote in his verdict, "'The Racket' used more humor than usual to lean into its darker themes while also - you know - sticking it to Richie a little bit.
The side story stuff involving Skip and the Donny Osmond records, and some of Zak's issues, seemed to fill up belt space, but the idea of one chaotic day at the office was good.
"[6] Noel Murray of Vulture gave the episode a 4 star rating out of 5 and wrote, "Tonally, the Devon material is still out of synch with the rest of this show.
"[7] Gavin Edwards of The New York Times wrote, "In the real world of 1973, female musicians were outnumbered by their male counterparts — but they have it even harder on Vinyl.
You suspect the writers had their Damascene moment after realising the Alice Cooper strand last week was the strongest thing about the series so far.
"[10] Robert Ham of Paste wrote, "For as much as their awful wigs and even worse facial hair terrifies me every week, I'm starting to think I'd prefer to follow the careers of all the characters that aren't Richie Finestra in Vinyl.