Record Store Day Set For April 17th...

The original idea for Record Store Day was conceived by Chris Brown, and was founded in 2007 by Eric Levin, Michael Kurtz, Carrie Colliton, Amy Dorfman, Don Van Cleave and Brian Poehner as a celebration of the unique culture surrounding over 700 independently owned record stores in the USA, and hundreds of similar stores internationally.

This is the one day that all of the independently owned record stores come together with artists to celebrate the art of music. Special vinyl and CD releases and various promotional products are made exclusively for the day and hundreds of artists in the United States and in various countries across the globe make special appearances and performances. Festivities include performances, cook-outs, body painting, meet & greets with artists, parades, djs spinning records and on and on. Metallica officially kicked off Record Store Day at Rasputin Music in San Franscisco on April 19, 2008 and Record Store Day is now celebrated the third Saturday every April.

A Record Store Day participating store is defined as a physical retailer whose product line consists of at least 50% music retail, whose company is not publicly traded and whose ownership is at least 70% located in the state of operation. (In other words, we’re dealing with real, live, physical, indie record stores—not online retailers or corporate behemoths).

Official Website

List of Participating Artists & Releases

According to Mic To Mic:
Beastie Boys have contributed a "super surprise" 12-inch record for Record Store Day, which is a day in which special vinyl and CD releases are sold exclusively at independently owned record stores. The purpose of Record Store Day is to encourage music fans to support their local record stores, instead of big box stores or online music stores.

The Beastie Boys' super surprise record for Record Store Day is limited to 1,000 copies and will be distributed among more than 700 record stores. If you are interested in getting a copy of the Beastie Boys' album, go to your local record store and express interest in it. The record store will not be able to guarantee you a copy, but it will be able to make a request for the record.