What is Record Store Day? 

Record Store Day is a celebration of independent record stores. It is the one day of the year when over 200 independent record shops all across the UK come together to celebrate their unique culture. Hundreds of labels and artists celebrate the day by releasing special vinyl products that are exclusive to the participating stores. Many shops and cities also host events and performances to mark the occasion. Although there’s only one Record Store Day a year, we also work throughout the year to celebrate our independent record stores by spotlighting exclusive releases, events and special news. BBC Music are Record Store Day’s official media partner.

When is Record Store Day?

Record Store Day 2017 takes place on Saturday 22nd April.
The list of exclusive releases was revealed on Tuesday 21st March, see below for more information

The Vinyl Revival
Record Store Day has been well recognised as the catalyst behind the vinyl revival. In 2007 when the event began, vinyl album sales amounted to just £1.1m, accounting for just 0.2% of the physical albums market. Now, 10 years on, vinyl sales are worth £65.6m, representing 14% of total spend on physical format albums in the UK.

Over 3.4m units were sold in 2016, with spend surpassing £65m, up 54.4% year on year (ERA Yearbook, 2017).

The 10th Anniversary

Record Store Day 2017 is our 10th birthday! To celebrate this milestone we have a list of official UK champions for the very first time. These are, Slaves, Anton Newcombe, Kate Tempest and Izzy Bizu. All of these artists will have exciting limited edition vinyl releases for the day and will be making special appearance in the run up to the event.

Previous Ambassadors and Releases

In 2008, Metallica officially kicked off Record Store Day as ambassadors at Rasputin Music in San Francisco. There were approximately 10 releases from the likes of Billy Bragg, R.E.M, Death Cab for Cutie and Stephen Malkmus. Only a handful of UK stores took part in 2008, these were Piccadilly Records, Jumbo Records, Resident, Sister Ray, Rapture, Rough Trade, Spillers and Avalanche. Since then, ambassadors have included Jess Hughes (2009), Josh Homme (2010), Ozzy Osbourne (2011), Iggy Pop (2012), Jack White (2013), Chuck D (2014), Dave Grohl (2015), Metallica (2016) and St Vincent (2017).

In 2017, there are over 500 releases still predominantly dominated by independent labels as they account for over 75% of the list. There are over 230 stores taking part.

The Record Stores & List of Exclusives

I guess you're all keen to find out what exclusives are available this year, well wait no more, here is the FULL list of all exclusives that will be available at the participating UK stores
 

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