The annual Record Store Day in underway in the USA with instore appearances, acoustic performances and signings happening all over America.
A sample of artists out today promoting Record Store Day include Kate Nash at Main Street Music in Philadelphia, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club at CD Central in Lexington, Built To Spill at The Record Exchange in Boise, and Nada Surf at Vintage Vinyl in Fords.One of the major events was centred around Rasputin Music in San Francisco's Bay Area. Metallica and Lupe Fiasco both came out to the store to mark Record Store Day.
The concept behind record store day was regenerate the excitement that used to happen for music fans visiting stores and flicking through the releases.
That has somewhat diminished with digital music and download stores but the physical release isn't dead yet. The record store represents local culture in its community and the stars agree.
"There's nothing as glamorous to me as a record store," said Paul McCartney. "When I recently played Amoeba in LA, I realised what fantastic memories such a collection of music brings back when you see it all in one place. This is why I'm more than happy to support Record Store Day and I hope that these kinds of stores will be there for us all for many years to come"
Norah Jones agrees. "It's important to keep indie record stores alive because their unique environments introduce music lovers to things in a very personal way," she said.
Henry Rollins has sadly watched the record stores evaporate out of the community. "I have watched independent record stores evaporate all over America and Europe. That's why I go into as many as I can and buy records whenever possible. If we lose the independent record store, we lose big. Every time you buy your records at one of these places, it's a blow to the empire," he said.
Record Store Day brought together hundreds of independent music stores in unison across America.
Pockets of stores in Australia and the UK also got involved in this year's event.
Next year, the event will be global.
