Record Store Day will take place on Saturday, April 16.
Bowie is the bell of this Record Store Day ball, as his estate will issue three special vinyl releases, including a picture disc of his famed 1970 album The Man Who Sold The World. Dylan adds to the list of classic artists, putting out a previously Japan-only EP called Melancholy Mood.
As far as more beat driven-releases, a long-lost vocal album called The Diary from hip-hop star J Dilla also hits the streets this April, and other, more widely-heard releases get special artwork or limited pressings, like a glow-in-the-dark vinyl version of OutKast’s classic single Elevators (Me & You).
In addition to CD and Vinyl, some musicians will be putting out other cool one-off items. Southern rappers Run The Jewels, for example, have announced plans to put out a self-branded cardboard virtual reality viewer, which will likely be accompanied by a smartphone VR app.
First conceived in 2007, Record Store Day aims to bring music fans out to the nearly 1,400 independent stores in the United States by luring them with special limited-edition CDs, vinyl, and more. So far, so good; cities such as New York, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas have declared the day an official holiday, and it has also been adopted by thousands of independent record stores around the globe.
In order to participate in Record Store Day, businesses must be “real, live, physical, indie record stores—not online retailers or corporate behemoths,” according to the organizer’s website.
The effort to get fans back into real, local, record stores has been widely supported by artists. In 2009, Jesse Hughes of The Eagles of Death Metal declared himself “Record Store Day Ambassador,” in an attempt to bring even more fans out to stores. Since then, the ceremonial sash has been worn by fellow bandmate and Queens of the Stone Age founder Josh Homme, Ozzy Osbourne, Iggy Pop, Jack White, Chuck D, and Dave Grohl.
This year’s ambassadors will be Metallica, who will release a CD of a 2003 Bataclan performance to raise money for France’s Give For France charity.
Fans interested in the full list of special releases can head to Record Store Day’s website, where each artist is listed alphabetically.
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