Hey Bob,

A friend said that you mentioned Record Store Day in one of your email blasts and suggested I email you about it since I’m one of the guys who put it together. (note: I get your emails but rarely have time or the inclination to read them so my friend forwarded the email). Anyway, I read it and it struck me as being written by someone who is sitting on the sidelines and not really involved or knowledgeable. Let me explain what Record Store Day is about…

Record Store Day is an excuse for record stores to have a party with the artists who love them and who want to celebrate their art with us. And there are a lot of these of artists. Tom Waits. Wilco. Dylan. Iron & Wine. Ryan Adams. Beck. Talib Kweli. The Dead Weather. Chris Cornell. Erykah Badu. Disturbed. Amanda Palmer. Leonard Cohen. Paul McCartney. My Morning Jacket. And on and on. Don’t take my word for it though, go to www.recordstoreday.com and see for yourself.

We aren’t claiming that we are the saviors of the music biz, but we are doing a great job with what we do. And, just as importantly, we are having fun. Remember what that was like? If we could get a hundred other music biz people to take this approach, instead of hyping Irving Azoff’s latest Wall Street-like-move, or Wal-mart, or Apple, or Google China,  or whatever the latest nonsense of the week is, we’d all be in a lot better shape. Now is the time to get behind the artists. They are the stars. They are the creators. Find the ones that suit your taste and do all that you can do to make them shine. If you can’t do this then my suggestion is to please do us all a favor and be quiet for awhile. There’s too much noise and negativity already. It’s time to be appreciative about music and the very special people who make it, as well as the fans that love it. That is what record stores do and what Record Store Day is about.

So drop the poison pen, lose the bitterness, think of the music you love and come celebrate at your favorite store or come to Coachella where I’ll be helping to run our on-site store. If you do, ask for me and I’ll give you a much needed hug and we can talk about Todd Rundgren’s “Ballad of…,” or whether or not Wilco’s “Sky Blue Sky” album was sheer genius (it was!), or whether Regina Spektor is as talented as Laura Nyro (she is!).

Best,

Michael Kurtz
Co-founder of Record Store Day