Music retailers fight back with "Record Store Day"

NEW YORK (Billboard) - Struggling music retailers have enlisted acts such as Metallica and Panic at the Disco to help out with a nationwide "Record Store Day" on April 19.

On that day, record stores across the United States will give out free promotional music CDs, vinyl and videos as well as other bag-stuffers, and host performances and meet-and-greets by musical acts.

Metallica will meet with fans at Rasputin's in Mountain View, Calif., as will Panic at the Disco at Waterloo in Austin, and Steve Earle and Allison Moorer at Manifest in Charlotte, N.C.

"Once we explained what Record Store Day was, Metallica was like, 'Let's do it,"' says one of the band's managers, Marc Reiter of Q Prime Management. "It took no convincing on our part. (Metallica) shops at Rasputin's. They love (California's) Amoeba and they loved Tower."

In fact, Q Prime is trying to get as many of its acts involved as possible, whether it be through signings, in-store performances or working as clerks or cashiers in the stores, he adds.

The campaign, conceived last fall, aims to battle "a perception that record stores are something of a joke; like we are all dinosaurs stuck in the tar," says Eric Levin, an Atlanta retailer who heads the 32-store Alliance of Independent Media Stores, one of the organizers.

Retailers hope the day "will attract the kids, the generation that we lost, who don't know what a good record store is anymore," says Michael Kurtz, head of the 124-unit Music Monitor Network, which includes 23 stores in Canada.

Music fans who can still find a local record store will be able to buy Metallica's CD catalog for $9.99, and reissues of the band's first two albums on 180-gram vinyl.

Seven-inch singles from such acts as the Black Keys, Panic at the Disco, Death Cab for Cutie and Jason Mraz will also be on sale. Participating stores will feature DVDs for $3.99-$9.99 and a massive selection of CD catalog for $10 or less.