Record Store Day is an annual event inaugurated in 2007 and held on one Saturday every April and every Black Friday in November to "celebrate the culture of the independently owned record store". The day brings together fans, artists, and thousands of independent record stores around the world. A number of records are pressed specifically for Record Store Day, with a list of releases for each country, and are only distributed to shops participating in the event.

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Record Store Day is headquartered in the United States, where it began. Official organizers operate in the UK, Ireland, Mexico, Europe, Japan and Australia.

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Originally pitched as an idea to create an event similar to Free Comic Book Day by Bull Moose Music's Chris Brown and Criminal Record's Eric Levin, the concept for Record Store Day was created during a brainstorming session at a meeting of independent record store owners in Baltimore, Maryland. Record Store Day was founded in 2007 by Eric Levin, Michael Kurtz, Carrie Colliton, Amy Dorfman, Brian Poehner and Don Van Cleave, and is now celebrated at stores around the world, with hundreds of recording and other artists participating in the day by making special appearances, performances, meet and greets with their fans, the holding of fundraisers for community non-profits, and the issuing of special vinyl and CD releases along with other promotional offerings to mark the occasion.

 

Each store holds its own event for the day, to celebrate its place in its community. Although Record Store Day, the day, only occurs once a year, Record Store Day, the organization, provides promotions, marketing, and other opportunities for stores throughout the year, maintaining a website, social media and other means of promulgating its views about the value of independent record stores. 

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Universal Music's sales manager, Marc Fayd’Herbe, has described Record Store Day as "the single best thing that has ever happened" for independent record shops. The 2013 event was credited with the highest U.S. vinyl sales, and the 2014 edition resulted in independent retailers recording the highest percentage of physical album sales, since the SoundScan system was introduced in 1991. In their 2015 Libera awards, the American Association of Independent Music awarded Record Store Day its "Marketplace Ally" award. Record Store Day 2016 produced the biggest week of sales for the vinyl LP format since the introduction of SoundScan.

 

In the UK, the event has been criticized for catering to record collectors, rather than casual music fans, and delaying the release of non-affiliated records by monopolizing the capacity of record pressing plants. Major labels have been accused of hijacking the event, and the policy of shops being obliged to buy on a no-return basis has been criticized, along with many of the limited releases being re-sold online within hours, at inflated prices.