There's absolutely no surprise at this afternoon's announcement, bearing in mind the current global situation thanks to the Coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic - Record Store Day (RSD) 2020 will unfortunately no longer be taking place on June 20th.

It always felt to us an optimistic aim to delay the normal April date to just two month's later, and the organisers have made the decision to move the releases again, and do things in a different format to previously. As it stands, the titles on the RSD 2020 official list will be available from independent record shops on one of the three following RSD "Drop" Dates: Saturday August 29th, Saturday September 26th and Saturday October 24th.

A new version of "The List" with assigned release dates will be launched on June 1st and updates will be found on RecordStoreDay.co.uk, RecordStoreDay.com, and the RSD social media accounts. These sites also include details of the participating record stores. This year, RSD is due to bring four items of interest to BD visitors: the 7" single of Arnold Layne, recorded live at the Syd Barrett tribute held at the Barbican, Roger Waters Live In Berlin 1990 on 2LP clear vinyl, the Guy Pratt/David Gilmour collaboration on the Hackers soundtrack 2LP, and the 12" Nick Mason's Saucerful Of Secrets single (or indeed five items if you include the Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy album!). 

Record Store Day 2020 - originally scheduled for April 18 - was bound to look and feel different from any of the previous twelve. Prior events have been as much about the gatherings, parties, concerts and "group hang" element of a celebration as the financial bonus for, and more importantly raised awareness of, the independent record shops.

However, in this unprecedented situation, the focus of these three RSD Drop dates is on supporting the stores, as well as the artists, labels, distribution and every other business behind the scenes making record stores work. 

Record Store Day organisers have looked at numerous possible dates and various ways to re-work an event that takes place at thousands of record stores around the world, taking into consideration the varying circumstances and situations they and their customers might find themselves in at any point this year.

This current RSD 2020 plan to spread the spotlight and the support over three months, was made with as much available information as possible, and gives the largest number of stores a chance to participate globally in the strangest Record Store Day ever. RSD will be using the guidance of government and scientific experts to ensure these RSD Drop dates are as socially responsible and safe for all involved as possible. Don't necessarily expect all the normal in-store celebrations and events as these changes have been made to allow customers to get the RSD product safely in a socially distanced world. The RSD online rules will be adapted in due course in line with retail developments.

To clarify, this year online rules have changed so that shops in the UK can sell online from 6pm. Selling online is a shop by shop decision and will be dependent on the status of the pandemic at the time of these three dates. This is new to the RSD organisers and to the shops. They are still figuring how to best make this work in the safest and fairest way. They will communicate how they intend to sell these records closer to the time as this is a fast-moving and ever-changing situation.

Finally, plans are already in place for a hopefully much more normal 2021 celebration, to be held on April 17th 2021. RSD Black Friday is still being planned and is scheduled to take place on November 27th (another date for your diary, but again subject to change!).