To celebrate this year’s Record Store Day, we held a contest to give away Denon Turntables to two first place winners and our grand prize of a turntable, choice vinyl (180 gram, limited-edition titles) and a $100 gift certificate to Amoeba.

We’re pleased to announce the winners. Laura G. won the grand prize after entering at Amoeba Hollywood during the recent performance by Julieta Venegas.

Our two first-place winners came from our San Francisco and Berkeley stores. In SF, Cooper K. was our big winner. In Berkeley, it was Sandy R.

Congratulations to all of the winners! And thanks to everyone who entered. We received more than 10,000 entries, making it one of our top three contests ever.

Our turntables come courtesy of Needle Doctor, in partnership with Filter magazine.

Didn't make it to Record Store Day? We still have RSD releases for sale in-store and online.

Our next contest is for two pairs of tickets to see Icelandic songstress Bjork at either the Craneway Pavillion in Richmond, Calif., or the Hollywood Palladium. Enter here now.

Saturday, April 20th marked the sixth annual Record Store Day (RSD), the holiest of holy days in the record store biz. Of course, Amoeba was the hub of action in San Francisco as we are the Mecca of many a music fiend. Additionally, because the Universe works in mysterious ways, April 20th (4/20) also happens to mark the celebration of a particular herb important to many San Franciscans. Like peanut butter and jelly, the two holidays meshed together on Haight Street, creating a mystical sandwich of epic proportions.

The first Record Store Day fans on the scene lined up at 4:30am outside the doors of Amoeba San Francisco, which is pretty admirable considering the store was not scheduled to open to the public until 10:30am! Early risers were rewarded with scoring the limited edition RSD release they came for and were the firsts to get our special limited run commemorative t-shirt, which was being silk screened right on the stage by our friends at Free Gold Watch. The proceeds from the t-shirt sales will go to the SF Rock Project, which is a performance-based music school for kids age 8-18!

If you missed out on the fun, watch this video below and check out these great pictures taken by our in-house photographer! It's just like being there.

Also check out our selection of limited edition Record Store Day items for sale on Amoeba.com HERE and drop by or call Amoeba to see what RSD gems are remaining. 

Record Store Day moved into Saturday afternoon at Amoeba Hollywood with a DJ set by Lance Rock, a former Amoebite and current Yo Gabba Gabba! ringleader. Lance has always had exceptional musical taste and it was a treat to hear his soundtrack for one of our busiest days of the year. A handful of kids turned out, excited to see DJ Lance Rock in person.

Next up was Lucinda Williams, who chatted with fans and picked out a playlist of her favorite songs, including gypsy jazz, Mark Lanegan and Chelsea Light Moving.

It was been an incredibly busy morning (and afternoon) with the lines wrapping around the store. The main line for the registers even extended into the jazz room and bumped up against the prize wheel line at one point! But by about 5pm, things had slowed just enough to let us move the line for RSD13 titles into the store and put the remaining releases on the floor.

The sixth annual Record Store Day kicked off early this morning at Amoeba Hollywood, with some folks getting in line for the limited RSD releases as early as midnight the night before. We started passing out the RSD menus around 7:30am, shortly before the steaming hot Coffee Bean coffee and pastries arrived to fortify the early birds in line. 

Huge thanks to the Coffee Bean for providing our customers (and our staff) with hot coffee and delicious pastries this morning. Happy 50th anniversary, CBTL!!

 

As in years past, we collected the menus and began filling orders, letting the first wave of RSD customers in around 9:30am. The hot titles were gone in a flash - the Drive soundtrack LP, Bayside Live at The Bayside Social Club LP, Sigur Ros Agaetis Byrjun 10", Title Fight/Touche Amore split 7", Dave Matthews Band, Their They're There LP, the Poltergeist soundtrack, Captain Beefheart's Frank Freemans Dance Club LP, Notorious B.I.G.'s Ready to Die LP, and many, many more.

Checking the master menu in front of Amoeba Hollywood

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Since the doors opened at 10:30am this morning, Record Store Day 2013, at each of the three Amoeba Music stores it's been hectic and hella busy. Above and below are some photos from Amoeba Berkeley in the early afternoon today a few hours after opening. Also below is a video clip of E-Lit at the Berkeley Amoeba store talking about some of the most popular Record Store Day items. And if you have still not made it out to Amoeba for Record Store Day 2013 - there is still lots of time (and goodies) left. More Record Store Day at Amoeba Music info here.