Michael Kurtz

Michael Kurtz

Michael Kurtz

Co-Founder | Record Store Day

Michael Kurtz is the co-founder of “Record Store Day,” conceived in 2007 at a gathering of independent record store owners as a way to celebrate and spread the word about the unique culture surrounding nearly 1,400 independently owned record stores in the U.S. and thousands of similar stores internationally. The first Record Store Day was launched with Metallica on April 19, 2008 and has presided over ten straight years of epic growth in vinyl and turntable sales. Today there are Record Store Day participating stores on every continent except Antarctica, and it is the largest music event in terms of worldwide participation in history. In addition to co-founding Record Store Day, Michael Kurtz serves as the President of The Department of Record Stores (The DORS), the largest coalition of independent record stores in North America. As President, Michael works with a board of dynamic record storeowners, artist managers, iconic brands, as well as record labels and music and film distributors. The DORS has 72 storefronts in the USA. In 2013, Michael Kurtz was given the honor of “Chavalie De L’Ordre Des Arts Et Des Lettres” by the French Ministry of Culture. The receipt of this honor is the equivalent of being knighted and was an acknowledgment of contributions to music culture worldwide. In 2014, Michael Kurtz was given the Independent Spirit Award by the National Association of Retail Merchandisers for his work with Record Store Day, and in 2015 Michael Kurtz was given a Libby Award by the American Association of Independent Music (A2IM) for being the best ally of independent record labels.

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