Major artists back Record Store Day

This weekend marks the third annual Record Store Day - a celebration of independent music shops - and major recording artists have spoken out to back the event.

Bands will release special material to encourage people to visit their local store this Saturday (18 April).

Sonic Youth, Beck and Franz Ferdinand are putting out old rare tracks, Graham Coxon is revealing a new single, The Breeders have moved forward the release date of their new EP, and there are special re-releases from the likes of The Smiths, New Order, The Stooges and Jane's Addiction.

Here's what a selection of musicians had to say about the event:

Joe Satriani

"Musical trends are confirmed at the local independent record store, by you and me. Hanging out, listening to something you've never heard before, being enlightened by the staff, getting into something new, finding that old recording you've been searching for, having your local band's newest offering stocked right next to major label stuff, it all happens at the local indie shop. Why would we want to do away with all that?"

Paul McCartney

"There's nothing as glamorous to me as a record store. When I recently played Amoeba in LA, I realised what fantastic memories such a collection of music brings back when you see it all in one place. This is why I'm more than happy to support Record Store Day and I hope that these kinds of stores will be there for us all for many years to come. Cheers!"

Bruce Springsteen

"I buy CDs all the time. I'll go into a record store and just buy $500 worth of CDs. I will! I am single-handedly supporting what's left of the record business.

"I hate to see record stores disappear, and I'm old-school in that I think you should pay for your music. But what my kids do is download a lot of things, pay for them, and then if they love something, they'll get the CD. That may be the future."

Jack White

"I think it's high time the mentors, big brothers, big sisters, parents, Guardians, and neighborhood ne'er do wells, start taking younger people that look up to them to a real record store and show them what an important part of life music really is."

Damon Albarn

"I think independent record shops will outlive the music industry as we know it because long term their value to people is far greater, because even in our era of file-sharing and blogs, you can't replace the actual look on someone's face when they are playing something they really rate and think you should listen to it too. It's special."

Record stores are being killed off by huge online sellers like Amazon and iTunes as well as supermarkets such as Asda and Tesco that offer convenience music shopping. But the real gems are still found in that dusty old shop down the back of your local high street.

A list of participating record stores around the world can be found at the Record Store Day website.