rough trade to open UK's biggest record shop

MATT MAson

BROADSIDE
I thought this was great. Music is becoming a very different product and things like this prove it. If and where it will be sold as physical bits of plastic, it will be in places like this.

But I think the majors are sooner or later going to move towards a model where consumers pay a licensing fee which gets them as much free music as they want. Long term I can't see any other sensible way of doing this.
 

Woebot

Well-known member
yay. the counter staff told me about this, but it was supposed to be under wraps. apparently it was to be in the old street area, not brick lane - so nearer to me.....

probably the best place would either be spitalfields market area or around hoxton square, we just lost smallfish there and they could fill the vacuum righteously.

i wonder if they have put a nifty little pr spin on it though? i wonder if the covent garden will stay open? the rates in neals yard must be punitive nowadays......
 
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ChineseArithmetic

It is what it is
check it out:
http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/music/news/article2393338.ece

a very brave move, i think, and an exciting one.
perhaps this is the right move for indie record shops- becoming a real 'event' shop...aiming for the tourist trail as well as the regulars. not sure that anyone other than rough trade could pull this off, though.

Sounds like a recipe for bankruptcy to me. Opening a huge new shop just as record shops are closing all over, and the existing ones don't look like their doing a roaring trade on the rae occasions I go in these days - and I'm someone who used to spend every Saturday doing nothing except going round record shops, and I reckon I'm not the only one who stopped doing that. And who's going to want to trudge all the way out to Brick Lane anyway? I rarely ever bought stuff in Rough Trade as they were always significantly more expensive than elsewhere, which won't help either.
 

noel emits

a wonderful wooden reason
If all the other shops are closing I think they could do very well sopping up all the remaining retail custom. But yeah, not sure about the location. How about somewhere like say, Brighton? ;)
 

gumdrops

Well-known member
the real future i reckon is still having shops but allowing customers to go in there and plug their ipods in and download music. maybe exclusive music. but do it in an environment that makes you want to do it in a shop rather than at home. then again, why anyone would wanna go to a shop to do this, im not sure. but physical formats are in decline. maybe rough trade will be selling lots of bagels and serving coffee. if so, i reckon they will probably make more money from that than music. maybe they should become like a heritage shop, like the rough trade version of hard rock cafe or something. it could do okay, considering how well indie is doing at the moment and how many acts are namechecking artists that were on rough trade. geoff travis, employ me!
 

wonk_vitesse

radio eros
Sounds like a recipe for bankruptcy to me. Opening a huge new shop just as record shops are closing all over, and the existing ones don't look like their doing a roaring trade on the rae occasions I go in these days - and I'm someone who used to spend every Saturday doing nothing except going round record shops, and I reckon I'm not the only one who stopped doing that. And who's going to want to trudge all the way out to Brick Lane anyway? I rarely ever bought stuff in Rough Trade as they were always significantly more expensive than elsewhere, which won't help either.

It's a risk for sure but if you've ever milled about brick lane recently you'll know it's where everyone is at. It's been going on for a while but there's a huge cultural shift away from the westend & W11 where rents have escalated. It seems that every savy tourist and hipster is ther in some form. With all he new markets opened and the huge footfall i can see the reasoning behind it... give people something decent.
 
people say physical formats are dying

but if you look at the BPI figures for albums sales in the UK...I'm sure there going up year upon year beating world (yes US I'm kinda stupidly bigging you up) trends and driven mostly by...

indie rock (the most hated genre on this site lol)

*pulls out air guitar*

so good on Rought Trade...get BBK down there for a live performance and it's a wrap...I'd actually leave my house for that lol
 
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soundslike1981

Well-known member
Admittedly I've a soft spot for Rough Trade the label in its early years, but I hope this works out for Rough Trade the shop. Much as I love the occasional small shop that really hits a certain strand spot on, I have to admit at my level of far-gone sound obsession with so many musical forms, it's only independent shops with almost literally everything like Amoeba that can really get my heart aflutter, make me feel like I've arrived somewhere. There's nothing even close to that in London that I knew. I still can't see paying money for digital bits and bytes that can disappear at the crash of a hard drive, though, which makes me old-fashioned I guess.

The Covent Garden location has some good stuff, but I wouldn't be too sad to see it go--too fucking dark, down in that basement, having to walk past skateboarding gear or whatever it was never was the most auspicious entry to good music.
 
Heaven forbid one should have to walk past skateboard gear in order to buy a record.

But this sounds like excellent news. Wilfully perverse.
 

mos dan

fact music
Heaven forbid one should have to walk past skateboard gear in order to buy a record.

i hate the fact that you always get halfway down/up the stairs and usually have to back up to let the person going the other way reach their destination.

maybe not 'hate'. that's a rather strong word for it.

the only people i know who use record shops these days are djs.
 

soundslike1981

Well-known member
Heaven forbid one should have to walk past skateboard gear in order to buy a record.


Nothing personal against skaters, just meant that walking through another shop (whatever the wares) in order to get to a record shop makes the latter seem like something of an afterthought.
 

eleventhvolume

Active member
I love that headline: 'Rough Trade opens massive record shop to fight internet' - conjures up inevitable images of Don Quixote tilting at windmills or King Canute. I wish 'em the very best, but wouldn't buy shares...
 

mms

sometimes
I love that headline: 'Rough Trade opens massive record shop to fight internet' - conjures up inevitable images of Don Quixote tilting at windmills or King Canute. I wish 'em the very best, but wouldn't buy shares...


well if they have the warehousing for their online and physical shop there, and had gigs there that people paid for, or organised to have exclusive tour only stock at the gigs and for a limited time after then they could do well out of it. Personally i think alot of people do still want artifacts and not just downloads, they percieve less value in downloads.
 

gumdrops

Well-known member
i bought the last congotronics cd for 15.99 at rough trade today. got home to find out its actually 7.50 on amazon. i know they need to charge more cos of rents etc but they wonder why people arent going to record shops anymore. im feeling a bit miffed.
 

polymorphic

Spatt Mendlove
i bought the last congotronics cd for 15.99 at rough trade today. got home to find out its actually 7.50 on amazon. i know they need to charge more cos of rents etc but they wonder why people arent going to record shops anymore. im feeling a bit miffed.

I think there are a number of points here..

If you *know* what CD / LP you want and it isn't totally obscure then you'll always be able to get it cheaper from the big retailers.

I also think the new shop is rather a bold move but I can see the economies of scale in their thinking.

Independent scenes thrive around communities and communities need places to exist - whether that be virtual or physical. Personally, I tend to prefer buying music from the comfort of my laptop (not just for MP3s) but I was equally likely to go check out Smallfish for a bit of human contact ! - and a nice brekkie :)

In their case, the in store events and sociable atmosphere probably helped convince peeps to part with some cash whilst visiting.

What I think would be REALLY interesting is when someone creates an online version of this environment. By this I mean a retailer website that has as much pull for it's community (as a place to "hang out") as well as buy music.

IMHO I'd be shunting a fair amount of my cash into coupling the Rough Trade expansion with a online environment. Best of both worlds ?
 

dublinstep

New member
This new one sounds better - more accessible than those nasty spiral stairs in Neals Yard.

I hope it succeeds. I've been in San Francisco twice and spent fuck knows how much in Amoeba each time. If its like that then I think it will be a success. Time will tell...
 
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