Rough Trade announces new Rockefeller Center location, opening 1st June 2021

11 May 2021 - Press release

ollowing seven successful years in Williamsburg with an inaugural location on North 9th Street, Rough Trade NYC is excited to announce its much anticipated move over the East River. Independent purveyors of great music since 1976, the new Rough Trade NYC will be located at Rockefeller Center (30 Rockefeller Plaza, on Avenue of the Americas between 49-50^th Streets), just steps from the iconic Radio City Music Hall.

Opening this June, Rough Trade NYC at Rockefeller Center, will provide the artist community and fanbases a place of vinyl culture pilgrimage with not just a cutting-edge music retail experience - marrying the romance of analogue with the intelligence of technology - but also a music event partnership with Rockefeller Center. Aiming to commence later this year, Rockefeller Center and Rough Trade together will curate live public events with a quarterly series that will take place at the iconic Rainbow Room in addition to outdoor events at Rockefeller Plaza.

“Following the impact of COVID-19, Rough Trade’s decision to relocate reflects a wider reimagination of cities worldwide”, says Rough Trade Co-Owner Stephen Godfroy.  "Manhattan has a glorious history of great record stores. Now there’s an exciting present as well. The opportunities afforded by the pandemic in the reconfiguration of central city districts have brought us, counter-intuitively, to the heart of New York, an area barren of record stores for years. But Rough Trade’s instinct has always been to surprise!”

Since opening their first store in Williamsburg in 2013, Rough Trade has joined an illustrious list of iconic New York record stores, from Bobby Robinson’s Bobby’s Records, The Commodore Music Shop, Time Square Records, Record Mart, Disc-O-Mat, Crazy Eddie’s, Record Explosion, to Midnight Records, Venus Records, Rocks in Your Head, 99 Record, Other Music, Pantasia, and many more.

“It is especially fitting to welcome Rough Trade to their new home at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, which originally was known as the RCA Building, where phonographs and records played such an important role in the building’s history and are ingrained in its DNA,” said EB Kelly, Tishman Speyer Managing Director overseeing Rockefeller Center. “The Center prides itself on presenting best-in-class experiences and offerings that can only be found here, and Rough Trade is an incredible addition to our campus as New York’s leading 21^st century expression of music and vinyl culture.”

 

“With our programming at Rockefeller Center, we strive to bring New Yorkers some of the newest and most impactful artistic and cultural work of today,” added Michaella Solar-March, Tishman Speyer Managing Director and Global Head of Marketing. “Rough Trade is among the most authentic and trusted brands in music and will help elevate our public programming to even higher levels, giving New Yorkers unforgettable experiences at a quintessential New York location, whether outdoors at Rockefeller Plaza or inside the iconic Rainbow Room.”

Rough Trade was originally founded in London, back in 1976, amassing a loyal patronage with the burgeoning DIY artist community and then later on the A&R personnel from record labels, largely thanks to its focus on the brave, new and exciting - "tomorrow’s music, today”.

Rough Trade’s inaugural NYC location, which opened in Williamsburg in 2013, was a giant ex-warehouse building that used shipping containers as interior spaces. It featured a venue, café, pop-up activations, creating an east coast Mecca for music lovers of all ages and tastes. Thousands of gigs and vinyl sales later, Rough Trade is now upping its game, taking the opportunity to leave Williamsburg and move over to Manhattan, downsizing on scale but upsizing on ambition and reach.

The new location is similar to other Rough Trade stores with its focus on new and limited edition vinyl, with expert staff on hand to share their passion for music. This new outlet is unique given its bold positioning, showcasing vinyl culture with a prominence quite unlike any other store in the country. Opening June 1st, this upcoming Rough Trade store will utilise Vestaboard smart messaging displays to show API fed information in real time, from up-to-the-minute bestsellers, vinyl releases, to artist news and NYC gig information, reflecting Rough Trade’s ability to be more than a store, but a place of music immersion and discovery.

In the role of Rockefeller Center’s latest programming partner, Rough Trade will co-develop live events that harness Rough Trade’s renown and respected authority as curator, showcasing exciting new talent as well as more familiar legends. Rough Trade will also host frequent artist meet & greet signing events both in-store and at locations throughout the Center’s campus for fans to enjoy. Stephen Godfroy, Co-Owner at Rough Trade: “Rough Trade at Rockefeller is undoubtedly bold, provocative, tantalising - exactly the kind of unexpected move that excites not just ourselves, but also the label and artist community that we represent - plus, hopefully a fair share of music lovers from across the city, too… Bring on June 1st!”