Rough in the 21st Century

How has Rough Trade evolved in the 21st century?
This record company evolved as they have entered into a partnership with Sanctuary and the Beggars group. Thus mean that they would gain financial stability worldwide. Also Rough Trade now has a bigger US presence.

How are their working practises different to the music produced through programmes such as X Factor?
They are different because they allow artists to stick to and sing the type of music they love, unlike programmes such as X Factor that direct individuals on what to sing and create mainstream music.

What successes have they had at this time?
At this time they have had successes from the likes of The Strokes and Duffy. The Strokes were the band that would 'kick start Rough Trade's future'. They became Rough Trades biggest band since The Smiths. Secondly Duffy, who Geoff and Jeanette had managed for four years. 'Mercy', Duffy's first single became no.1 on the U.K. charts.

How has Rough Trades ideology developed for the company in the present day?
They are progressing to find global stars. Also, things such as contracts have become more important for the label as they they do not want to repeat their previous mistakes of letting their artists leave their label easily, when they become well-known.

Rough Trade and the 1990's

What problems did Rough Trade incur at the start of the 1990's?
In July, 1990 Rough Trade moved to another premises due to the fact that their financial peak that was crashing to the ground. Further on, in December 1990 the company experienced cash flow problems yet again!

What effect did this have on the record label and distribution?
There was major arguments between the record label and distribution. This brought the company down and tore it apart.

How did major record labels branch out into the independent music scene?
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What actions were taken to revive Rough Trade? What new music industry areas did Rough Trade begin to work in and with which artists?
Geoff had a new partner name Jeanette, they both moved into an office in 1991; together they bought Rough Trade back to life. In addition to this, in 1993 there was new artist management.

They heard a clip from the band 'Pulp', they liked what they heard and they consequently signed them to their label. Pulp granted Rough Trade 5 consecutive top 10 singles, here a new level of mainstream success was shown.

Rough Trade and the 1980's

How did contracts effect the development of Rough Trade?
By Rough Trade having contracts it was helping them to create a bigger name for themselves, through big acts. However, as these big acts were selling records and becoming even more successful in the music industry, they would then move tolarger corporations for better opportunity for their careers. This lead to Rough Trade loosing a significant amount of their artists.

What issues occurred between the record label and distribution?

There was a conflict between the record label and distribution, as one aspect was under the control of Geoff and the other in control of another member of staff.

What changes did this lead to within the business structure of Rough Trade?
In business terms Rough Trades inexperienced staff were out of their depth, which ended up in the company experiencing financial difficulties as the company owed money that they could not pay back. This lead to the shop coming to closing point and on December, 1982 Rough Trade's shop was sold to three of its staff. These staff carried on with the shop and also kept the name.

What has been Rough Trade's ideology and how was this effected by the change in structure?To begin with, Rough Trade's ideology was mainly about the music and they bought principles before profit. Whereas, now they wanted to make more money and since many of their artists were on contracts they did not want to loose them.

Which artists led to success for Rough Trade?

In April, 1973 John Marr from The Smiths) walked into Rough Trade with a demo.

New music emerged from The Smiths as they started off the Indie music scene. Rough Trade were seen as 'enemies-out to spoil the party'. Rough Trade also gave The Smiths independent credibility and they also hired London Records, an expensive marketing campaign for The Smiths-after this a string of hit singles followed.

What music trend emerged at the end of the 1980's?

The rave scene explosion, was the music trend that emerged at the end of the 1980's, this was evolutionary scene since punk.

What differences were there between Rough Trade and independent labels and this time?

Independent labels at this time wanted 4% share. Also, although in a larger corporation, they would sell artists as independent, whereas Rough Trade was.

Rough Trade and the 1970's?

How did Rough Trade start?
Rough Trade started over 30 years ago on February, 20th, 1976. It started as a small but 'hip' record company in a small studio. Jeff Travis, a Cambridge graduate began this record company by opening a shop off West London. He brought loads of records from San Francisco, America to London and began to sell them in his shop, which lead to this company turning the record industry 'on its head'.

Which music trends were popular?
At this point in time the genre of music that was popular was Punk. Therefore, this shop began to sell Punk orientated, 'middle of the road music'. This company also did not stop at selling music as they started to sell Punk magazines too.

What was the ethos of Rough Trade at this time?
Rough Trade wanted to be somewhere they felt comfortable. They were an independent record label at that time which differed from other labels as most of them were major mainstream labels. Also, Rough Trade had a 'do it yourself' attitude as they sold their own records.

How was Rough Trade different to large corporations?
This record company was different to large corporations due to the fact that they received 50%
profit and the bands/artists also received 50% profit; this meant that the band/artist could leave the company whenever they wanted. This was uncommon at the time because most record labels would have received most of the profit and would have kept their artists under a contract so that they cannot go until the end of the contract. In addition to this, they put costs on the records so people knew how much they cost.

What techniques were used to expand the independent music scene?
Rough Tradeformed an unlikely alliance between Punk and Reggae music, it was very important that they sold reggae music at the time. This 'unlikely alliance' gave Rough Trade a unique spirit. Also, they began to release singles with a major independent record label which granted them good support.

How did this lead to Rough Trade's expansion?
This lead to their expansion as new bands began to join. One of them being 'Scritti Pollitti. This a Marxist, democratic, anti-capitalist band that went against what a majority of people thought during that time.

What type of business structure existed in the 1970's?
Firstly, record distribution was controlled by major companies. Secondly, there was a principle project, they wanted to promote good music and they put principle before profit, they was not interested in building an empire. Also, the shop offered experimental musicians a chance to sell records worldwide.

Explain the successes of the distribution department and record label?
Richard Scott joined Rough Trade in 1977 and he thought of the revolutionary idea 'independent nationwide distribution'. This record label was also granted more success as they becamea record label on 'its own' when French Punks entered their shop. Also, in February, 1979 Rough Trade and band The Stiff Little Fingers released their first industry album, it was the first album in British music history to sell over 100,000 copies. Also when they released their first single it went to no.14 in the U.K. charts. Their band, Scritti Pollitti, changes their direction of music to Pop which was indeed very successful.