Rough Trade record store spins its retail philosophy in Brooklyn

Buzzsaws were buzzing, hammers were hammering and a sea of empty display racks awaited their wares recently in a cavernous storefront in Brooklyn. It was a typical scene of retail construction in every way except for what was coming: a record store.

Rough Trade NYC - a branch of the London shop that has been an independent tastemaker since 1976 - opened last Monday, the biggest record store in New York City, an ambitious bet on CDs and vinyl at a time when thousands of other music retailers have closed, and the industry overall looks to a largely digital future. "We feel we've got a model that works," says Stephen Godfroy, a co-owner of the store. "This is a place where you will actually want to spend time."

Rough Trade NYC, on a not-quite-postindustrial block near the East River, is the kind of place that most music fans had given up hope for in New York: an airy 15,000-square-foot temple to record retail, with a coffee counter and a 300-person-capacity performance space with a bar that will present concerts almost daily.

In the planning for four years, Rough Trade NYC has the enthusiastic support of record labels, which see vibrant independent shops like it - including the hangar-size Amoeba Music in California and the small but influential Other Music in the East Village - as not only sales outlets but also social spots that counter the perception that the record industry is dying.

"We're a little jealous of Amoeba," says Daniel Glass of Glassnote Records. "This is going to be a terrific moment for music. It reminds me of when Tower opened up at Fourth and Broadway."

Like almost everything in the music business, the role of record stores has shifted in the past decade. Once a retail staple, with anchor chains in malls and mom-and-pop shops around every college campus, record shops have been devastated in most areas. Tower closed its 89 US outlets in 2006; Virgin shut down its last Megastore in North America in 2009; in Britain this year, the once-mighty HMV chain shut dozens of stores while in receivership; in Hong Kong, Tower Records sold its Hong Kong stores in 2001 and HMV is reinventing itself by opening two music and lifestyle cafes.