MORE THAN THE MUSIC POST: Record Store Day Piece

Arguably, Rough Trade East is not a truly independent music shop, as there is currently a sister site at Notting Hill and a third site rumoured to be opening in York in the summer. For me, however, Rough Trade East is the perfect music shop experience and the best indie record store bar none. This 5000 square foot haven of independent sounds has quite literally everything any music lover could ask for and more. The store has a marvellous vibe that encourages you to graze and unearth new things. This is a more personal, more idiosyncratic form of organic musical experience, with obscure imports and innovative new concepts, such as the album badge (a badge based picture of the album cover, with a chip inside that contains the whole album to listen to in MP3 form). There is also a plethora of services to nurture and encourage musical exploration, (and a pleasant general in-store experience), including a fair-trade café, a snug seating area, a tech booth and electronics store, a book and magazine section and an old fashioned photo booth which gives you four unique pictures for only £3. They even have in-store gigs on a regular basis, with a well set-up stage and a dedicated techie. This store, simply put, is pure muso bliss.

See this post at MTTM at: http://www.morethanthemusic.co.uk/features/musings-on-music/record-store-day-2012/