Rough Trade
In 2024, Billie Eilish explained that her Hit Me Hard and Soft album was set to be her most eco-friendly release to date.
While a number of vinyl variants were still released out into the world, each were produced by using recycled materials, including a 100% recycled black vinyl edition, and seven colored vinyl versions being made from ECO-MIX or BioVinyl.
Though Eilish would also criticize the “wasteful” practice of “some of the biggest artists in the world making f–king 40 different vinyl packages” for fans to purchase, the other side of the vinyl equation comes about when the topic of disposing of music is raised.
Sales of physical media remain strong in the streaming age, and though consumption as a whole has largely shifted to the digital format, the question of how to ethically get rid of music is one that is as pertinent as ever.
Trending on Billboard
That’s why U.K. music manufacturer Key Production Group has now launched the full roll-out of its plans to ensure vinyl and CDs are disposed of in an environmentally-responsible way.
The U.K. company initially launched their Key Production Recycling efforts in early 2020, only for progress to be stunted by the then-burgeoning global pandemic. Fast forward to 2025, and it’s been kick-started once again, launched just in time for Global Recycling Day on March 18.
Partially inspired by the ongoing vinyl boom and the question of what to do with unplayable media once it goes beyond its usefulness, retail stores such as Rough Trade have also joined in with the scheme in an effort to find a sustainable option for disposing of unsold or unplayable stock.
According to Key Production, those with unwanted vinyl or CDs – regardless of size, packaging, or condition – are able to send their items directly to the organization who will then recycle them depending on the materials.
While vinyl records and CDs are made of different plastic compounds – polyvinyl chloride (PVC) for the former and optical grade polycarbonate for the latter – their materials are then reused as opposed to spending hundreds of years in landfills. For vinyl materials, this can see albums being repurposed once again as PVC, to be used in the composition of future vinyl records, or to be utilized in building and road construction. For CDs, polycarbonate can be reused for the likes of automotive parts or electronic devices.
“We believe vinyl and CDs should be cherished and if looked after well will last a lifetime,” Key Production notes on their website. “However, should you find that you have damaged items that you would like to recycle then that can be facilitated, distributors will usually have a responsible recycling scheme of their own so if you work with one do check with them. Alternatively we can take records and CDs for recycling where we can guarantee that every element of a product is being recycled responsibly.”
“Sustainability is a vital part of our identity here at Key Production Group and the idea to develop Key Production Recycling was born from our commitment to understanding and managing the lifecycle of physical music products, prompting us to ask: what happens when they can no longer be used,” explained Key Production’s Strategy and Sustainability Director, John Service.
“We are so excited to be working with labels and record stores across the country and allow the public to utilise something that is so beneficial in extending a product’s lifespan.”
“Being able to provide a solution that’s not only sustainable but that will also have a positive impact on the life cycle of a product is really important to us at Rough Trade,” added Rough Trade Managing Director, Lawrence Montgomery. “Key Production Recycling is and will continue to be beneficial for us at Rough Trade and our facilities and we’re lucky to be able to use this great system!”
Full details of Key Production Group’s Recycling scheme are available on their website.
After operating a store on the Sixth Avenue side of Rockefeller Center for a little over four years, Rough Trade is now opening a second location in the complex, the retail chain announced Thursday (Jan. 23).
While the smaller existing store at street level will now be known as Rough Trade Above, and will expand its focus on new vinyl, the new location will cover 4,000 square feet and feature “a large selection of artist/band merch, audio hardware” including turntables and Bluetooth speakers, large sections of new and used CDs and vinyl records, plus movies, collectibles and more.
Since it will be housed in the below street-level retail concourse that connects the world-famous Rockefeller Center to the B/D/F/M subway station, the new store will be known as Rough Trade Below. Just like the Sixth Avenue location, which sees heavy foot traffic walking past the store, located between 49th and 50th Streets in Manhattan, the concourse has a steady crowd flow from the subway. What’s more, the retail concourse, also known as Under 30 Rock, draws office workers from the surrounding office buildings. Altogether, the Rockefeller Center complex — which is home to the annual televised Christmas tree lightening that draws heavy foot traffic during the year-end holidays — enjoys 35 million visitors a year, according to Rough Trade.
Trending on Billboard
Rough Trade hasn’t yet disclosed a grand opening date for the new store but says it will open sometime this spring, with the company likely targeting an opening before Record Store Day in April.
“We’re extremely excited to be opening Rough Trade Below this spring, helping us further cater to the tremendous demand from music lovers across the five boroughs and beyond,” Rough Trade co-owner Stephen Godfroy said in a statement. “Creating a focus of counterculture in midtown Manhattan has thankfully proved to be a wildly successful move, and we look forward to creating an even stronger creative community as the year progresses.”
One way Rough Trade expects to do that is by bringing back its famed in-store performances, thanks to the new location’s larger footprint. While the smaller 6th Avenue store has hosted acoustic sets — Green Day, for one — and in-store signings, the new store will be able to handle a larger capacity crowd for performances and intends to bring in household names alongside below-the-radar bands across all genres, the company says. Other artists who have held events at the 6th Avenue store include Coldplay, Charlie XCX and De La Soul, among others.
“It’s clear that the ethos of Rough Trade—to narrow the gap between artist and audience—has struck a tremendous chord, here in New York,” Godfroy added. “Creating an even larger mecca for the music lover is an exciting prospect, especially for our intimate live events, where the world’s most exciting artists perform in-store for the admission of purchasing their new album.”
In-store performances were an exciting element of the original New York Rough Trade store, which opened in Brooklyn’s Williamsburg neighborhood in 2013 and closed in 2021. That store, housed in a 10,000-square foot space, was split about evenly between retail space and the club, with the latter hosting live concerts but also doubling as an in-store performance space, albeit one in another room separated from the retail section by a wall.
The new store will have a performance space directly within the store next to CD and vinyl racks on castor wheels, which when moved aside will allow for greater occupancy. According to Godfroy —who responded to an e-mail—the setup will accommodate more “intimacy and magic” at in-stores and “make performances all the more unique, memorable and special, for both artists and fans.”
The goal, Godfroy adds, is to “replicate the successful model of our U.K. flagship, Rough Trade East,” in London.
Since moving to Rockefeller Center, Rough Trade has continued to curate live public events, including its annual iNDIEPLAZA music festival and a quarterly concert series in the complex’s Rainbow Room. The Rough Trade presence has helped Rockefeller Center’s management company, Tishman Speyer, revitalize the complex, allowing it to remain “a dynamic destination” for New Yorkers and visitors, according to EB Kelly, Tishman Speyer’s senior MD and head of Rockefeller Center.
“We are thrilled to have Rough Trade expanding into a second location on campus, and join our Under 30 Rock collection of shops,” Kelly continued. “In just three years, the store has become one of Manhattan’s cultural touchstones and a pillar of Rockefeller Center’s dynamic transformation. New Yorkers have shown us how much they love the experience of the current store on Sixth Avenue, and the new space in our lively Under 30 Rock community will allow even more people to enjoy the musical taste of this legendary shop.”
The new Rockefeller Center location expands Rough Trade’s retail footprint to ten stores — seven in the U.K (of which four are in London, along with outlets in Bristol, Nottingham and Liverpool); one in Berlin; and now two in New York.
-
Pages