Rough Trade is known for live in-store performances of acts such as the Beastie Boys, PJ Harvey, and Jeff Buckley.

Rough Trade

While vinyl records continue to thrive, like all physical media, record stores have to work harder than ever to compete with streaming services. As the saying goes, if you can’t beat them, join them, which explains why Rough Trade, the famous independent record store, has announced a deal with Qobuz, the France-based streaming service.

As part of an initial two-year deal, Qobuz will be the music service playing in Rough Trade’s nine stores across the UK, US and Germany. The two companies will also collaborate on in-store events and live performances.

Additionally, music from the Qobuz download store will be available through the Rough Trade retail website, while exclusive streaming deals and other offers will be available to Rough Trade customers. Equally, Qobuz subscribers and employees will be able to access discounts at Rough Trade stores.

The match-up with Qobuz does make sense as the brand wants to promote the “Discovery” feature that emphasizes human curation over algorithms. Qobuz was also the pioneer of lossless music, and first launched CD-quality FLAC-based lossless audio back in 2008. Qobuz now offers 100 million tracks in lossless formats such as CD, hi-res (up to 24-bit/192kHz), DXD and DSD.

“Rough Trade is one of the best known and most respected names in music retail, and Qobuz is honored to have been chosen as their Official Music Streaming Service. We are looking forward to working closely with the Rough Trade team to create meaningful new experiences for dedicated music fans,” says Dan Mackta, Qobuz Managing Director for North America and Northern Europe.

The announcement comes as Rough Trade marks its 50th anniversary. Founded in 1976 in London, the company has a strong reputation for championing independent music and was an early supporter of the punk scene. It later allowed bands to sell their independently pressed record in the store, bypassing the major corporate labels.

Stephen Godfroy, co-owner of Rough Trade, says, “As we celebrate our 50th anniversary, there couldn’t be a more fitting partnership than expanding our artist-focused community into high-quality digital streaming with Qobuz — a like-minded independent platform that connects audiences and artists through deep curation, and champions emerging talent as passionately as established voices.”

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