A rock-solid feature on the South Lanes landscape for an incredible 43 years, Rounder Records has probably given more musical enjoyment to Brightonians than anyone else. It remains one of the best places for cutting edge music in town.
What is it that makes Rounder special?
We’re truly independent and always have been. If you walk in to the front of HMV all those albums that are highlighted have paid to be there. We don’t do that. There’s a character, which is what we desire out of a record shop. It’s not about making money – if it was we wouldn’t be doing this.
Does Rounder have an influence in Brighton?
People have started bands, club nights, record labels in here – I think it’s a really important part of the community, which is what a record shop should be. And we’re always happy for people to ask questions – people are always asking us about what good gigs are on, or club nights. We love music; it’s not just about the selling of stuff.
A lot of independent record shops – a lot of record shops full stop – are struggling at the moment. Is Rounder’s future secure?
Yeah, the business has changed massively in the last five years but you’ve got to adapt to survive, concentrate on what you do well. There’s no point in us selling Alexandra Burke CDs because Tesco can do it cheaper than us. But we’re good at selling more interesting music, music that we care about. And you can browse in a way that you can’t on the Internet.
A lot of people are downloading music these days – what do you say to them?
You mean stealing it? If you don’t care about independent record shops you should still care about the artists. The artist did a lot of work to make that music; if you’re just taking it then you’re asking them to work for free. People who are stealing music don’t work for free so why should the artist?
Is the record industry in a good place or a bad place at the moment?
Ha ha, horrendously bad! It’s along a dark corridor being pursued by vicious beasts. It depends how you deal with change. Our vinyl sales are huge and the records sometimes come with a download link too. So you get the mp3s but you also get a nice artefact, which is what Rounder is all about.
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