There’s Finally Some Good News For The Retail Music Store

Music stores across the country have been sweating it for about a decade now as the industry recovered from the 2008 recession, only to be punched in the gut by online sales. For a while it looked like the local brick and mortar store was heading for the scrap heap. Not so fast – things are actually looking up in that area of the business, and not a moment too soon.

According to industry observer Music Trades, who monitors retails sales closely, sales are up in most areas of the business. Not only did business increase by almost 3% last quarter, but traditional music store items like fretted instrument, guitar amplifier, electronic keyboard, and accessory sales all increased by a wide margin.

That’s not to say that every category experienced growth. For instance, percussion, electronic music products and recording products were all down, perhaps as a result of Chinese tariffs.

Speaking of which, more good news came in an announcement that over $300 billion of additional tariffs against Chinese goods that include musical instruments and electronics have been postponed, which is good for everyone’s pocketbooks.

Perhaps the best news for retail music stores came from the International Council of Shipping Centers that determined that Gen-Z musicians (those between the ages of 7 to 22) are much more inclined to visit a music store than their elders. It found that 95% had visited a store in the last 3 months, and 75% found that visiting a store was a better experience than online shopping.

This flies in the face of conventional wisdom that anyone young with a cell phone prefers to shop online, but Gen-Z would prefer experiences and every musician has had multiple great experiences in a music store over their lives.

So the future for music gear retail may not be entirely rosy, but every indication is that it’s looking up. Here’s to a new generation of stores and buyers.

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