Musician’s Friend opened in late January to the tune of $300,000 in sales its first weekend, a figure that even took officials of the Utah-based discount chain by surprise.
The music equipment retailer set up shop in the Elmwood area in a 22,000-square-foot space formerly held by Home Depot, and has been drawing professional musicians, beginners and hobbyists not only from the greater New Orleans area but from places as far away as Lafayette, Baton Rouge and Mobile. “We’ve been destroying all expectations,” says assistant General Manager Scott Casey. “Since we opened we’ve been doing two or three times better than we thought we would.”
What’s the attraction? Its size and the amount of stock carried in the single location are unique to the region, but the outlet has the ability to offer equipment by some of the top manufacturers in the music business- Fender, Gibson, Harkte, Peavy, to name a few-at incredibly low prices. The brands are carried at the Jefferson Parish store and the 16-year-old company’s eight other retail outlets, as well as distributed through a vast mail order network.
Musician’s Friend targeted the New Orleans region for a new retail site, Casey explains, because the area already had provided the company with its largest mail-order market in the South. The Elmwood location was chosen because of its size, availability and accessibility to the region. Because the store is realizing so much business from customers in Lafayette and the Baton Rouge area, the company is eyeing Baton Rouge for possible expansion, he says.
Other features of the Jefferson Parish store, which the company considers its showpiece outlet, are the large parlors, each of which are wholly dedicated to certain types of equipment. There’s separate rooms for bass amps, acoustic guitars and so on. Smaller practice rooms also were built, in order to host music lessons. Casey says the store caters to all markets, not just the professional crowd. “We find we’re getting a lot of beginners, kids, and hobbyists – lawyers and doctors who like to play music on the side.”
Some local vendors have been publicly and privately critical of the arrival of Musician’s Friend, saying the company’s entry is another example of a large corporation bringing near-wholesale prices to an area and driving out the smaller but more established businesses. Casey says the trend in other retail markets Musician’s Friend has entered has been mostly positive, with the company stirring up more sales for small businesses.
Jimmy Glickman, owner of New Orleans Music Exchange on Magazine Street, agrees. He says his sales are higher than they were during the same time last year. “I think basically a store like that helps the whole local music business in general,” he says. “On their grand opening weekend, we averaged about 27% more in sales than we usually do. A store like that brings a lot of people from the whole trade region into the city.”
Glickman says though Musician’s Friend is a larger operation, he doesn’t have to compete with the store price-wise. “The only time they are going to beat me on something is if they have it in stock, and I don’t have it, and the person needs it right then. And if you look at their prices, they aren’t giving anything away.”
Casey notes that local stores already were lowering their prices before the new store opened opera because of the huge amount of mail-order business his company was doing in the area.
Musician’s Friend has 30 employees at the Elmwood store, of which 23 are considered sales staff. The store is open seven days a week and boasts a 9 p.m. closing time on weekdays. Advertising largely is conducted through print media: daily newspapers, company catalogs, magazines. Customers are encouraged to try out merchandise- it’s not unusual to walk in and see small children banging away on a drum kit or adults rockin’ out on a new Les Paul on the large stage in the rear of the showroom.
This month, the store starts a weekly attraction, “Jammin at the Friend,” which will feature a free concert by a local band each Tuesday evening from 7 p.m. to 8:45 p.m. Area bands who are interested should contact Casey or Desmond Bell at the store. The management staff reserves the right to make all selections, and music that’s “inappropriate for a family atmosphere” won’t be considered.
That means no cursing, moshing, drugs or alcohol, according to a company statement.
Nestled on one of those quiet “tree” streets in the Carrollton area is an increasingly busy music studio that logged its 200th paying customer in February and marks its three-year anniversary this month.’ Noiselab Studios, the brainchild of New Orleans native Jimmy Augustin and former Buffalo, N.Y., resident Dave Reynolds, reports that the company is “over the hump” of starting up status and moving forward with new projects and expansion plans.
In fact, the owners/engineers say, sometime this year Noiselab will launch its own record label to enhance one of its growing operations. In recent months, the company has taken several new artists under its wing, including singer/songwriter Matt Hodge, West Bank rapper Di Misstress and guitarist Eric Green.
“With some artists we actively get involved in the production with writing and arranging; that’s our passion,” says Augustin.
Augustin and Reynolds met several years ago at a recording seminar in Ohio. Augustin has a long history in the Crescent City music business: He worked for the now defunct Leisure Landing record store on Magazine Street as a teen and brought punk bands to the area in the late 1970s and early ’80s. With the assistance of a silent investor, Augustin and Reynolds began putting their plans into motion in 1995.
Some local, regional and national clients of the 24-track facility include Sunpie Barnes, all the members of War, Brint Anderson, Strawberry Presents, Liquidrone, the Soul Rebels, Benny Dominique, Choke and Near Life Experience. Many of those artists bring in their own producers, leaving Noiselab with primarily an engineering and technical role.
“We have to have paying customers because that keeps the lights on,” says Augustin. “But we basically opened the studio to produce records ourselves. And because of the state of the music industry we want to start our own label.”
He points out that with liquor conglomerate Seagram’s recent merger with Universal Entertainment, Seagram’s now controls about half of the major label’ record industry, including companies like MCA, Polygram, Interscope, A&M and Geffen.
“With all this restructuring going on, and lots of people being fired and custom labels and artists being dropped, the smoke’s not going to clear for at least a year,” says Augustin. “For somebody like us who makes and finishes records and shops them to the major labels, it’s going to be very difficult. I think you’re going to see the indies start to flourish again.”
Noiselab will move in directions that are ultimately best for its artists, says Reynolds. Future activity could involve releasing a disc on Noiselab’s new label, relying on various distribution channels while continuing to shop the recording to major labels. (Which is no easy feat since major labels traditionally have been reluctant to do business in New Orleans, which lacks the hyperactive music business environment of places like New York, Los Angeles or even Nashville.)
Reynolds says because the older studios in the area have been working with the established, traditional artists for so long, Noiselab has been able to carve its own niche with musicians of a different caliber.
“We don’t want to be the next ‘Louisiana music’ recording mill,” he says.
“This town, for better or worse, supports its legends – sometimes for worse. What it really needs to start doing on some level is supporting new talent. If it doesn’t start doing that, there’ll be no reason for the big labels to come here.”
