Locked Down: MI Retail Response to COVID-19

For those problems without an immediate solution, what does one do? You try your best and evolve as developments unfold.

For those in MI – as in virtually every industry – the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is presenting unprecedented challenges and dealers are doing all they can to be creative, nimble, and resilient. Virtually every month, MMR sends out survey questions to our readers with musical instrument retail operations. Response-rates vary depending on subject matter and, as you may expect, certain topics elicit more reactions than others. Not surprisingly, this issue’s poll on the effects of the current Coronavirus pandemic sparked a more robust reaction than, say, our recent survey about piano benches.

This “new normal” is shaking every aspect of day-to-day life to their respective cores. However, our industry is populated by creative and determined individuals – as even a cursory overview of the results of this month’s dealer survey demonstrates.

“Shortages of some small goods and accessories by larger suppliers have been negated for the most part by using smaller, regional jobbers.”

Jerry Vesely

Vesely Music Co.

Parowan, Utah

“Cancelled all orders.”

David Kolacny

Kolacny Music

Denver, Colorado

“Most of the manufacturers seem to have a fairly good supply of product on hand…the question is what happens when they don’t due to the actual factories being shut down….interesting times for certain.”

Tim Bascom

Morgan Music

Lebanon, Missouri

“As needed postponing some shipments, and will need to contact a few to let them know I will be slow paying my accounts to the best of my ability. Wells Fargo payments are deferred for 60 days. I’m adding more items to our Reverb store daily.”

Joe Chiappone

Northfield Music

Pittsford, New York

“We have most of our supplies in-house, but have to order sometimes and most of [our orders] are coming in without issue. As of the current time filling out this form, some of our suppliers have asked that we only order if absolutely necessary, as they are also cutting back on staff for safety reasons.”

Jim Sadie

JES Organ, Inc.

Montgomery, Alabama

“Some suppliers asked us to take scheduled deliveries early, so we could be assured of having our master orders delivered in case of shipping/receiving issues. So far, it looks like we made a wise choice in taking those shipments early.”

Lisa J. Whitmore

Beller’s Music

Manchester, Connecticut

“Most are trying to do some online teaching. Most have not done it before, so there is a learning curve – more on how to keep the same quality of instruction than the tech part of it. The ones I know are doing live-streaming with some podcast for multiple students. Some are using videos.”

Colin Campbell

Riverton Music

Sandy, Utah

“We have suspended all our teachers and encouraged them to teach from home. California is in a lockdown and the local and state police refuse to do anything about the homeless, so we are actually offering curbside services to our customers while trying to also keep out crazed, drug-addled bums!”

Anthony Mantova

Mantova’s Two Street Music

Eureka, California

“We have worked with our local piano teachers to begin one-on-one online lessons for some new students. Since we have limited our exposure, the online lessons are perfect and practice time is abundant!”

Allen Wilson

Johnson Piano Exchange

Hickory, North Carolina

If you have begun offering online lessons in response to current social distancing and/or shelter-in-place directives, what specific gear and platforms are you using to record and distribute these lessons?

“Skype, Zoom, and FaceTime”

Brian Meader

The Guitar Sanctuary

McKinney, Texas

“My music staff suggested what the teachers might use. Zoom seems to be the online choice.”

Pamela Cole

Fanny’s House of Music

Nashville, Tennessee

“No easy solution, but we can get by with FaceTime/Skype/Zoom for a while for live lessons. [We’re] also working on [our] YouTube presence, figuring out tab writing programs, and working on a new lessons website. [We] have a webcam for better video/audio than the computer can offer. We were not super digital/online before, so we have been thrown in to the deep end as far as learning 18 different new computer programs and pieces of technology to make lessons happen. We also converted our lesson room into a video studio.”

Ted Parrish

Parrish Music

Viroqua, Wisconsin

“Our instructors are utilizing Skype, Zoom, [and] FaceTime, as well as livestreams through YouTube and Facebook. Zoom seems to have the best overall experience in terms of quality and ease of use.”

Lisa J. Whatmore

Beller’s Music

Manchester, Connecticut

“For my personal students, I am using two laptops, an iPad and my phone to accommodate Skype, FaceTime, GoogleDuo, and Facebook video messenger. Families pay for lessons through PayPal, Venmo, and Zelle. A few mail checks.”

Karen Janiszewski

Music Room

Buffalo, New York

“We teach using live video only, no recording. This has hampered some teachers who have a play-together teaching style (playing together is not possible online due to network latency/delay). Our software/network platform is Zoom, for which we purchased a store-wide subscription. We acquired several refurbished iPads at reasonable prices (under $150), mounted them on mic stands using On Stage U-Mount clamps, and gave these rigs to those teachers who needed them. Other teachers already had iPads, MacBooks, or Windows PCs. Students had any of those or ChromeBooks. Zoom works with all of them.”