Music Stores Tune Up for Christmas Rush

Musical instrument stores aren’t having a blue Christmas this year.

Les Haynie, co-owner of Blue Moon Music in Fayetteville, is projecting a 10 percent increase in holiday sales over last year’s 15 percent increase.

Guitars, keyboards and drum sets lead the way for music stores during the holiday season. Those presents make up 10 percent to 20 percent of revenue for stores during Christmas.

Blue Moon specializes in stringed instruments.

“I try not to do the things that are not our strength,” Haynie said. “It’s hard to be everything to everybody. We don’t want to be everything to everybody.”

Haynie moved his Fayetteville store to a larger location at 3107 N. College Ave. in 2004 and closed his Bentonville store this past March.

Haynie said guitar packages are always a big seller at Blue Moon, especially during Christmas when parents and grandparents who have no musical knowledge shop for an instrument. The packages have everything an entry-level player needs to get started, including a guitar, amplifier and cord. For those who are looking for something on the higher end, Haynie has Bourgeois and Collings guitars, which can sell for about $6,500.

Revenue is spread pretty evenly over the year, Haynie said, but the Christmas season usually accounts for 10 percent to 15 percent of his store’s revenue.

Haynie said music lessons are a big part of Blue Moon’s business. The lessons help create musicians and are an investment in future sales. He said he’d eventually like to add more guitar teachers. He currently has three.

Saied and Sigler

Michael Ferguson, manager of Saied Music Co. in Fayetteville, said about 15 percent to 20 percent of his store’s revenue comes from sales in November and December.

Ferguson sells more guitars than keyboards or drum sets, but drums beat the competition in terms of sales revenue. The store can special order drum sets if a customer can’t find what he wants in the shop.

Sigler Music Center has also carved a niche in the musical instrument sales market. In order to keep up with technology, Chris Ward said his company has built a “strong e-commerce division” by selling items on eBay.

Ward — who manages the Sigler stores in Fort Smith, Little Rock and Springdale — said many of his customers during the holiday season are first-time buyers. Sigler focuses on those customers by getting the word out.

“We do a lot of advertising through conventional media,” he said. “By the end of the season, we’ll have distributed over a million newspaper inserts into Arkansas newspapers. That’s been an effective thing for us because we are putting our products out there right next to the Target flyers and Best Buy flyers.”

Like most music stores, Sigler’s biggest sellers are guitars, keyboards and drum sets. Ward also said that guitar packages are a hot item at Christmas, and so are gift certificates for music lessons. Sigler has teaching studios available at all locations.

With a strong focus on Internet sales, Ward said Sigler has been able to have significant increases over the past several years. And although he wouldn’t divulge just how much revenue has gone up, he said Christmas usually makes for a 13th month as far as sales go.

“Christmas is typically a double month,” Ward said. “We’ve enjoyed growth in all of our locations all year long. We’ve seen a very, very strong year. 2005 has been a fantastic year for us as far as overall sales. As far as Christmas, we’re tracking it to be very strong as well.”