When Music Go Round franchisee Matt Orenstein’s career at a premier cable TV network came to an end after a personnel shift in the company, he didn’t go looking to open his own business. He went looking for a rehearsal studio for his band.
After Matt’s search ran dry, he decided he’d open his own studio, until a California friend of his asked if he’d ever heard of Music Go Round®. Matt researched the brand and soon found himself attending a Winmark® Discovery Day.
Music Go Round turned out to be exactly what Matt wanted all along – the opportunity to be an entrepreneur in an industry he’s passionate about and could take part in shaping.
“To be my own boss, do my own thing and be in the music world that I really love just made sense,” Matt said.
A Pitch-Perfect Location
When Matt began to look for a location to open his Music Go Round, he wanted to find a vibrant, exciting community of like-minded music lovers.
He found exactly that in San Antonio. Known for its rich but unorthodox blend of all musical genres – from heavy metal to country to salsa – San Antonio has proven to be the perfect spot for Matt’s Music Go Round.
A member of a blues, country and rock-and-roll cover band for the past three years, Matt has always had a passion for music.
This love for music and the arts stems from his upbringing. His mother was a professional ballerina for the Ameican Ballet Theatre in New York City, while his father had a profound interest in music, theater and culture – taking Matt to every museum in the city.
“My mom and dad exposed me to to classical, Broadway and music from the ‘30s and ‘40s,” Matt said. “My brothers opened me up to music from the ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s.”
During his senior year of high school, Matt’s mother bought him an Ibanez Roadstar II electric guitar, which he still has to this day.
Today, he and his bandmates are members of the Alamo Kiwanis Club, an organization in San Antonio that donates to various local children’s charities. Any and all money that Matt and his band make from their shows goes directly to the club.
Your Friendly Neighborhood Music Store
If there’s one aspect of being a business owner that’s most important to Matt, it’s the role his store plays in his community. He has already seen San Antonio embrace his business, even when it hadn’t yet opened.
“The community is impressed that the store isn’t just already stocked, but also that we have great, quality gear available,” Matt said. “We had people come in multiple times to sell us gear, because we pay fair prices and make it easy for them. Some people even tried putting ‘dibs’ on some gear they had seen we have.”
While working in the TV industry, Matt gained experience communicating and establishing relationships with distributors he’d work with repeatedly. To Matt, those skills translate directly to owning his Music Go Round.
“You need people to keep coming to your store and selling and buying your gear,” Matt said. “Hopefully a lot of those same customers are going to be with you for years.”
Music stores are different than many other retailers. They’re more than just a place to pick up some extra gear or upgrade your music equipment. Music Go Round is a community hub for local musicians to spend time, talk and network. The announcement of a new music store in a neighborhood is a big deal to the musicians in the surrounding community.
“We want to be a place for musicians to come and hang out and rub elbows with other musicians, whether it’s new bands just starting out, lawyers in a band doing it for fun or local mariachi groups,” Matt said. “We want to be a place for people to meet and talk about music.”
Are you interested in owning your own Music Go Round? Contact us today!