Monster Music

Stop Dreaming, Start playing. Multi-channel "music experience" shop with all musical instruments and music accessories, rental, repairs, major music lesson program, and flex performance/creative space. 

I am looking for approximately $100,000 in partnership investment to help supercharge my recent relaunch.

Monster Music has been an institution in the retail music products space for more than 30 years. Current owner Brian Reardon bought the shop in 2005. Reardon has always been very active in the music products trade association, called NAMM, a 10,000 member and more than 100 year organization, where he served on the NAMM Board of Directors from 2015-2018, participated in an annual Music Education advocacy trip to DC, has won many industry awards, etc.

Reardon sold the shop to a company called Music & Arts, a Division of Guitar Center (the world's largest music products retailer) in 2019.  Guitar Center reorganized in bankruptcy in 2020 during the Pandemic and one of the leases they exited in bankruptcy was the  location previously owned by Reardon (Monster Music). The space remained empty for about a year.

His old landlord and Reardon began to discuss bringing Monster Music back and Reardon began to re-imagine the space were a re-launch to happen. A new lease was soon executed and, over the course of the next six months, with a bold vision to renovate and re-launch within the old space, and with much industry & vendor support, Monster Music returned to Levittown, NY in late 2021. 

From a flat footed start, in a location that was empty for the previous 18 months, Reardon quickly added 100 new lesson students within the first six months, and brought monthly revenues from zero to more than $65K per month.

Guitar Center got wind of Reardon's successful re-launch and, despite having abandoned the location during their reorg, sued Reardon to try to force him to close. The case went on for more than a year and was very expensive. Guitar Center figured that, despite having a very thin legal case, they could bleed Reardon dry and he would decide to shut down. It almost happened. However, it is all in the rearview mirror now. The judgement in Federal Court ruled Reardon needed to comply through June 2023, which he did. From the same case Reardon has a judgement against Guitar Center, Inc for more than $40K in monies past due to Reardon that they were compelled by the Court to pay without conditions.

The new Monster Music is an incredibly cool multi-purpose space. The store has a raw, warehouse vibe. We sell instruments and music products, in store and online, from manufacturers that we partner with and with whom Reardon has longstanding relationships with. The displays were all custom built by the manufacturers for Reardon so the store could have an "Apple store meets NAMM tradeshow floor" feel. We also rent and repair all types of instruments, we have a thriving music lesson program with more than 250 students that take lessons at the shop each week. We have a stage in the store for regular music performances, community events, summer Rock Camps, etc. Reardon has also turned Monster Music into a prolific online used-gear merchant with more than $35K per month in profitable used gear flips making their way through the business' s online channels each month. Buying opportunities present themselves almost daily and is another reason why additional liquidity is so important.

The lawsuit with Guitar Center, and complying with the now complete non-compete was expensive and draining but, now with that behind us, I want to bring in a financial partner to help me fully achieve my vision for the business. The possibilities for growing this one location and/or bringing the concept to other cities/locations is nearly limitless.

You can get a feel for the shop on our instagram page which is monstermusic.ny