Canadian Music Trade - August/September 2020 | Page 15

Yorkville Sound Launches Its Own Podcast Yorkville Sound has launched a new monthly discussionformat podcast geared toward music and pro audio enthusiasts. Simply called the Yorkville Sound Podcast, it’s available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and iHeartRadio with the video version on Yorkville’s YouTube channel. Each podcast is a hosted session with one special guest from the MI and pro audio field. “We look forward to indepth discussions with sound engineers, producers, touring musicians, retailers, and more,” says Jeff Cowling, Yorkville Sound’s VP of sales and marketing. The first episode, which is now available, is an interview with Yorkville Sound’s Head Loudspeaker Designer, Todd Michael, who told the story of his journey from building furniture to designing Yorkville’s Synergy Array Series. For more information, contact Yorkville Sound: 905- 837-8777, [email protected], www.yorkville.com. CMT STORE REOPENING SURVEY 93% 0 of MI retailers surveyed are now back open for in-store shopping, though 22% initially held off for financial and/or safety concerns 46% 0 say the amount of in-store traffic 0 0is about the same as usual for this time of year… 16% say it’s more and 38% say it’s less than usual Since reopening, how has in-store traffic compared to your expectations? 23% 0 A lot more traffic than expected 0 015% 0 Somewhat more traffic than expected 39% 0 About on par with what I expected 0 8% 0 Somewhat less traffic than I expected 15% 0 A lot less traffic than expected 0 Overall, how difficult has it been to implement & enforce the new health & safety measures (i.e., masks, physical distancing, sanitizing, etc.)? 61% 0 Not at all difficult 39% 0 Somewhat difficult 00% 0 Very difficult Canadian Music Trade surveyed MI store owners and employees to find out how their businesses have been doing since reopening for in-store shopping. 0If you offered online/phone shopping during the closure, how has that business changed since reopening? 15% 0 Online/phone orders are significantly up since reopening 0 0 8% 0 Online/phone orders are some-0 what up since reopening 23% 0 Online/phone orders stayed about the same after reopening 0 039% 0 Online/phone orders are some-0 what down since reopening 15% 0 Online/phone orders are significantly down since reopening How worried are you about yourself and/or your staff contracting and/or spreading COVID-19 in the store? 0 7% 0 Very worried 64% 0 Somewhat worried 29% 0Not at all worried SPEAKING OUT Whether good or bad, what’s been the most surprising and/or noticeable thing about doing business since reopening for in-store shopping? [selected responses] “Normally the store is very quiet in July. We have been most surprised by how busy we have been all summer – which has been great. With everything being turned upside down this year, I wish we could truly predict how the fall/holidays will play out...” “How relieved clients were to actually be able to come into the store.” “I don’t feel that people shop as much as they used to. If they try an instrument in store and like it, 90% of the time they’re buying that one even on a first visit.” “No customers at all. The store is dead. Zero-dollar days.” “Casual shopping is not permitted and customers are perfectly fine with that.” “The store has been on modified hours and is open only five days with substantially shortened hours. But surprisingly, our sales are off only a small amount and yet, our net result is better than last year.” CANADIAN MUSIC TRADE 15