FACES
Taylor Murray
By Andrew King
A
short while ago , Taylor Murray was returning a rental to her local Long & McQuade store . Within the few minutes she was waiting in line , she witnessed two separate customers ahead of her giggling at a particular product : a pack of Freshly Picked guitar picks featuring different nose designs . ( Get it ? Freshly Picked Noses ?) That made her smile pretty wide , not because of the pun itself , but because she ’ s the one who came up with it , and who worked to get that product featured so prominently in Canada ’ s largest chain of MI retailers .
Murray is the founder , owner , and “ solopreneur ” of FUNctional Accessories , an MI distribution firm with a line card that caters to young music makers and their families . The company was actually born of a pair of her own ideas : the aforementioned Freshly Picked guitar picks , which have grown from featuring different fruits and flowers to a host of silly and pun-based designs , and the one that started it all : Acouskins decorative and protective acoustic guitar covers .
“ Acouskins was an idea I had as a kid and later used as a project for a class I was taking in college ,” Murray explains . After graduation , she launched a website with the approach of “ build it and they will come ” – a bit naïve , she now admits . “ That helped me realize how much I still had to learn about marketing .”
Plan B was to hit the road the following summer and visit music stores throughout Ontario . “ After visiting a few dozen shops , I noticed the ones that were thriving were those with music education programs , and more importantly , with youth engaged in music ,” she shares . “ I saw an opportunity to bridge the gap from lessons to retail with fun , family-friendly products , and after introducing Freshly Picked guitar picks and coloured Strings by Aurora , we became FUNctional Accessories .”
The focus on family is one that comes naturally , as Murray credits her own with her very encouraging and musical upbringing . Born in Oshawa , ON to “ a bass-playing accountant and not-so-musically-inclined EMS worker ,” Murray says she and her siblings spent a lot of time with their grandparents because of her parents ’ demanding schedules . Her grandfather played guitar and sang for them virtually all day , every day . “ Dinnertime , bath time , TV time – those were all music time , which was always fun ,” she recalls .
Borrowing her grandfather ’ s fondness for bluegrass , she ’ d constantly come up with songs about anything and everything . Though she spent more time playing sports than music during her childhood , at 18 , she rediscovered her fondness for guitar and ukulele and started bringing more of her lyrics to life through song . “ I ’ ve always dreamt of hearing one of my songs on the radio – or at least on a grocery store playlist or something ,” she chuckles . “ But I never wanted to compromise the emotional outlet by turning my music into work ; I had to make sure it would always be fun .”
Now , she ’ s straddling that balance quite nicely . She and her partner recently relocated to Toronto and perform together as Tay Sera – a quirky folk-pop duo . The pair spent part of the summer touring the east coast , visiting music stores to push FUNctional Accessories offerings by day and performing shows wherever they could by night .
In the office , while she wears many different hats , her days are typically focused around three key areas : outreach to potential new dealers or distributors , designing new pick packs , and building the company ’ s online presence .
“ I may be a millennial , but I ’ m an old man at heart ,” Murray admits . “ I ’ m much more comfortable having a face-to-face conversation than trying to connect with an audience online .” Keeping pace with the evolution of digital marketing is an ongoing challenge , though she recognizes its importance as the owner of a burgeoning business in the MI industry .
She particularly enjoys the creative side of her job – “ and the fact that I get to put food on the table with puns ,” she offers , noting she ’ s looking forward to designing more pick packs for 2018 . She ’ s also looking forward to attending her first Summer NAMM Show in Nashville , hopefully opening up some new opportunities for the company .
Of course , there ’ s also the joy that comes with sharing such an important aspect of her life and identity with other people . “ Music has always been a fun outlet for me , and has helped me combat stress , anxiety , and depression in times when I ’ m not sure much else would have helped . If there ’ s anything I can do in my lifetime to keep youth turning to music as an outlet , I feel fulfilled . I like to think FUNctional Accessories helps to do that .”
Andrew King is the Editor-in-Chief of Canadian Music Trade .
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CANADIAN MUSIC TRADE