not really knowing if marketing or accounting would be my thing, I was also working at one of my Dad’ s stores during the summer. In the summer of’ 94, the internet was getting traction and I was fortunate to be working alongside of a great musician and thought leader at the store. Ray Tabs was his name, and he was a mentor to me. He was 35 years my senior, but he was so up on what was happening with the internet that we talked and talked about the possibilities of what might be coming. I eventually convinced my Dad into the idea that maybe I could help people on the internet and earn their trust. I went back to school that Fall, computer in hand, began marketing our store and products online, and at the end of the semester( and having some success) I ended up leaving business school to do some business! The timing of when kraftmusic. com began could not have been better.
[ WM ] Over the years the store started as Kraft Keyboards but then morphed into Kraft Music and expanded into all of the standard combo music categories. Now filtering back down to a black and white key specialty company. If it has black and white keys, chances are Kraft Music stocks it and has a great relationship with the vendor.
I think it is something special that you focus on everything from home pianos from all of the major digital piano brands, to stage pianos, organs, workstations and synths. Those brands run the gamut of Roland, Yamaha, Kawai, Casio, NORD, Viscount, Korg, Akai, ASM, UDO Audio, Moog, Kurzweil and more.
You serve a lot of churches who play a wide range of musical styles, from traditional, to gospel to modern worship.
How do you approach things when you get a call from a church?
[ Ben ] Well, first, my early days in church focused on the music. My Mom was a school music teacher who also directed a few of our church choirs and accompanied them on piano. So naturally I sang in those choirs and eventually helped the church add technology to their offerings. Like so many churches then( and today), Atonement Lutheran in Muskego, Wisconsin went from having 100 %“ traditional” worship services with electric pipe organ, pianos, bells, and choral music to responding to the cry of the people who were wanting contemporary music options. Through my experience at the store, I helped to add keyboards, an electronic drum set, and of course they have taken it so much farther today.
But what’ s happening in worship today is really exciting. This is really an obvious observation, but worship today( in many cases) incorporates music that features instruments of all types of technology. It used to be that a synth musician, or an electronic drummer, was different than the
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