What If Musical Instrument Stores Combined Instead of Competing? 🎸🥁

Walk down MLK Boulevard in Portland and you’ll find something rare: three formerly competing music businesses under one roof, working together instead of against each other.

I’ve just read about this in Music Inc Magazine (October 2025) and found it genuinely inspirational. It got me thinking, what if we saw a model like this in the UK? 🤔

The story is about Hank’s Music Exchange (🎸 guitars), Rhythm Traders (🥁 drums), and Eastside Guitar Repair (🛠️ service), who recently merged their spaces to create MLK Music Mall.

At first glance, that sounds like a contradiction. Competitors co-existing? But in reality, they’ve built something stronger a genuine destination for musicians. And in doing so, they’ve lit a path I feel the rest of our industry should take seriously.

Why this matters ⚡

Most independent shops today face the same storm:

• Rents and overheads rising faster than turnover 📈 

• Online giants undercutting on price and convenience 💻 

• Shoppers expecting more than just “stock on shelves” 🛍️ 

• Margins squeezed so thin they barely hold together 📉

For many owners, the instinct is to cut back with less stock, fewer staff, cheaper space. MLK Music Mall did the opposite. By pulling together, they’ve created a place where footfall compounds, costs are shared, and customers discover more than they expected when they walked in.

Lessons from Portland 📚

Here are four takeaways every retailer should notice:

🎯 Collaboration beats isolation Three modest shops, each fragile alone, now present as one serious force. Together they’re harder to ignore.

🌍 Hubs have gravity Customers don’t just want a store, they want a trip and an experience. The more reasons to visit in one go, the more likely they’ll make the journey.

🔀 Diversification builds resilience It’s tough to survive as a single-focus store whether that’s guitars, drums, pianos, or anything else. But combined, these specialisms become much stronger: each brings in its own community, customer base, and revenue stream that supports the others.

🤝 Shared costs = shared survival A joint rent bill is easier to bear than three separate ones. Shared marketing, utilities, and even staff training follow the same logic.

The other side of the coin 🪙

Of course, it isn’t all smooth sailing:

• ⚠️ Culture clash: Different owners may have very different ways of working. Alignment takes effort. 

• ⚖️ Fairness: Who gets the best corner? Who brings in most of the foot traffic? 

• 🎭 Identity: Each brand risks losing its own character if the “mall” feels too generic. 

• 💷 Up-front risk: Moving, fitting out, and marketing a joint space takes cash and courage.

But these are solvable problems — and they’re easier to face than the slow bleed of going it alone.

Not just guitars — not just music 🎶

Of course this model isn’t new. Other industries have already leaned into it:

🚴 Bike shops: Retail + repairs + café culture.

💿 Record stores: Vinyl + coffee + merch + live DJs. 

🏢 Coworking spaces: Dozens of micro-businesses pooling resources to look bigger.

The lesson is the same: customers like destinations, not dead ends.

The UK and global angle 🇬🇧🌍

Could this work in the UK? I believe so — with the right tweaks.

🏙️ City hubs: Think Denmark Street in London(well how it used to be at least...🙄), but reinvented as a curated, modern “music district.” 

🏘️ Regional pairings: Two or three shops in a town combining with a teaching studio, café, or rehearsal space. 

🏢 Brand-backed flagships: Distributors and manufacturers supporting hubs with demos, events, and exclusive gear. I for one would love to do this with JET, Spira, Flight. 

And it doesn’t have to be all-or-nothing. Shops can test collaboration with pop-ups, shared events, or cross-promotions long before they share a lease.

The UK gap — and why this isn’t just another “superstore” 🏬

So far in the UK, we haven’t really seen a true example of this model. Yes, there are smart pairings a luthier bolted onto a shop, a teaching studio above a store but not multiple independents

uniting into a proper musical mega hub.

That’s where the real magic lies. Different businesses bring different customer bases, different expertise, and different communities. Put them together under one roof and you don’t just share rent you create a melting pot of musicality.

One store hosts a drum event? Drummers turn up with their guitarists.

Another runs a ukulele workshop?

Parents bring kids who then wander into the synth section/store.

Every event becomes a rising tide that lifts all boats.

And crucially, this isn’t the same as the old single-retailer “superstores” we've all seen fail in the past. Too often those were jack of all trades, master of none trying to cover every category but rarely excelling in any. A hub of specialists is different: each retains depth, authenticity, and expertise in their own lane, but benefits from the shared ecosystem and reduced overheads.

That’s the distinction that could make this model work where superstores struggled.

Physical + digital: the future hybrid 🔀

The smartest version blends physical hubs with digital platforms:

• One shared online storefront with unified stock visibility 🛒 

• Joint click-and-collect across the hub 📦 

• Streaming events and workshops direct from the shop floor 📹 

• Partnering with platforms like reSound to extend reach further 🌐

That way, the “destination” exists both in-store and online.

A challenge to our industry 🚀

The Portland experiment proves a point: the lone-wolf shop model is running out of road. The next decade belongs to those who collaborate, diversify, and reimagine their spaces as cultural hubs rather than just stockrooms.

This isn’t nostalgia for the “good old days.” It’s about reality: community, experience, and cooperation are the only durable advantages left.

Final thought 💭

The MLK Music Mall isn’t just a Portland quirk. It’s a signal of where the industry is heading.

👉 What would a Music Mall UK look like in your city? And who’s brave enough to build it first? Or would it just not work? 

Let me know your thoughts and have a great weekend!