The Beat Goes On in new, expanded Waterloo location
Combining two used record stores into one might seem to signal downsizing in the digital era.
But for John Rocchetta, owner and founder of The Beat Goes On, more space is needed to move more inventory.
“Our best year was last year, and our best year before that was the year prior,” said Rocchetta, sitting in the basement of his newly renovated, 2,500-squarefeet location at 341 Weber St. N. in Waterloo.
The new location will bring together inventory from the recently closed Highland Road store in Kitchener and the soonto-be shuttered shop on King Street North.
The business, which started selling new cassettes and CDs out of a closet-sized store in the Stanley Park Mall in 1991, has grown to nine locations across southern Ontario, including on Fairview Road in Kitchener and Hespeler Road in Cambridge.
“At the same time that I opened in ’91, HMV came into the market, Future Shop and Costco started carrying music, and that’s when we stumbled on the used market,” said Rocchetta. “Based out of necessity, and trying to differentiate from everyone else, that simply became our niche.
“We were a small fish in a big pond. Today, we’re a big fish in a small pond,” he said, noting that 80 per cent of music stores have since closed their doors.
More than a quarter-century after Napster made its foray into the music scene, Rocchetta said there are three main types of customers: those who seek digital formats only; those who want both digital and physical products; and collectors or audiophiles who collect hard copies only.
While the business has benefited from the recent resurgence in vinyl records, which Rocchetta refers to as “arguably the best sound quality money can buy,” DVDs and CDs have remained big sellers and can present cost savings compared to downloadable formats online. Once transferred to a computer or mobile device, you’ve always got the hard copy as a backup, Rocchetta said.
The Beat Goes On has stayed relevant by focusing on customer service, with a staff that lives and breathes music, but it’s also has kept up with current technology.
The company’s “brick and click” strategy — Rocchetta also operates his own e-commerce consulting service — enables people to search the stores’ database online.
“They’re not two separate entities,” said Rocchetta. “They’re conjoined, and products can be shipped between locations.”
However, the new store is intended to bring back the experience of shopping in person at an actual record store, like it was for Rocchetta, who fondly recalls listening to music for hours inside the former Sam the Record Man on King Street in downtown Kitchener.
The building on Weber Street, which previously housed R&S Screening, has a garage door at the front that can be rolled back for big events, like the live bands that will be part of grand opening festivities on Aug. 18.
“This store is to bring back the experience — the bands, the browsing, the selection,” said Rocchetta, who also plans to incorporate nostalgia such as pinball machines and jukeboxes.
“The way we’re building it is to make it a bit old school just based on the experience. And people still enjoy doing that,” he said. “People still want to browse and hang out.”