Music Wholesale-Distribution
Marty Golden is the founder of the Canadian music distribution company JAM Industries. Marty began his career in retail, first working for his father in a pawnshop and later a music store. He began making his own line of guitar amplifiers he named JAM (which is comprised of the first letter of his...
Jim Whitehill provided a very important overview of the products and politics of the Norlin Music Company, which was originally named Chicago Musical Instruments (CMI) when Mr. M.H. Berlin formed the company in the 1920s. In the late 1960s and early 70s, the Norlin company, headed by Mr. Berlin’s...
John Maher began his career as an employee of a retail store in Illinois before joining the sales team at St. Louis Music Supply. He worked for the wholesaler for 11 years and traveled to dealers, creating programs and promotions to help them with sales while at the same time developing new and...
Fred Salvador grew up in the music business. His grandfather opened a small music store for which Fred remembers working in as a small boy. Years later Fred joined the staff of the music wholesalers Harris-Teller in Chicago. Over the years Fred helped the company grow with his keen attention to...
Ed Harris purchased the Teller music wholesaler in Chicago during the 1960s. Along with his brother, Mike, Ed changed the name to Harris-Teller and expanded the company’s dealer base and product line. A few years later Ed established his own music publishing company, which sits across the street...
John Connolly established the Connolly Music Company (originally Connolly & Co., Inc.) back in 1970. Best known for distributing such brands as Thomastik-Infeld and König & Meyer, the company remains a family owned enterprise, with John's son, Jake, now at the helm. In 1954 John was hired...
Tony Blair is the proud president of the Kay Musical Instrument Company, which has a long and important history in the music products industry. As Tony points out, many noted musicians today got their first start playing a Kay guitar. Over the years Tony added his passion for distribution and...
Lloyd Stark began his career in the music industry as a teacher in a small string shop in Berkeley, California, providing lessons on bluegrass instruments such as the guitar and banjo. With little experience as a salesman, Lloyd applied for a job at Coast Wholesale in the San Francisco Bay Area....
Susan Lipp has a background in the theater, which she has used to great success in running the pro-audio distribution company Full Compass. The company was formed by her husband, Jonathan, in 1977, and has since become an industry leader in pro-audio, pro-lighting and home engineering equipment....
Jonathan Lipp formed a recording studio, which by 1977 turned into a pro audio distribution company he called Full Compass. In the early days of the company he focused on the radio broadcasting market and played a role in the growth of home recording market as equipment prices went down and the...