Locals with a musical addiction will soon have a new place to shop when the Delaware Music Center opens Saturday, March 2, behind Sherman Williams at 27 W. William St. in downtown Delaware.
“As far as I can remember, there had always been a music store in Delaware,” said Adam Furay, owner of the Delaware Music Academy and the Delaware Music Center. “It’s been five-and-a-half years without a dedicated music retail location in Delaware.
“My only regret is we didn’t do this sooner,” Furay added.
Furay said the Delaware Music Center, a full-scale musical instrument store, will be an extension of the Delaware Music Academy he opened in 2013.
“This whole thing grew out of a music store that was here in the 80s and 90s — Big Daddy’s Music Center,” he said. “I worked there in high school.”
Furay said when Big Daddy’s closed, everyone who worked there moved to Crossroads Music.
“Then when Crossroads Music closed, nobody was ready to pick up the retail portion of the business,” he said.“We managed to keep the lessons side of it going with Delaware Music Academy.”
Furay said the academy teaches every instrument that’s used in a school or rock band, and the only instrument not taught is the bagpipes.
“It’s the loudest instrument to stand next to,” he said. “It’s bad enough having a drum set teacher. Bagpipes are like standing next to a freight train.”
Furay said he has 15 instructors teaching just over 1,000 music lesson appointments every month.
“Piano, guitar, and drum sets are 75 percent of what we do, and they’re all booked year-round,” he said. “People ask me all the time, ‘Is Delaware Music Academy going to disappear?’ I tell them we’re going to keep it operating under the same name and nothing is going to change.”
Furay added the only change is the addition of the 4,000-square-foot showroom that will have a display wall of 200 unique models of guitars and bass guitars. On the floor, there will drum sets, amplifiers, and “all the little things you need to maintain your music addiction” behind the counter.
“The Delaware Music Center will have your fix,” he said.
Furay said he wasn’t worried about being behind Sherman Williams because with social media, he believes the old business model of the location being everything is dead.
“With the internet, social media, and all that stuff, I don’t think location means what it used to mean,” he said. “I think that idea is stone dead.”
He said for proof, the academy has grown 200 percent in the past five years.
“And we’re in an alley,” he said. “It was all social media.”
Furay said since he isn’t on the street where there is no dedicated parking, he has the advantage over other downtown merchants.
“We actually have the best parking in Delaware,” he said. “I’ve got six spaces on my patio, two on one side of the building, and a parking lot behind open all after 6 p.m. during the week and all weekend long. I don’t know who is getting the raw deal downtown, but I don’t think it’s me.”
