| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Musical Instruments |
| Founded | 1959 |
| Headquarters | Westlake Village, California |
| Key people | Marty Albertson, CEO |
| Products | Musical instruments, Recording equipment and accessories |
| Revenue | $1.78 billion |
| Owner(s) | Bain Capital |
| Employees | 10,000 |
| Website | www.guitarcenter.com |
Guitar Center is the largest chain of musical instrument retailers in the world with 223 locations throughout the United States.[1] Its headquarters is in Westlake Village, California.
Guitar Center's sister companies/subsidiaries incorporate Music & Arts Center, Musician's Friend, GuitarCenter.com, LMI, Giardinelli, Musician.com, Private Reserve Guitars, Woodwind and Brasswind and Harmony Central.
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Founded in Hollywood by Wayne Mitchell in 1959 as The Organ Center, a retailer of electronic organs for home and church use, it became a major seller of Vox electric guitars and guitar amplifiers, changing its name to The Vox Center in 1964. Toward the end of the 1960s, Vox—whose sales derived largely from its association with The Beatles, who made extensive use of its amplifiers—fell in popularity as Marshall amplifier users Eric Clapton and Bob Marley captured musicians' imaginations. Accordingly, Mitchell once again changed the name, this time to Guitar Center.[1][2]
The popularity of rock and roll in the 1970s allowed Mitchell to open stores in San Francisco and San Diego, as well as several suburbs of Los Angeles. Ray Scherr, previously the general manager of the San Francisco store, purchased the company from Mitchell in the late 1970s. Scherr owned and operated it until 1996 from its Westlake Village headquarters.
Although synthesizer-driven disco and New Wave pop sapped rock's audience in the late 1970s, the 1970s "guitar rock" revival led by Van Halen and a concurrent influx of Japanese-produced instruments brought guitar sales to unprecedented levels.[3] Guitar Center took full advantage of this sales bonanza, and by the end of the decade began an ambitious program of expansion across the entire United States.[4] Using its size as leverage over the musical instrument business, it developed into the largest musical instrument retailer in the country, and made an initial public offering of stock in 1997.[5]
In 2005, Guitar Center, Inc., started The Guitar Center Music Foundation, a nonprofit organization that supports music education.[6]
Activision partnered with Guitar Center in 2006; all purchases made during game play of Guitar Hero, beginning with the second installment, are made in a virtual Guitar Center store.
On June 27, 2007, Guitar Center agreed to $1.9 billion buyout from Bain Capital, totaling $2.1 billion including debt. The deal was led by Goldman Sachs and amounted to a per-share price of $63, or a 26% premium on the June 26 closing price. The deal was approved by shareholders on September 18, 2007, and closed October 9, 2007.[7]
In mid-2009 Guitar Center opened a rehearsal studio facility in Woodland Hills, California. The eight studios with full backline range in size from 350-550 square feet.
Guitar Center also hosts annual events such as the Drum Off, King of the Blues, contests, and artist appearances throughout the nation.[8]
In 2000, Guitar Center purchased mail order and Internet retail house Musician's Friend for $50 million, asserting that the merged company was the world's largest seller of musical instruments.[9] Musician's Friend became a wholly owned subsidiary that was headquartered in Medford, Oregon until 2011, when Musician's Friend's headquarters operations were gradually consolidated into Guitar Center's facilities in Westlake Village, California.[10]
In 2005, Guitar Center Inc. acquired Music & Arts Center, the largest school music dealer in the United States, and merged their subsidiary band and orchestral chain American Music Group into Music & Arts Center.[11] Music and Arts Center was founded in 1952 in Bethesda, Maryland and sells band and orchestra instruments, guitars, keyboards, drum sets, printed sheet music, and related supplies.
In the summer of 2006, Guitar Center purchased four stores in Texas from the popular South Texas and Central/South American company, Hermes.[12]
In February 2007, the direct response division of Guitar Center, Musician's Friend, purchased assets of the Indiana-based company Dennis Bamber, Inc., which included leading band and orchestra retailer, Woodwind and Brasswind, plus Music 123 and Lyons Music.
The Sunset Boulevard location in Los Angeles hosts Hollywood's RockWalk, a hall of fame honoring musical artists.[13] Artists are invited to place their handprints into cement blocks that are put on display at the Guitar Center.[13]