Presto Music: 'A year of growth, change and inspiration'

It is safe to say that, for most people, 2021 presents an opportunity for a new beginning. After all, 2020 has already entered the history books as a year of widespread disruption and uncertainty, with the pandemic taking its toll on the stability of the country’s economy and individuals’ well-being alike. But for some businesses like Presto Music, the last 12 months have been a time for unexpected growth.

So before we turn the page on 2020 for good, we take the opportunity to reflect on what turned out to be a transformative year in more ways than one and, more importantly, what are the key learnings we will take with us into 2021.

Presto builds its crescendo

The introduction of the first national lockdown meant that most of us were about to spend a lot more time indoors and online, most often cultivating new hobbies and interests - and it showed! In fact, Presto Music saw enormous growth and a huge demand for classical, jazz and sheet music over the three months following the beginning of the lockdown. This translated into a sudden boom in sales, and by September, downloads were up 63% and the overall business 25% year-on-year.

The sales data for the whole year also revealed some interesting trends in customers’ buying behaviour. Presto Music noticed a 24% increase in classical music sales, an incredible 97% sales increase in jazz music and an astonishing 117% increase in our book department. These surges suggest that a significant proportion of the British population was not only seeking comfort in listening to the music we sell, but also learning more about it and even how to play a new instrument. Fast forward to today and Presto Music now has 100,000 active customers, approximately equating to 4,700 new customers each month.

But because we recorded our best year in sales, we felt compelled to give something back to the music community. As a result, we decided not only to take part in the ‘Give Back Friday’ initiative - whereby Presto Music donated 5% of all its revenue between Friday 27th and Monday 30th November to the Chineke! Foundation and the Benedetti Foundation - but also to support three charities which look out for the vulnerable and less fortunate within our local community in Leamington Spa.

A lockdown leads to an upgrade

After a six-month period of sustained growth, the last thing we wanted was to rest on our laurels. As a result, we invested time and effort into upgrading sections of our website to further improve the customer experience, following the substantial increase in traffic and activity we’d experienced.

By October, we’d added a new online department dedicated to musical instruments and accessories, as well as 30,000 new products to cater for the huge demand in classical and jazz music. Ordinarily, an upgrade as ambitious as this would have gradually played out over an extended period of time, but we were conscious that we should use our sales performance as a motivator to respond to the challenge and drive value for our customers. None of this would have been possible without our talented team of 23 product specialists, with over 300 years of experience in the music industry between them.

New year, new insight

2021 will be the 20th anniversary of the Presto Music website and the 35th anniversary of the company, marking it as a year of both growth and celebration.

However, we are also very aware how lucky we are to be running a business that has performed so well during a time when many others have struggled. With this in mind, our key learning from 2020 that we bring with us into 2021 is that, after a year where countless businesses were forced to find creative ways of reinventing themselves to stay relevant in the face of disruption, complacency is a luxury that businesses can no longer afford and innovation will be key.

As Peter Drucker once said, 'innovation is the specific instrument of entrepreneurship' and as such, this will be an area in which Presto will be investing in the year ahead. We have exciting new products and services that we are set to announce in the months to come. Concurrently, we look forward to the reopening of our physical store in Leamington Spa which, despite the success of our online platform, is still a key part of our brand offering and will continue to play a role in the customer experience we deliver.