A t West Music, the ABCs aren’t just for beginning musicians learning their first notes. They’re the full- line dealer’s mission: Advocate for music education, build meaningful relationships and cultivate community. It’s a philosophy that’s turned what could be simple buy- and-sell transactions into true partnerships with not only its customers, but with local educators, its community and its suppliers. And it’s why voting vendors in our 2025 Excellence Awards referred to West Music as “true partners,” ultimately leading to them being named our 2025 Retailer of the Year. “Many retailers approach vendor rela-
tionships as a one-way street [and] that the vendor is on the line to drive growth and partnership,” said one voting supplier. “West Music goes out of [its] way to find ways to promote our brands, brainstorm ideas and fully participate in the relationship.” And participate in the relationship, they do. According to company president, Ryan West, the retailer-supplier relationship has always been viewed as a partnership. “We’ve always approached our vendor relationships as partnerships,” West said. “About 30 or 40 years ago, we started a program called our Priority Partnership Program, where we try to really start every year at The NAMM Show by talking with
a vendor to say, ‘OK, what’s your plan for the year? Where do we find those win- win opportunities? What things are your priorities for this year that we should also make our priorities? And how do we align this with our promotional schedule, our training schedules and so on?’” West said he recognizes it’s easy to buy a product, but to ensure it succeeds in-store takes more effort. “The next steps are to make sure our salespeople understand it, our marketing team has the collateral to go with it and the customer gets it in front of them prop- erly,” West said. “Those are all things that have to be worked together, so we think
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