Officially Launched! The M Store!

SOCA star Machel Montano hopes to breathe new life into the local music business and give local music the exposure it needs with the ‘M’ Store.
Montano officially launched his music store yesterday at the duty-free shopping hall at the Piarco International Airport.

The store is located where the Rhyner’s Record Shop was, as Montano purchased the store from the Rhyner family last October. Director of Rhyner’s Record Shop, Lorraine O’Connor said they noticed that CD sales were on the decline, and the struggle was too hard for them.

“We knew we needed someone with a new vision, and someone who had the financial ability to carry it into the future, hence we approached Machel and he was interested,” O’Connor said.

Montano said his purpose was deep-rooted in the development of local music and culture and the step of owning a music store was a challenge he felt obligated to take up.

“The music business today is being advanced daily by the changes of technology. Moving to the digital age has moved to a steady decline of the sales of physical CDS and albums and although this may seem scary for some, at this time I think it has encouraged us here at the ‘M’ store to take the bull by the horns. We have to find ways to keep music alive, and still satisfy our many fans and customers,” he said. Montano said it was his intention to make culture the focus at the store, not only in the form of historic music collections, but to also partner with the people making music, while giving customers the opportunity to have a closer relationship with artistes.

The store offers an interactive listening and shopping experience, and is paired with exciting in-store events like artiste-meet-and-greets, giveaways, special discounts and special promotions.

The store also offers electronics such as headphones, chargers and accessories, and Montano said speciality items will be added in the future as the business grows.
“We have taken up this venture and some may say it is intimidating at every turning point, but we want to try and explore that and see if this will be another entry point to promote culture,” he said.