Where the Music Begins
I N N O V A T I O N
Long and McQuade’s love of music is reflected
in the business that bears their names
Musical instruments were always more than a product for Jack
It is the type of
Long. In fact, he was still working as a professional trumpet
success which
player when he began selling King Band Instruments from the
leads to growth.
second floor of a Carlton Street house, and could usually be
By the time Jeff
found heading to a gig after a full day of sales.
joined his father as a part-time employee in 1979, there were
It was obviously tiring work. On one
occasion, he even fell asleep while
six stores in all. But Long and McQuade soon realized that
dreams of catalogues and other marketing initiatives would
require further expansions – ultimately creating a national
playing a trumpet fanfare.
chain anchored by a head office and warehouse in Pickering.
There was simply no escaping the draw of the business.
There are now 52 retail locations across the country.
Jack McQuade, who had been teaching drum lessons in one
Traynor’s early speaker-building efforts have evolved into
of Long’s two small Carleton Street studios, became a business
Yorkville Sound’s 150,000-square-foot manufacturing facility,
partner within six months. Their first Yorkville retail outlet
while Long and McQuade’s business occupies another
was opened in the midst of Canada’s emerging rock scene,
20,000 square feet and will soon expand into another
and Peter Traynor could soon be found building his speaker
50,000-square-foot structure just down the road.
cabinets and amplifiers upstairs.
The Pickering warehouse even supports a national online
“It was a pretty happening music store,”
presence that sells as many instruments as one of the chain’s
Jeff Long recalls, referring to his dad’s first
Yonge Street location. “It was sort of the
meeting place for musicians.”
mid-sized stores. “I never thought people would buy a guitar
online like they do,” Long admits, suggesting that most online
sales were expected to be limited to electronic offerings like
MIDI modules.
1
Long & McQuade
Musical Instruments
www.long-mcquade.com
As much as the business has evolved, however, many of its
largest retail markets in the nation. Eleven of the music
successful strategies can still be traced back to the earliest
retailer’s stores are located in this region, and a new full
stores. A program used to rent instruments is based on
line store will soon be added to the mix at the intersection
friends who asked to borrow products, while the in-house
of Notion Road and Highway 2.
I N N O V A T I O N
financing program evolved from casual agreements to spread
out payments. Programs like these were certainly unusual,
Think of this as the place where music begins.
especially when early music retailers operating much like
pawn shops where all sales were final, Long adds. “Rock
and roll stores used to be thrown together.”
While some manufacturers have moved
assembly lines to offshore locales, Yorkville
Sound also remains one of the only Canadian
makers of guitar amplifiers. “We do everything
there,” Long notes with pride, referring to
the maker of professional sound equipment.
“We design the product, the engineering is
done there. The quality control is done there.
We’re really vertically integrated.”
And whenever any of the related products need to be
shipped, the Pickering warehouse offers quick access to
Ontario’s Golden Horseshoe, which remains one of the
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ONTARIO L1N 6A3
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Ajax
Brock
Clarington
Oshawa
Pickering
Scugog
Uxbridge
Whitby