Source: AP | Big Drum Thump

It appears the retail giant, Best Buy, wants in on the music retail business and plans to start offering gear at their stores.

Each site will use about 2,500 square feet of retail space and include roughly 1,000 different products with well-known brand names such as Fender, Gibson, Drum Workshop and Roland.

“We’re not just extending the shelf space in the store, we’re creating a designated area specifically for this experience,” said Kevin Balon, the company’s vice president of musical instruments. “And we’re trying to create an authentic and genuine musical instrument store look and feel inside of Best Buy.”

I don’t know about you, but I think this is an awful idea and will be a losing proposition for the yellow-tagged juggernaut.  I just don’t see me walking into Best Buy to drop $5k on a DW kit from some part-time high school kid when I’d MUCH rather go to a real music store and talk to drum professionals who can really take care of me.

I can see mom and dad getting their kid’s Christmas drumset there, but no real serious musician would buy into this.  The only real department that would be a logical benefit for Best Buy would be pro audio because it lines up alrady with their existing market base as an electronics retailer.

Oh, and I’m sure Guitar Center is worried about this.