An independent Leamington music shop which has grown to be the UK’s leading ecommerce site for classical and jazz records has launched a full streaming service.
Presto Music opened its doors in Leamington in 1986 and has grown into a significant online retailer with customers from across the globe.
The business, which has more than 50 employees, launched its first website in 2001 and 20 years later launched ‘My Library’, a feature which gave customers digital access to any recordings bought from Presto Music from a computer or a mobile phone.
It proved a huge success with 2,000 users per month and with users listening to a million seconds of music a day.
Presto Music’s new streaming service will be using an innovative method to ensure composers and artists are fairly remunerated by moving away from the traditional pay-by-track system and instead using a pay-per-second model.
Classical pieces are in fact typically much longer than pop and rock tracks, so classical artists are unfairly disadvantaged with the pay-by-track model, as a three-minute track pays the same as a 20 minute one.
Presto Music has worked closely with accountancy firm Burgis & Bullock, which also has offices in Leamington, for more than 20 years. The accountancy firm has recently advised on how to capitalise on investments made in third-party software development for the streaming service.
Chris O’Reilly, Chief Executive of Presto Music, said it is vital the business continues to diversify to meet modern listener demands.
“We’re always trying to stay one step ahead as a business and we’ve tailored this streaming service to the needs of our audience,” said Chris.
“Presto Music is well known for its editorial curation and producing original content with artists, and we’ll be using the new app as a one-stop shop for all of our content. Recently there has been much press about how poorly streaming services remunerate artists, and the regularly used track play system certainly doesn’t favour classical music. We’re proud that we will be launching a new model which will pay artists what they deserve, through a pay-by-second process.
“Investing in digital has been a key part of our growth over the last 20 years, dating back to launching our website in 2001 and we are continuing to seek ways to expand our offer for customers and reach new audiences.
“During that growth we’ve received great support from Burgis & Bullock, from advice on tax credits, to exporting advice and preparation of statutory accounts. It’s been a great benefit for us to have a locally based voice who we trust as a sounding board.
“We are continuing our gradual growth and have now surpassed our 2019 numbers. It has been a great first 36 years and we hope with the launch of our new streaming service we can secure the future of the business for another three decades and more.”
Burgis & Bullock has offices in Leamington, Nuneaton, Stratford-upon-Avon and Rugby.
Trevor Day, Head of Client Services at Burgis & Bullock, said: “Over the years Presto Music has continued to diversify to meet the needs of its audience and this has led to the development of a very successful business. It’s fantastic to see a regionally based business thriving internationally and the introduction of this new service should further future-proof Presto Music for the years ahead.”