The cultural department store A&O Medien celebrates its 20th anniversary

A&O Medien is 20 years old. The "cultural department store", popular for its comprehensive yet specialized range of records, films, specialist literature and hi-fi items, moved from the Schadow-Arkaden to Kasernenstraße at the beginning of November. Since then, it has been one of the largest record stores in Germany. Now it's time to celebrate. We spoke to Managing Director Marc Meyer, who opened the store on December 1, 2004, about daylight, changes in the industry and the need for meeting places for music enthusiasts.

Marc, you moved out of the Schadow-Arkaden into brand new premises on Kasernenstraße in November 2024. Since then, A&O Medien has been one of the largest record stores in Germany. How can we imagine the new store?
Well, there were reasons why we moved. We had been having space problems at our old location for some time. We were actually bursting at the seams. We always had the idea that we wanted to do more in the presentation, live or promotional area on our sales floor and our hands were tied at the old address because everything was packed. The new space is much more interesting in terms of location, we feel extremely comfortable in the corner, the music plays a little more here. And: at the new location, we finally have daylight and a completely different air quality. In the Schadow Arcades, we had to run the air conditioning for twelve months to get air. And of course, our top priority was to have more space. At just under 400 square meters, the new premises are significantly larger. With the current sales area, we are probably one of the largest specialist retailers in Germany.

This gives us other, completely new possibilities. We were able to significantly expand the repertoire area, create more offerings and at the same time offer our customers more comfort: more space in the aisles but also the opportunity to hold concerts and presentations. Last Friday, for example, we had Axel Fischbacher there. That was really, really wonderful; a great atmosphere and the acoustics were great too.

Let's go on a journey through time together: 20 years of A&O Medien, how has the industry changed during this time from the perspective of a record store operator?
That's a really, really long time. And more or less everything has changed. When we started in 2004, the industry had already been in a slump for a few years. People shook their heads when we opened A&O Medien on December 1, 2004. You just have to imagine who the competitors were back then. They were players like "World of Music" (WOM, on Schadowstraße // editor's note). Saturn had two functioning stores and even department stores still had media departments. In other words, the entire retail landscape was completely different. That has changed enormously over the last 15 years. I think the driving force was streaming. It saved the music industry to a certain extent, but not necessarily the artists, as we know today. For the music industry today, streaming is basically the main source of income; for the major companies, but also for the indies, the main revenue is probably now around 85 percent from streaming and only 15 percent from physical sound carriers.

Many of the market leaders in the stationary sector at the time have left the market. For us, this was a reason not to look at the industry with too much skepticism, but to occupy this vacant field. We offered people who still wanted to buy physical products the opportunity to buy their desired products from us. But there were also many sad years at A&O Medien. The coronavirus period was a real low point and for many years we actually survived more poorly than well. In some cases, this was only possible through self-exploitation and gritting our teeth. But we have made it this far.

Equipment and range are one thing, but what is the soul of a record store?
For me personally, it's the combination of our deep, good repertoire paired with specialist knowledge and expertise. The fact that we offer hi-fi products came about by chance. From time to time, people came to us who had a bit of a fear of dealing with specialist retailers. That's why we added a small range of hi-fi frames. The combination of music and film as well as specialist magazines and literature is what makes us special. For me, it was particularly important to have a heterogeneous audience at A&O Medien. No matter what gender or age - our store is a meeting place. Especially at weekends, young and old spend time together. They can talk shop with each other and simply feel at ease. That's fun to see and it's always been my wish that we could keep this up.

aundo-medien.de

Tip

A&O Medien is celebrating its 20th anniversary with live acts and DJs on Saturday, November 30, and Sunday, December 1, 2024, at Kasernenstraße 27.

Information

Glen Matlock was a founding member, songwriter and bassist of the Sex Pistols. Matlock left the punk band in 1977 and was replaced by Sid Vicious. With "Pretty Vacant" and "Anarchy in the UK", Matlock wrote two of the most famous Sex Pistols songs.
Pamela Rooke first became known as a model for Vivienne Westwood in the mid-1970s under the artist name Jordan Mooney. She died in April 2022.
In 2019, Matlock and Mooney were guests at Rüdiger Esch's Electri-City Conference. Glen Matlock performed at A&O Medien in the Schadow-Arkaden as part of "Electri-City".

Text: Sven-André Dreyer.
Photos: Courtesy of A&O Medien
(The lead photo was taken in 2019 at A&O Medien in the Schadow-Arkaden on the occasion of a performance by Glen Matlock; Marc Meyer and Jordan Mooney can be seen signing something).