Business With A Tune

Sierra King
KTSW News

Owning your own business comes with flexibility, dedication and years of hard work. Being an entrepreneur gives you the opportunity to be your own boss and to pick the best individuals to help run the business smoothly. Starting off small as an online music store helped Lonestar Music’s Director of Operations, Zach Jennings, to become the successful businessman he is today. Before Lone Star Music, Jennings worked at a public relations firm for the government representing Lance Armstrong, Roger Clemens, and Goldmin Sachs. He really did not feel comfortable representing them  and was told by his wife that maybe it’s time to find a new job. He has always loved music and so when LoneStar Music was up for grabs, he took it.

The Lone Star Music website, in its early years, specialized in Texas music artists where Lonestar Music later started their own magazine and in 2004 grew into a physical store in Gruene named Superfly. This past fall Superfly moved to San Marcos in hope for a bigger music crowd.

“We opted for this because we thought having the trade in from having  a completely 99% tourist crowd, we thought we could do better in a college crowd.”
-Zach Jennings

Jennings and his Artist and Label Relations personnel, Shilah Morrow, really see San Marcos growing as a music community. They’re here to help San Marcos really open up in the music scene and get more of the community involved in what LoneStar Music is all about.

“You’ve got to have in order to support a music scene, radio and you’ve got to have record stores where people can buy music and be immersed in the culture of music and you’ve got to have a live environment where people can play and also we got a magazine. So its great for us to be involved in the entire community.”
-Shilah Morrow

Lone Star Music magazine focuses on Americana Texacana music, lots of folk and rock. They have a circulation of about 30 thousand per issue where you can find at two-hundred music venues, food establishments and in the store for free. Its been an option to put on newsstands but if they do not sell they get tossed.

“We did have two  different requests to put our magazine on newsstands  but we really wanted to make sure that every single magazine we printed got into the hands of our core fans.”
-Zach Jennings

Working with a small group of people really has helped the business prosper when it comes to getting stuff done in a timely manner. According to Morrow , it’s easier to get feedback or approval in minutes from Jennings when interacting with a close group of workers instead of waiting weeks at a time in a big corporation.

“There’s a lot of freedom sitting here with Zach and watching this company grow and I feel like I tend to Thrive better. What I love about Lone Star Music and being here is that you have a small team that feels like a family and your able to react more quickly.”
-Shilah Morrow

To help make your shopping experience at Superfly worthwhile, the employees are well up to date on classics and what’s new in the music industry. Its important for Lone Star Music to spread the word on upcoming events, upcoming artists and the great artists that have been around to influence the young crowd.

 “Particularly in the music business things have been changing for the last decade, and so much less importance on shopping in record retail. What happens is you come to an independent who is a part of the music community, and they’re really interacting with their customers on a local level and figuring out what they want, and being able to do that is the most rewarding things. The record stores were really where you found out about what was cool and going on.

-Shilah Morrow

To hear the full Local Businesses Podcast, click the link below.