Carson City's Local Business Spotlight: Play Your Own Music

Next year, Vincent Gates, the owner of Carson City’s local music shop, Play Your Own Music, is celebrating his 30th year in the music business.

He first got into the field when he joined Maytan Music Center in Reno when he was 19 in 1989. He was later picked up by the 15th largest music manufacturer in the country, and he moved to Sacramento to overlook the Northern California territory.

“It was my first and probably last six figure job,” he said with a laugh. “I lasted two years with them, I just couldn’t change myself to fit the corporate lifestyle.”

It hasn’t been easy. He went back to Maytan when they built their Carson City location, until they closed after only two and a half years.

He lost his job, and soon his house, and then had to give back the first new vehicle he ever bought.

He decided to take his fate into his own hands, and asked the Nevada Microenterprise Initiative for a micro loan.

The program works like this: different business owner volunteers sit around the table and you pitch your plan to them. If they decide your business is worth funding, they’ll fund your micro loan.

In Gates’ case, they unanimously agreed, and gave him the maximum loan amount of $35,000, which isn’t much when it comes to business, but it was enough to get the business started.

He and his then wife started Play Your Own Music in 2007, and they were in the Carson Mall location for 8 years.

They moved to the new location three years ago, and ever since, business has been steadily growing. In fact, it’s been better than ever, Gates said.

In addition to selling instruments and repairing, they teach music lessons as well. Right now, they have four teachers teaching at the shop. There are three guitar teachers that also teach ukulele, mandolin, dobro, piano, voice, flute and more.

As far as the community goes, it seems he’s in for the long hall. “I love Carson City. The people here are very kind. I landed here and out of necessity and found it to be a great place to live and run a business.”

His advice for other local business owners competing with the bigger stores?

“You have to focus on all the things those stores can’t do,” he said. “Focus on the service aspect of the business. Lesson, repairs, rentals, spiritual advice for young musicians.”

Play Your Own Music also hosts its own recording studio, and Gates works with up and coming songwriters and bands to start putting down tracks.

Both of his daughters are music teachers at Guitar Center, so there’s certainly no hard feelings against the bigger stores. But Play Your Own Music offers something guitar center and similar stores can’t: expertise.

“When you go to Guitar Center, or one of those other big name stores, their corporate structure is such that they can take anyone off the street and put them through a training program and put them out in a week’s time,” said Gates. “You have people who are well meaning, good hearted people, but they don’t have any depth of knowledge, and are just parroting the product training they received last week.

"When I worked there for a short time, after working in music retail, I found it almost impossible to operate, because I’d be having a conversation with a customer and the boss would walk by and tap his watch, which was saying ‘you need to put something in their hands and get them to the register and fast as possible.’ It’s just not how I could see myself being happy.”

While the majority of his time is spent repairing instruments, he also brings a life long love of music and knowledge to the table.

“When you find someone who owns a music store, usually its a person who has been doing it all their life,” said Gates. “At least in my case, that’s true. I’ve been training for this job for 29 years now. There’s somethings I can’t do, and I know my limits. But I have people who are experts in their fields who I can rely on to send people to see. The things I can do, I can do well, and I’ve been doing it for years.”

In addition to running the shop, he also is part of a local Pink Floyd cover band, thefloydband.com which is having a show on Oct. 13 at the Carson City Community Center, in the Bob Boldrick Theater, located at 851 E. William Street. The show starts at 8 p.m. Tickets are available here.

For more information, you can visit Play Your Own Music at 112 E. John Street, or call them at 775 885 PLAY (7529).

The shop is open Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., and Saturday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.