Unified Open Physical Record Store In Melbourne

Music company Unified have officially launched their physical record and merch store today as an extension of their online retailer 24 Hundred.

Located underneath their existing offices at 17-19 Wangaratta St in Melbourne's Richmond, it is, on the surface, a bold move in an environment that has not been kind to record stores.

Unified's Head Of Recorded Music Luke Logemann told theMusic.com.au today that they feel they've a solid business model.

“Well for one, we aren't paying rent or any of the overheads – the shop front is downstairs in our office building we use for Unified and for the 24 Hundred online store. We just happen to be so well located that the office can easily accessed from Swan St and Richmond train station.

“On top of that, our business model is just rock solid. We were innovative really early and developed a very strong, very loyal customer base and client list for our online store. We've then refined and learnt all about what products work and don't work through years of developing the store.”

The store will be managed by Duane Jackson, who said today that there will be exclusives offered through the store while the space will also be utilised for artist events and acoustic shows.

The news comes as iconic music store Fist2Face announced that it will be winding up later this year.

Owner Gerard Pidoto told fans and customers, “After 10 years, I've decided to call it a day with Fist2Face. For the most part it's been fucking amazing to run an independent record store, but the last couple of years have been pretty taxing on the business and myself personally.

“Smashed windows, graffiti'd walls, multiple floods, thieving customers, thieving staff, a local council that gave us '28 days to cease trade' a couple of years back, and all of this whilst releasing five independent albums of my own, it's fair to say I'm spent!”

He said that he'd “spent the last year or so without drawing a wage, working other jobs to help pay bills and living out of a backpack/crashing on friends' couches all in the hope of keeping the doors open, but it was to no avail in the end.”

Located in Ringwood, east of Melbourne, the store will close up some point between April and June.