Record Store Profile: IM093 Music Hub NSW

What is your store called? 

Our store is IMP093 Music Hub. All our releases are allocated catalogue numbers IMP---, so this felt like the most important catalogue number of all! We're at 93 Bourke St, so it made sense to call our first home IMP093. 

Where are you located? 

93 Bourke St, Woolloomooloo, Sydney and online here.

Are you a physical store, online or both?

We're in store and online, and our record label office is upstairs. To be honest, at this point, we make the vast majority of our sales online, worldwide. We've sold online to over 12,000 customers in more than 40 countries in our 18 months - unfortunately it's just not possible to reach that quantity of customers solely instore! Our store is open to the public a few days a week and is mainly a space we utilise for instore gigs and events.

Do you cater for a specific niche or genre?

We started with the line 'No rules, no genres, just great music.' But eighteen months later, I'd say we sway towards supporting independent Australian artists, in a range of genres. This years AIR Awards Nominations we pressed are a great cross section of our releases - Ziggy Ramo in Hip Hop, Simon Mavin in Classical, Radio Free Alice in Punk and Bunny Racket in Kids. We say 'If it impresses us, we'll press it,' that still rings true. 

Tell us about the people behind the scenes?

People are always surprised when we say there's only a handful of people working full time on Impressed! But really the core team is three people. Luke Bevans is the founder and managing director, Georgia OConnor is the General Manager and A&R Lead, and Bertie Blackman works as a full-time Label Manager. Everyone else is part-time and working across all the other roles and tasks it takes to make the wheels turn. We're still only eighteen months in, so start-up phase can be a bit scrappy and all hands on deck! 

We always prefer hiring people with music industry experience, because it's a unique industry in a lot of ways and we want artists to feel like the people they're working with 'get it.'

When and why did the store open? 

We opened for trade as a record store for the first time on Record Store Day last year. We had a few instores prior to that - The Terrys - in true 'Terrys' fashion - spray painted the walls and played us a wild acoustic set for their 'Skate Pop' album launch a few days after we signed the lease (which the landlords did not love!) and Dan Stricker from Midnight Juggernauts and Deep Faith came in to sage and cleanse the place for us before we opened. 

It's been an incredible space to welcome music lovers of all kinds - we've had Mother Mother smashing guitars, Bunny Racket putting on a show for a bunch of toddlers, classical singer songwriters where you could hear a pin drop and listening parties that felt like an intimate house party. We're starting to launch 'Sound Advice' sessions with Music NSW, like speed dating to connect young musicians with industry professionals on a Saturday morning. It's been amazing to have the space transform time and time again - which is why we wanted a 'Music Hub', not a traditional record store. We sell a few records instore with each event, but honestly, it's more about building an incredible community for us and being a home for young musicians and music lovers of all kinds.

What do your customers most know you for?

I think they might say releasing exclusive vinyl records. I hope in ten years we're most known for being a 100% independent Australian record label - that stayed 100% independent - that talks about caring about the artists and the music lovers more than anything else, and actually, genuinely does.

What is the most popular title you stock at the moment? 

It's no secret that Aussie guitar bands are the fastest shifters in our releases. But we've been surprised that some of the more left-field pressings we've made have been the biggest community favourites, like Ausecuma Beats with Music In Exile. The feedback on that release was phenomenal. For us, it's often a 'slow-burn' with releases, because we're committed to taking chances on young artists, it takes time to share their story with a wider audience. We're so proud to say we've now pressed over forty debut albums and EP's for young up-and-coming Australian musicians in the last 18 months. 

There's a young psych-rock band called Liminal from the Northern Rivers that Luke first found their record at Howl and Moan Record Store in Byron, and we loved it so much we reached out to them and bought every other copy they made! That was so popular - they sold out their run so quickly, to all corners of the world. We couldn't believe we were getting orders from Mexico, Chile, Belgium, Japan for this virtually unknown young Australian band, it was so great to see. 

That story in itself is a testament to how incredible it can be to find great new music at your local record store!

In terms of stock right now, Folk Bitch Trio is really selling well and we are preparing an exciting instore with them soon. Young Sydney band Egoism just sold out every single record we pressed before their debut album even dropped. Cousin Tony's Brand New Firebird's 'Rosewater Crocodile' is also a hot title for us right now, as is the Oscar-nominated soundtrack of 'Memoir of a Snail'.

What is the most popular evergreen title? 

We still get daily requests to repress the Royel Otis double EP's Sofa Kings/Bar & Grill, there's copies selling on Discogs for over $600! 

Actually, that's a great example of the above - we pressed 1000 copies of that record and we sat on 900 of them for around 3 months - right before the guys blew up. Then they did the Triple J 'Like A Version' that went viral and after that, we sold out the whole rest of the run in two weeks. 

The most consistently good sellers for us are exclusive records that can't be found anywhere else - even streaming in some cases. We released JET's first new music in 15 years on 7" vinyl before you could even hear it online. That sold out in a few hours. And recently we recorded and pressed a LIVE Impressed exclusive recording of a show Wednesday did in Sydney last year. That sold out in a weekend, again, because it's not available on streaming, you can't hear it anywhere else. Those exclusives continue to be our best sellers, time and time again.

What is the best thing about running a record store in 2025?

The best thing for us is that our model is set up that our actual physical Record Store is less than 10% of what our Label does on a day-to-day basis. So we're able to create loads of incredible opportunities for ourselves - like we recorded our own exclusive LIVE album for a touring US band and pressed it on vinyl, which isn't available anywhere else in the world. We're able to offer exclusive pressings for instores, record live shows and host events that move the needle for young Australian musicians in a tough time in a tough industry. 

We can make our own luck, in a sense. We have the opportunity to create a totally unique Music Hub experience for our community. We don't just wholesale buy records from large distributors, we create them ourselves in unison with the artists and other labels, and that model allows for a totally unique and curated experience for both the artist and the customer. 

What is the hardest thing about running a record store in 2025?

Lots is great, but, of course, lots is also tough. Like lots of people in business at the moment, cashflow is probably our biggest hurdle - as a start up and a 100% independent label. Our model means we pay upfront costs for manufacturing the records and artists recoup and are paid royalties from that initial investment we make. So if a run doesn't sell through well, which has happened a few times, or we over order, we never make our money back on the project. There's learning curves around every corner for us at this stage in the business - and some are more expensive than others! 

There's been a few instances lately where the major labels have directly copied our branding and our ideas, which is frustrating to see. But all's fair in love and war and music, right! We take it as a compliment that we're getting it right and the power players are watching! 

There will always be people who scoff at the idea of running a 100% independent label and a store where we genuinely put musicians and music lovers first, but that's just fire in our belly to make it work. 

We believe wholeheartedly in how essential local record stores are to the local music community and to the musicians whose music fill those stores. We hope even in tough times, there will still be local record stores all across the country for us music lovers to find each other in.