Dolphin Music

Last updated

Dolphin Music.
Company type Private
Industry Musical instruments
Founded1999
Headquarters Venture Point West,70-72 Evans Rd, Liverpool, L24 9PB
Key people
 Carley Crowder (General Manager),
ProductsMusical instruments, recording equipment and accessories
Owner S&T Audio
Number of employees
25
Website dolphinmusic.co.uk

Dolphin Music was an online retailer selling a vast array of musical instruments and recording equipment online. It first began in Liverpool, England in 1999.

Contents

History

Robert Williams (11 September 1979 — 2 March 2009) and Jason Tavaria, while still at Liverpool University, used their credit cards & student loans to set up a company that would sell musical equipment by mail order and over the internet. [1]

By 2008 the business had 80 staff and £16m in revenues.[ citation needed ] In 2009 Robert Williams Co-Founder died whilst snowboarding in Switzerland whilst with Co-Founder Jason Tavaria. [2] In 2011 Dolphin Music was purchased by S&T Audio Ltd, who also own Play Music Today (PMT) retail stores and the PMTonline.co.uk webstore. [3]

In June 2025, S&T Audio Ltd entered administration, and its 11 UK stores and online operations were shut down. Following the administration, Gear4music acquired certain assets from the administrators, including stock, websites, trademarks, and commercial data, but explicitly did not take on PMT’s ongoing trading business or liabilities, and has no plans to resume trading under the PMT name. [4] [5] [6]

Legacy

A memorial fund has been established [7] with the Prince's Trust with the aim of helping inspire others follow Rob's business success following a fatal accident [2] while on holiday – with associates including Michelle Dewberry – snowboarding at Verbier. On 2 March 2009, he slipped 60 ft (20 metres) during treacherous skiing conditions. Jason was found alive via GPS tracking, but Rob was dead by 11pm. The news broke of the plight of the missing adventurers on the Swiss Alps via mobile telephone updates to microblog networking service Twitter. [8] The celebration of Mr Williams's life was marked by his funeral and a reception at St Albans Cathedral and Sopwell House respectively on 19 March. [9] [10]

References

  1. ↑ "About Us - History". dolphinmusic.co.uk. Retrieved 27 July 2008.
  2. 1 2 British entrepreneur Rob Williams dies on skiing holiday in tragedy played out on Twitter
  3. ↑ Dungan, Ronnie. "PMT owner buys Dolphin Music". MI Pro. Intent Media. Retrieved 20 February 2012.
  4. ↑ "UK music retail chain PMT placed into administration, permanently closing all stores with immediate effect". Guitar.com | All Things Guitar. Retrieved 8 October 2025.
  5. ↑ Janelle Borg (12 June 2025). "PMT, one of the UK's largest instrument retailers, has been placed into administration – closing all stores and making 96 members of staff redundant". Guitar World. Retrieved 8 October 2025.
  6. ↑ "PMT Information | Gear4music". www.gear4music.com. Retrieved 8 October 2025.
  7. ↑ Rob Williams Tribute » Charity Fund & Address Archived September 3, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
  8. ↑ Twitter tributes to British snowboarder
  9. ↑ Edwards, Richard (3 March 2009). "British entrepreneur Rob Williams dies on skiing holiday in tragedy played out on Twitter". The Daily Telegraph. London. Archived from the original on 4 March 2009. Retrieved 1 May 2010.
  10. ↑ "Rob Williams". Lasting Tribute. Archived from the original on 9 March 2009. Retrieved 4 March 2009.


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