Chris Yarnton has been involved in music sales since 1994, both in retail for a national chain of stores and then wholesale, supplying other retailers across the south of England and Wales. Always wishing to open a general music shop with the aim to offer advice to any level of musician in a friendly relaxed environment, CY Music opened in Winchester on 1st June 2005.
Over time we added the on-line shop through our own web site and then our E-bay shop allowing us to sell our products across the UK and Europe. We also expanded our local offering by training to carry our repairs and service work on flutes and clarinets as well as offering re-stinging on guitars and violins.
After our 10-year lease expired at the Jewry Street location we move to on-line and local customer face to face model while we worked on the next evolution of CY Music.
Taking longer than we would have like we were happy to open our new location in Winchester on the 1st of September 2016. Sharing space in a new hub for musicians in Winchester at The Loft. The Loft was a home to three distinct businesses, CY Music, retailer of Musical Instruments, Winchester Piano studios providing almost 200 people with piano lessons each week and the Loft lounge, a relaxed coffee lounge with live music stage hosting events and concerts. Unfortunately, after just 1 year The Loft made the difficult decision to close and left us homeless once again.
CY Music now operates as an on-line business with a local flavour, we have an office and storage in Basingstoke and deliver free across north Hampshire and offer free collection and return of repair and service work within our catchment. We have looked at options to open another retail unit but this is looking increasingly unlikely.