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In a very short space of time, Bop DJ has established itself as one of the big players in the industry. Founded by Conor Moxon in the late 2000s, he ran the business with no staff until 2012. Conor initially bought and sold records online, but eventually began sourcing and refurbishing Technics to sell to customers not just in the UK but across the world. The reality of these early days was that Conor put in long hours and racked up countless miles driving cross-country. “At one point we were selling 20-30 pairs of refurbished Technics a week all round the world,” Conor tells us. “I worked 60-70 hours a week, driving round the country sourcing Technics and refurbishing them.”
At the time, Conor was increasingly aware of the lack of DJ-specific stores, something he put down to both the musical and cultural climate along with the rise of internet-only stores. In the late-90s and 2000s mainstream, dance music went out and the guitar-based sounds of indie came in. But by 2009, dance music – and by extension, DJing – was making a strong comeback. In addition, the internet brought a wave of new competition. This cocktail unfortunately led to many independent DJ and record stores closing.
“One of the things that pushed Conor to start was that the Britpop era and the birth of internet only box shifters almost killed the DJ store, and by 2009 they were few and far between,” explains Charlie Oliver, Bop DJ’s Head of Marketing. “However, dance music was becoming much more popular, both in the mainstream and with the underground coming to fruition again the inner city-based DJ store was needed once more”.
The company really came into its own – as a DJ and music tech shop – in 2014 with the launch of the Bop DJ website and the opening of its flagship store and showroom in Leeds. This initial store was done on a budget, giving the interior a very sparse feel, but things soon developed when Conor realised that “physical stores with demonstration facilities were what our customers actually wanted.”
Bop DJ transformed its Leeds store into a fresh, interactive demonstration space, allowing the company to compete with the online sellers whose prices were much lower. Its Bristol and Manchester stores weren’t far behind (2017 and 2018, respectively), allowing the company to provide an in-store experience for DJing and music tech enthusiasts up and down the country.
Charlie tells us he’s incredibly proud of the way the stores look and the experience they give to customers. “People have compared us to the Apple store of the DJ world, because they’re fully white stores and everything is set up and ready to go,” he says. “So if you pop in and want to demo the latest product – or something that’s been around a while – you can do that, on the high street, which is quite a rarity these days.”
Tapping into the fertile markets offered by cities with plenty of musical heritage was a great move by Bop DJ, but the prime locations do come with a cost: “There are actually very few city centre-based DJ stores left. Most of our competition is based in smaller towns and focused mainly on selling online,” says Conor.
“We are very much about having slick demo spaces in densely populated, music-based cities. But space in cities comes at a premium and our costs are high compared to the competition. Sometimes this means we have to get creative with space, even resorting to storing stock on the toilet roof!”
It seems Conor’s willingness to experiment with storage space paid off – the city centre locations of all three Bop DJ stores have made them successful, giving local DJs an easily accessible store that’s close to the venues and areas in which they perform. With plenty of stock to hand, Conor and the team find themselves helping DJs – whether local or international – to solve a whole manner of problems.
Recently this included opening up the store in the middle of the night to provide the legendary Carl Cox with a Model 1 for his ‘Back to Basics’ set at Church Leeds. The company also provided a last-minute Christmas gift to Jordan Pickford in the form of a Pioneer XDJ-RX2. (As it turns out, when he isn’t busy stopping Jorginho’s penalty in the Euro 2020 finals, the heroic England goalkeeper is developing as a keen DJ.)
Talking with Charlie, it’s clear that Bop DJ is a big hit with club DJs and hobbyists – the audiences that Conor focused on when he first launched the company. However, since 2018 this focus has expanded to include mobile DJs and event professionals too. At all three stores, customers can come along and demo the lighting, PA and mixers alongside production equipment, suiting Bop DJ’s wide and expanding audience.
The company claims to have “the biggest and the best DJ and music production-specific showrooms in the UK” and, like many of the retailers we’ve spoken with in this series, Bop DJ’s appeal comes from providing a tactile, hands-on experience. For many customers, especially teenagers first starting out, Charlie argues that visiting the store is an essential step in their musical or creative journey.
The company’s part-exchange scheme and pre-owned stock are also essential in helping hobbyists, first-time mobile DJs and youngsters get started in the world of DJing. The part-ex scheme means customers can be flexible with their setups and gives them the freedom to try their hand at different things, without the huge cost of buying brand-new gear each time.
“We like to think we can be there for customers throughout their whole journey, starting with an entry level controller – DDJ 400 or Numark Mixtrack, something like that – into a more intermediate setup. And then, if they want to, part-exchange that against the cost of a full club setup,” explains Charlie.
“It’s nice being able to sell pre-owned stuff. It’s better for the environment and we’re also fully aware that DJ equipment can be very expensive, so offering people the chance to save money by buying good quality pre-owned stuff is a bonus. We’re all about trying to pass on the bug for electronic music and DJing to everyone.”
It’s not just young, aspiring DJs and producers who can benefit from Bop DJ’s part-ex scheme though. For many cash-strapped mobile DJs, the availability of quality preowned products and a part-exchange scheme is an incredibly reassuring prospect. Having the ability to upscale or downsize a rig is helpful at the best of times, let alone during a pandemic that has left DJs without work for over 18 months.
As a company that has built itself on its city centre stores and very much sees them as its strength, it’s unsurprising to hear that the pandemic was a worrying and frustrating experience for Bop DJ too – especially as a relative newcomer to the industry.
“It’s been a challenge, as I’m sure it has for everyone. Stores were our strength and to shut all three of them for almost over a year was frustrating. But it is what it is. We’re just glad everyone is safe and surviving and very thankful to our customers who remained loyal to us online,” Charlie says.
“We’re big believers in trying to support independent companies, as we’re an independent company ourselves. So we’ve done what we can to highlight the issues that record stores, venues, musicians, DJs and others are facing.” Despite the challenges thrown at them, Conor, Charlie and the team were able to adapt and stay resilient through the course of the pandemic, leaning on their e-commerce background and Charlie’s recently expanded marketing team whilst stores were shut.
Thankfully, with retail open once again, things are getting back to some sort of normality. Charlie tells us, “Everything feels much better now the stores are busier. It’s fantastic to see the PA and lighting picking up again, now that we’re one step closer to normality for mobile DJs and venues.”
In fact, if COVID-19 hadn’t struck when it did, we may have been looking at a fourth Bop DJ store by now. It’s something there may still be potential for – after all, physical stores have been part of founder Conor’s gameplan since early on.
In 2014, shortly after opening its Leeds store, Bop DJ was invited to a dealer event in Berlin by Pioneer DJ, its largest supplier. “They unveiled us there as comfortably the fastest growing dealer in Europe. And this gave us the message loud and clear to press on and open more physical stores, which was always the vision,” explains Conor. So, watch this space.
Charlie tells us that pre-COVID we may even have caught one of Bop DJ’s in-store events, which shifted to an online format during lockdown: “All our online events have been really successful and we’re glad we have an outlet to do that, but we much prefer getting people into the stores for face-to-face events,” he says. “We’re very proud of our stores and to get people in for an evening event is always preferred.”
In recent years Bop DJ has run in-store events with top brands including Pioneer DJ, Denon DJ, Serato and Ableton. Sometimes the company links up with local venues and groups in all three cities, collaborating with brands on events that bring the community together and give DJs the chance to spin some tunes and network – something Charlie points out will be 'essential' once things are back to normal.
“We quickly established that in-store events were a great way to build awareness of our new stores,” Conor tells us. “Suppliers often run events in retail stores but they usually struggle to get people to attend. However, ours were very well attended. Prior to the pandemic we had more than 100 attendees at an in-store Ableton event at our Manchester store. More recently [pre COVID-19] we couldn’t host events ourselves because we don’t have enough space, so we started partnering with venues – the Leeds club legend and ‘Back to Basics’ founder Dave Beer hosted our last one.”
Knowledge sharing is another big focus for Bop DJ. The whole team is passionate about DJing and electronic music, and they love sharing this knowledge with customers at educational events for popular products like rekordbox.
“Obviously you need to do the big product launch events, but we also like to offer something that’s not so salesy to the consumer as well,” explains Charlie.
“Our rekordbox ‘tips and tricks’ event went down really well and across all three cities we had around 300 guests. It was fantastic seeing so many people who want to engage with their local DJ community, sharing tips, and having a drink and a mix.”
Bop DJ’s blog, social media and YouTube channel also play a part in sharing this knowledge and passion with customers. As a fairly young company, social media has been integral to its success and comprises a large part of Charlie’s marketing strategy. Now, with a growing marketing team, he says their social media output is becoming even more frequent and structured, allowing Bop DJ to reach even wider audiences online.
Regular posts to Instagram show off the latest DJ and music production technology, while the company’s YouTube channel boasts over 7000 subscribers, giving customers the chance to watch product talk-throughs, reviews and even performances from renowned DJs. You’ll also find plenty of educational content and tutorials that show off the team’s expertise, knowledge and enthusiasm for DJing.
“We’re passionate people. We do this because we love electronic music and we want to share that passion. When we get teenagers coming into our stores and they’ve just checked out whichever upcoming dance artist… to see them come in and try mixing two tunes together for the first time… to see the enjoyment. That’s the reason why we do it,” Charlie says.
“I’ve been producing music for over 18 years now and I just want to pass on that passion. A lot of that comes from working with Conor; he’s just so passionate about electronic dance music and that has filtered down through everyone at Bop DJ.”
So, with stores now open again, events back on the cards and room for more growth in terms of marketing and retail space, the future is exciting for Bop DJ.
If you didn’t already know the name, you certainly do now. And, just like Carl Cox, you may well find yourself knocking on a Bop DJ door in the not-too-distant future…
Follow @bopdj on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. www.bopdj.com
At the time, Conor was increasingly aware of the lack of DJ-specific stores, something he put down to both the musical and cultural climate along with the rise of internet-only stores. In the late-90s and 2000s mainstream, dance music went out and the guitar-based sounds of indie came in. But by 2009, dance music – and by extension, DJing – was making a strong comeback. In addition, the internet brought a wave of new competition. This cocktail unfortunately led to many independent DJ and record stores closing.
“One of the things that pushed Conor to start was that the Britpop era and the birth of internet only box shifters almost killed the DJ store, and by 2009 they were few and far between,” explains Charlie Oliver, Bop DJ’s Head of Marketing. “However, dance music was becoming much more popular, both in the mainstream and with the underground coming to fruition again the inner city-based DJ store was needed once more”.
Embracing the UK’s music cities
The company really came into its own – as a DJ and music tech shop – in 2014 with the launch of the Bop DJ website and the opening of its flagship store and showroom in Leeds. This initial store was done on a budget, giving the interior a very sparse feel, but things soon developed when Conor realised that “physical stores with demonstration facilities were what our customers actually wanted.”
Bop DJ transformed its Leeds store into a fresh, interactive demonstration space, allowing the company to compete with the online sellers whose prices were much lower. Its Bristol and Manchester stores weren’t far behind (2017 and 2018, respectively), allowing the company to provide an in-store experience for DJing and music tech enthusiasts up and down the country.
Charlie tells us he’s incredibly proud of the way the stores look and the experience they give to customers. “People have compared us to the Apple store of the DJ world, because they’re fully white stores and everything is set up and ready to go,” he says. “So if you pop in and want to demo the latest product – or something that’s been around a while – you can do that, on the high street, which is quite a rarity these days.”
Tapping into the fertile markets offered by cities with plenty of musical heritage was a great move by Bop DJ, but the prime locations do come with a cost: “There are actually very few city centre-based DJ stores left. Most of our competition is based in smaller towns and focused mainly on selling online,” says Conor.
“We are very much about having slick demo spaces in densely populated, music-based cities. But space in cities comes at a premium and our costs are high compared to the competition. Sometimes this means we have to get creative with space, even resorting to storing stock on the toilet roof!”
It seems Conor’s willingness to experiment with storage space paid off – the city centre locations of all three Bop DJ stores have made them successful, giving local DJs an easily accessible store that’s close to the venues and areas in which they perform. With plenty of stock to hand, Conor and the team find themselves helping DJs – whether local or international – to solve a whole manner of problems.
Recently this included opening up the store in the middle of the night to provide the legendary Carl Cox with a Model 1 for his ‘Back to Basics’ set at Church Leeds. The company also provided a last-minute Christmas gift to Jordan Pickford in the form of a Pioneer XDJ-RX2. (As it turns out, when he isn’t busy stopping Jorginho’s penalty in the Euro 2020 finals, the heroic England goalkeeper is developing as a keen DJ.)
Talking with Charlie, it’s clear that Bop DJ is a big hit with club DJs and hobbyists – the audiences that Conor focused on when he first launched the company. However, since 2018 this focus has expanded to include mobile DJs and event professionals too. At all three stores, customers can come along and demo the lighting, PA and mixers alongside production equipment, suiting Bop DJ’s wide and expanding audience.
The company claims to have “the biggest and the best DJ and music production-specific showrooms in the UK” and, like many of the retailers we’ve spoken with in this series, Bop DJ’s appeal comes from providing a tactile, hands-on experience. For many customers, especially teenagers first starting out, Charlie argues that visiting the store is an essential step in their musical or creative journey.
Keeping costs down
The company’s part-exchange scheme and pre-owned stock are also essential in helping hobbyists, first-time mobile DJs and youngsters get started in the world of DJing. The part-ex scheme means customers can be flexible with their setups and gives them the freedom to try their hand at different things, without the huge cost of buying brand-new gear each time.
“We like to think we can be there for customers throughout their whole journey, starting with an entry level controller – DDJ 400 or Numark Mixtrack, something like that – into a more intermediate setup. And then, if they want to, part-exchange that against the cost of a full club setup,” explains Charlie.
“It’s nice being able to sell pre-owned stuff. It’s better for the environment and we’re also fully aware that DJ equipment can be very expensive, so offering people the chance to save money by buying good quality pre-owned stuff is a bonus. We’re all about trying to pass on the bug for electronic music and DJing to everyone.”
It’s not just young, aspiring DJs and producers who can benefit from Bop DJ’s part-ex scheme though. For many cash-strapped mobile DJs, the availability of quality preowned products and a part-exchange scheme is an incredibly reassuring prospect. Having the ability to upscale or downsize a rig is helpful at the best of times, let alone during a pandemic that has left DJs without work for over 18 months.
Staying strong through lockdown
As a company that has built itself on its city centre stores and very much sees them as its strength, it’s unsurprising to hear that the pandemic was a worrying and frustrating experience for Bop DJ too – especially as a relative newcomer to the industry.
“It’s been a challenge, as I’m sure it has for everyone. Stores were our strength and to shut all three of them for almost over a year was frustrating. But it is what it is. We’re just glad everyone is safe and surviving and very thankful to our customers who remained loyal to us online,” Charlie says.
“We’re big believers in trying to support independent companies, as we’re an independent company ourselves. So we’ve done what we can to highlight the issues that record stores, venues, musicians, DJs and others are facing.” Despite the challenges thrown at them, Conor, Charlie and the team were able to adapt and stay resilient through the course of the pandemic, leaning on their e-commerce background and Charlie’s recently expanded marketing team whilst stores were shut.
Thankfully, with retail open once again, things are getting back to some sort of normality. Charlie tells us, “Everything feels much better now the stores are busier. It’s fantastic to see the PA and lighting picking up again, now that we’re one step closer to normality for mobile DJs and venues.”
In fact, if COVID-19 hadn’t struck when it did, we may have been looking at a fourth Bop DJ store by now. It’s something there may still be potential for – after all, physical stores have been part of founder Conor’s gameplan since early on.
In 2014, shortly after opening its Leeds store, Bop DJ was invited to a dealer event in Berlin by Pioneer DJ, its largest supplier. “They unveiled us there as comfortably the fastest growing dealer in Europe. And this gave us the message loud and clear to press on and open more physical stores, which was always the vision,” explains Conor. So, watch this space.
Events and Collaboration
Charlie tells us that pre-COVID we may even have caught one of Bop DJ’s in-store events, which shifted to an online format during lockdown: “All our online events have been really successful and we’re glad we have an outlet to do that, but we much prefer getting people into the stores for face-to-face events,” he says. “We’re very proud of our stores and to get people in for an evening event is always preferred.”
In recent years Bop DJ has run in-store events with top brands including Pioneer DJ, Denon DJ, Serato and Ableton. Sometimes the company links up with local venues and groups in all three cities, collaborating with brands on events that bring the community together and give DJs the chance to spin some tunes and network – something Charlie points out will be 'essential' once things are back to normal.
“We quickly established that in-store events were a great way to build awareness of our new stores,” Conor tells us. “Suppliers often run events in retail stores but they usually struggle to get people to attend. However, ours were very well attended. Prior to the pandemic we had more than 100 attendees at an in-store Ableton event at our Manchester store. More recently [pre COVID-19] we couldn’t host events ourselves because we don’t have enough space, so we started partnering with venues – the Leeds club legend and ‘Back to Basics’ founder Dave Beer hosted our last one.”
Sharing knowledge and passion
Knowledge sharing is another big focus for Bop DJ. The whole team is passionate about DJing and electronic music, and they love sharing this knowledge with customers at educational events for popular products like rekordbox.
“Obviously you need to do the big product launch events, but we also like to offer something that’s not so salesy to the consumer as well,” explains Charlie.
“Our rekordbox ‘tips and tricks’ event went down really well and across all three cities we had around 300 guests. It was fantastic seeing so many people who want to engage with their local DJ community, sharing tips, and having a drink and a mix.”
Bop DJ’s blog, social media and YouTube channel also play a part in sharing this knowledge and passion with customers. As a fairly young company, social media has been integral to its success and comprises a large part of Charlie’s marketing strategy. Now, with a growing marketing team, he says their social media output is becoming even more frequent and structured, allowing Bop DJ to reach even wider audiences online.
Regular posts to Instagram show off the latest DJ and music production technology, while the company’s YouTube channel boasts over 7000 subscribers, giving customers the chance to watch product talk-throughs, reviews and even performances from renowned DJs. You’ll also find plenty of educational content and tutorials that show off the team’s expertise, knowledge and enthusiasm for DJing.
“We’re passionate people. We do this because we love electronic music and we want to share that passion. When we get teenagers coming into our stores and they’ve just checked out whichever upcoming dance artist… to see them come in and try mixing two tunes together for the first time… to see the enjoyment. That’s the reason why we do it,” Charlie says.
“I’ve been producing music for over 18 years now and I just want to pass on that passion. A lot of that comes from working with Conor; he’s just so passionate about electronic dance music and that has filtered down through everyone at Bop DJ.”
So, with stores now open again, events back on the cards and room for more growth in terms of marketing and retail space, the future is exciting for Bop DJ.
If you didn’t already know the name, you certainly do now. And, just like Carl Cox, you may well find yourself knocking on a Bop DJ door in the not-too-distant future…
Follow @bopdj on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. www.bopdj.com
The full review can be found in Pro Mobile Issue 109, Pages 46-52.
