Fifty years on, Turramurra Music is still all about their community

Every true Sydney-sider knows Turramurra Music, and now celebrating their 50th anniversary, the store has stuck to what they do best: serving the musicians around them. Through all of it, Turramurra Music has stayed family-owned and operated, even as retail has gone digital and the chains have spread across the country. Founder Rob Stevens still manages the shop and works the floor on busy Saturdays, his wife Anne runs the education sales team as she has for several decades, and their two sons, Mat and Dave, now handle much of the day-to-day. It’s Dave who talks us through fifty years of the family business.

Catch up on all the latest interviews and features here.

In the ’70s, bands heading north out of Sydney had a little ritual. “Community has always been there from the start, with Rob having had close ties with up and coming musicians in the ’70s and wanting to support them,” says Dave Stevens. “The store used to be the last stop out of town for bands making the drive up north, and the likes of INXS, The Radiators and The Angels would sometimes stop off for some strings and a cup of tea before getting on the freeway.”

The shop that locals know today, packed with everything from beginner ukuleles to boutique synthesizers, looked a little different in the beginning. Rob built the business, and in those early years it was records and music tuition that paid the bills, rather than instruments.

“Lessons ceased in the ’90s but were a crucial part of our revenue base when we first opened,” Dave recalls. “There are plenty of ongoing relationships with both early teachers and students.”

Some of those early teachers went on to play on the big stage. Midnight Oil’s Jim Moginie once taught at Turramurra Music, as did his bandmate Martin Rotsey. “We recently found a ledger from the ’70s and their names are on the first page under ‘outgoings’ for their teaching bills,” Dave says. It’s a small piece of Australian rock history filed away in the accounts.

Mat and Dave grew up in and around the store, so much so that Mat’s first outing as a newborn wasn’t his home. “When Mat was born, he and Anne were discharged from hospital on pay day – so Mat went to the shop before he made it home, as Anne had to do the pays.”

If that tells you anything about Turramurra Music, it’s their deep commitment to the family business. Customers can feel that, and that’s why they keep coming back.

“Customer loyalty is huge for us. We are extremely privileged to have very loyal customers,” Dave says. “We’ve attended weddings of customers, seen families grow.”

Turramurra does things differently, and their dedication to the community is part of why this independent store has outlasted so many of its peers. It’s not only their loyalty to their customers, but to their staff, too.

“Aside from Anne and Rob, there are two staff who are in their fifth decade at the shop, having started in the ’80s, and another who started in the early ’90s,” Dave says. “We currently have 55 staff on payroll, many of them part time or casual, but it is a far harder roster to organise these days than it once was.”

As Turramurra’s reputation and stock grew, the space needed to as well. What began as a small store eventually became the shopfront next door and then the one in between – until three buildings became one.

“The current shop space is a point of pride for us as a family as well as our employees,” Dave says. “With us being at least 40 minutes away from the city centre, we feel the space we can offer customers is worth the trip. The period during which renovations happened was a fairly intense and difficult one, but as soon as we saw the end product we knew it had been worthwhile.”

What began as records, guitars and accessories now fills that space as a full music centre, carrying one of the widest ranges of instruments, live sound and recording gear in the country, backed by in-house repairs, instrument and PA hire, installation and servicing.

Turramurra have run close to 70 in-store and community events in the last five years, including product launches, demo nights, training seminars and workshops, topped off by a masterclass with jazz-fusion heavyweights Snarky Puppy, held at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.

“That is a big number, isn’t it. They take a lot of work but we have a great team that comes together to put them on, especially the bigger ones like Snarky Puppy. I would definitely class them as more a labour of love than something we do to make money. But it allows us to give something really unique and cool to our loyal customers and the wider music community, so it’s worth every bit of effort.”

Every bit of effort is indeed worth it, as Turramurra was recognised on the biggest stage of all when they won Best Community Retailer at NAMM 2026, and made the top three for Best Retailer overall – something of a rarity for an independent Australian retail store. “The community has grown and changed a lot over the years, so to be recognised with the award at NAMM was just amazing,” Dave says.

That effort reaches well beyond their immediate vicinity. Turramurra delivered instruments, set up a studio and ran workshops at Nyangatjatjara College in Yulara in the Northern Territory, alongside Graham “Buzz” Bidstrup, a founding member of GANGgajang. Closer to home, they practice what they preach, putting their weight behind local music events. Practical support for an often under-funded industry is a big part of what Turramurra do, and education is central to that – key to making music more accessible.

“Education sales are a huge part of our business,” Dave says. “Anne is part of a dedicated team who deal with the huge volume of daily enquiries from not only the many schools in our area, but nation-wide. Alongside providing the best possible pricing to help music budgets go as far as they can, we have helped run primary school band nights, sponsored musicals and battle of the bands events, and helped set up gear in classrooms.”

All of these achievements are not to say that running a brick-and-mortar business comes with no challenges. Fifty years in music retail means weathering enormous change – from the first rise of online shopping and global marketplaces, and big chains swallowing up independent stores, to the arrival of CDs and pubs swapping live stages for dining rooms. To last, Turramurra Music has had to adapt, and as expected, it hasn’t all been smooth sailing.

“We had a second store in the ’80s which almost sent us bankrupt. Getting out of that was difficult but a necessary decision. We feel we positioned ourselves well with the growth of online commerce early on and it continues to be a significant part of our business.”

Then came COVID, which Dave describes as a period they feared might close their doors.

“There was the initial rush of everybody wanting audio interfaces and other equipment to set themselves up for home recording, but stock dried up very quickly. It then moved on to how do we entertain our children who are suddenly stuck home with us, and we saw a run on more student-priced keyboards, guitars and drum kits. Then eventually the grown-ups got bored and we started selling out of higher-end electric guitars.”

Stock shortages and shifting rules aside, Dave says the period “ultimately built camaraderie”, and they count themselves lucky the industry wasn’t hit the way so many others were.

After 50 years, you can count on the family to spot where the industry needs work, and funding is one of them.

“The music industry and the arts sector more broadly have long suffered from relatively pitiful levels of government funding compared to other OECD nations. Getting governments to recognise its importance and back it with meaningful funding would do wonders.”

Five decades in the business is a huge milestone that calls for an even bigger celebration – and rest assured, Turramurra’s half-century isn’t going unmarked. There’s an anniversary logo, a growing 50th merch collection, a birthday sale and a run of celebrations that a few of the team have been pulling together on the side of their day jobs.

“Our trivia night was awesome – selling out a local restaurant with around 70 customers and friends joining us for an evening of music and food. And to celebrate our actual birthday in September, we’ve booked out a venue for a private event with staff past and present, as well as some suppliers and special friends.”

The celebrations have reached far and wide, too. All year the team have been running an interview series with a string of high-profile artists – and just how far that reaches showed over the weekend, when Thirsty Merc frontman Rai Thistlethwayte, who now plays keys for Toto, wore a Turramurra Music t-shirt on stage during a show in Tampa, Florida.

For all the milestones, Turramurra Music’s story is one of a family who don’t just serve the musicians around them, but are part of the picture themselves. Their staying power is no coincidence – it comes down to real relationships, expert advice and a shared love of music. Fifty years on, that’s something worth celebrating, and there’s plenty more to come.

Stay up to date with Turramurra Music here.