What Happens When a Total Newbie Takes Over a Music Store?
Imagine this: you're a complete beginner with no prior experience... and suddenly, you're running a music store.
Here’s how it happened to me:
I landed a job at a music store, which was exciting since the manager initially trained me to build the necessary stats. Over time, though, the training dwindled, and my stats began to stagnate. That’s when a wild idea struck me: what if I bought a music store myself?
After scouring the forums and reading every guide I could find, I realized there wasn’t much concrete advice for beginners about running a music store. Questions kept swirling in my mind:
How do I actually run a music store successfully?
What staff stats are essential?
Which positions need to be filled, and why?
What happens day-to-day when you’re in charge?
I couldn't find clear answers, so I decided to take the plunge. I bought a music store. My plan? To document everything that happens—mistakes, successes, and all the messy in-between moments—for future newbies like me.
This post will be my ongoing log of this journey. Was this a genius move or a terrible mistake? Only time will tell!
What I bought:
7* Music store
Purchased for: 250 mil
Here’s what I’ll be covering as I go:
Why Newbies Should Consider Joining a Music Store First
Before taking the leap, it's important to understand the basics. Working in a music store as staff can teach you valuable lessons—if done right. I'll share what I learned and what I wish I'd done differently.
A music store has some nice perks, certainly for beginners;
Perks:
1* rating 50 Happiness - 1 job point
3* rating +30% Gym Experience! Unlocks Gyms FASTER! - Passive
5* rating 2.0 Opponent Stealth Reduction - Passive
7* rating Maximum Stealth - 10 job points
10* rating 15% boost to all stats when we reach 10* - Passive
Statistics of the Music Store
Tracking the store’s performance is key. I'll break down the metrics I monitor and how they impact daily operations.
Before I took over the statistics where:
7* music store
Daily income: $2,285,020
Daily customers: 1,650
Weekly income: $15,085,040
Weekly customers: 11,695
Ad budget: $500,000
The first day the statistics where:
7* music store
Daily income: $1,328,040
Daily customers: 975
Weekly income: $15,085,040
Weekly customers: 11,695
Ad budget: $500,000
Current statistics:
8* music store
Daily Income: $2,861,836
Daily Customers: 1,996
Weekly Income: $ 19,230,168
Weekly Customers: 13,529
Ad budget: $1,000,000
What did I learn so far
The question with such an experiment is always what did you learn and what would you do better later on.
What I learnt in week 1;
- The store bank is really handy to store some pocket money in! It's a real plus for owning a store.
- I thought at the start keeping employee's or finding some for a music store wouldn't be as hard as it is. I tried finding a new musician for a couple of days, since I did not succeed in finding one I settled for a Sales Apprentice. I didn't think of this before as being the hard part. But is is.
- Keeping stars is hard as someone who just started, I know you have to take into account how the other stores are doing. But without any stock benefits and or education I lose money daily. My current loss per day is +/- 800k that means in a week it's 5 million, my ad budget is 900k, but if I wouldn't put that so high I would sell less meaning in a bigger loss in stars. I changed the budget from 800k to 900k and saw a increase in profit. So increasing add budget doesn't mean I lose more money lol.
What I learnt in week 2;
- So I had several questions in my inbox about some stuff; Addiction management, Payment of employees and how I coop with that.
- there are mechanics that also play part; like customer loyalty and ad budgets of other shops..
- you don't only star up by daily income but also by amount of customers and loyalty.
What I learnt in week 3;
- The stocks are really helpful.
- People do have a lot of questions about stores, I get messages a lot.
- I changed the prices to be 1$ below RRP, the lower you are below RRP the more customers you gain + you get more loyal customers (mechanic underneath) if you keep prices below RRP you won't lose any customers.
What I learnt in week 4;
- the store got to 8* without being highest, meaning there are several other mechanics in play.
- People are generally nice and will give you a notice if asked when they leave, some people are just rude lol.
- I played around with advertisement this week, getting it too 800k, 900k and back to 1mil. I lose less money by making more profit and less costs but I do lose income since I want to try to keep 7* at least. I just keep it this way.
What I learnt in week 5&6;
- Don't forget to buy stock. I forgot to buy stock for a day. Which set me back 2 days since the stock arrives in 24h...
- You better get some faction mates in the store since they are more loyal.
- People ask me whether a store is profitable. No it isn't. In the last 6 weeks my profit was $-23,272,489, to be fair. I started a weekly $-5,000,000 meaning I lost almost a million a day running the store. For most people starting that is a fair amount, so don't!
At the moment my weekly profit is at $-2,400,980. Losing $-300,000 a day. But I do get more stats then being a employee. (50/50/50) So I see it as buying a train daily. I do think after I finished my current education and the next one I will be at a 0 in profit which would be great!
Week to week log
Here I will be posting; what did I change that would be important to the stats, and what are the new stats.
Week 1:
Took over the company
Stats:
Daily Income: $1,869,080
Daily Customers: 1,351
Weekly Income: $12,136,560
Weekly Customers: 9,398
Highest Daily Income: $1,869,080
Average Daily Income: $1,635,415
Lowest Daily Income: $1,328,040
Employee changes:
- Supervisor left
- Changed a Musician to Supervisor
- Changed a Sales Apprentice to Sales Assistant
- I found a new Sales Assistant
- A musician left
- Found a new Sales Apprentice
Other changes:
- I changed some prices since they were to high for I reckon
- Changed the name, duhhh
- increased marketing budget from 500k to 800k
- no edu finished
- no benefits of stocks added
- Increased marketing budget from 800k to 900k
Week 2:
First week after I took the company over, and back to 7*!
Stats:
Daily Income: $1,818,105
Daily Customers: 1,353
Weekly Income: $12,817,520
Weekly Customers: 10,033
Highest Daily Income: $1,905,210
Average Daily Income: $1,757,542
Lowest Daily Income: $1,328,040
Employee changes:
- Changed a Sales Assistant to Musician
- Changed a Sales Apprentice to Sales Assistant
- Found a new Sales Apprentice
Other changes:
- no edu finished - 3 days left (started BUS2200)
- no benefits of stocks added, I bought the stocks, kicking in next week!
- Back to a 7* store, it kind of took me with surprise.. Hoping to keep it up
Week 3:
Second week after I took the company over, and I relegated the 7*
Stats:
Daily Income: $ 2,405,481
Daily Customers: 1,761
Weekly Income: $15,431,575
Weekly Customers: 10,894
Highest Daily Income: $ 2,490,426
Average Daily Income: $ 1,854,124
Lowest Daily Income: $ 1,328,040
Employee changes:
- Changed a Sales Apprentice to Sales Assistant
Other changes:
- Edu BUS2200 finished -> started new one Communication Course
- Benefits of stocks kicked in
- relegated the 7*
Week 4:
Biggest change we got promoted to 8*
Stats:
Daily Income: $2,392,761
Daily Customers: 1,688
Weekly Income: $17,268,189
Weekly Customers: 12,429
Highest Daily Income: $2,548,011
Average Daily Income: $2,054,691
Lowest Daily Income: $1,328,040
Employee changes:
- We had a musician leaving us (on a 1 day notice)
- We had a Sales Assistant leaving us (without notice)
- Replaced them both directly with a musician and a sales apprentice.
Other changes:
- Edu BUS2800 almost finished -> 1 day to go
- I played around with the Advertisement budget.. no big advancements there
- The store got promoted to 8*
Week 5&6:
So since it was Christmas, I didn't add week 5.
We kept at 8*
Stats:
Daily Income: $2,861,836
Daily Customers: 1,996
Weekly Income: $19,230,168
Weekly Customers: 13,529
Highest Daily Income: $2,935,417
Average Daily Income: $2,258,474
Lowest Daily Income: $1,328,040
Employee changes:
- None
Other changes:
- Edu BUS2500 almost finished
- BUS2800 finished
- no further changes
Statistics of the Staff and what positions
Going down the list..
As I started I looked at the other 7* and up stores to make sure I put the right people in the right positions.
I will try to keep:
3 musicians with at least 4.500 MAN, 9.000 INT
1 supervisor with at least 3.500 INT, 7.000 END
6 sales assistants with at least 1.750 INT, 3.500 END
What I have now:
3 musicians with at least 4.500 MAN, 9.000 INT
1 supervisor with at least 3.500 INT, 7.000 END
6 sales assistants with at least 1.750 INT, 3.500 END
Rules and payment for employees
I have made the following rules for my employees;
Addiction level this should never exceed 10+, please rehab at least every week and watch your addiction levels.
Inactivity when you become inactive for a couple of days it will hurt our efficiency, so being inactive for more then 2 days without notice will result in a kick. Please let me know if you are inactive for more then a day.
Leaving the store I understand that sometimes people leave the company, please just let me know 24hours in advance. Not doing so will hurt the store since it's hard to find new employees sometimes.
Breaking the rules will result in;
Inactive for more then a day; You won't be trained till active again, when your inactive for more then 2 days without notice this will result in a kick.
Addiction level above 10; You won't be trained till under 10, when your addiction level stays over 10 for more then 2 days without notice this will result in a kick.
Leaving the store; not much I can do.. but you do let the other employees down.. and that might result in some bounties.
Payments and Trains
So I think payments are really hard, if you aren't able to float without a big payment let me know and we will discuss. Might be able to do something like 'new player bonus'.
I believe cash won't come from this store, and mostly the perks are beneficial enough + the rotation trains.
So unless otherwise discussed. Your salary will be at 10k.
Furthermore, I don't sell any trains but use them on you guys. So every star up we will get more trains which I do in rotation. At the moment with 6* everyone get 0,75 train per day.
My Perks in Education (EDU) and Progress
Education matters in this business, and I’ll document how my own progress in EDU perks influences the store's success (or failure).
The following educations enhance the business.
Green = Done
Orange = Running
Red = on the list..
Main
BUS1100 Needed to do the BUS educations
LAW1880 Needed to do the LAW educations
Productivity
MTH2280 + 1% productivity
BUS2200 + 2% productivity
BUS2500 + 2% productivity
BUS2800 + 2% productivity
BUS2120 + 2% productivity
BUS2100 + 2% productivity
Effectiveness
BUS2300 + 5% employee effectiveness
BUS2600 + 7% employee effectiveness
Advertising
BUS2400 Gain an increase in advertising effectiveness for your company
LAW2100 Gain an increase in advertising effectiveness for your company
Pricing
BUS2700 Gain ability to increase product prices by 10%, without losing customers
BUS2900 Gain ability to increase product prices by 5%, without losing customers
Other
BUS2110 Gain a passive bonus to employee working stats
BUS3130 Unlock new size & staff room upgrades for your company
What Stock perks do I have
There are some benefits from the stock market that are required to actually run the business successfully and keep stars.
Tell Group Plc. provides a Company advertising boost
Benefit: Massively boosts the company advertisement (must be director)
TC Media Productions provides a Company sales boost
Benefit: 10% bonus on company profits
Syscore MFG provides an Advanced firewall
Benefit: Protects your company from being hacked by those within a computing/tech company stealing 1-3% of your company bank
When I started:
I did know about the stocks, but did not have them in my portfolio. Furthermore I did not have the money to buy these stocks since they require approx. 700k cash (for PLC and TMP) which I did not bring.
Sys isn't that beneficial for just starting newbies.. but might be handy later on.
Current shares holding:
Green = Done
Orange = investing
Red = on the list..
TGP (Tell Group Plc)
TMP (TC Media Productions)
SYS (Syscore MFG)
Do I have open positions at this moment?
at the moment I have the following open positions:
- looking for musician 9k INT, 4.5K MAN
This is very much a work in progress, and I’ll keep updating this post with everything I learn. If this turns out to be a complete disaster, at least it’ll be an entertaining one—and hopefully, an informative one for others considering this path.
Stay tuned!
Some helpful guides/links:
https://www.tornstats.com/guides/show/42 -> it helped me find some useful information about pay, advertisement and work stats.
https://www.torn.com/forums.php#/p=threads&f=61&t=16046181 -> a director and employee handbook.
https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/47997-company-enhancement-suite -> a nice script to help making things easier to manage.
Donations to the cause
Do you find my post amusing, or just wanna help me out? There are several things you can do to help me;
- Buy a lot of piano's
- Apply to my Music Store
- Be sure to send all your underwear, I would love your underwear in my display case!
- Money and Xan is always appreciated
Donators:
Anonymous - to much. 
Update log:
20-11 -> created the thread
25-11 -> updated the statistics over the first week, added the new week statistics, added "what I learned"
28-11 -> added rules and payments for employees to the thread. Updated the education and stocks.
4-12 -> updated the store statistics, added week 2, added helpful guides.
11-12 -> updated the store statistics, added week 3
16-12 -> updated the store statistics, added week 4
