Today we’d like to introduce you to Ryan Thompson.
Hi Ryan, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
Wound for Sound actually began in 2015, but back then we never realized it would later become a record store. Initially, I gave guitar and bass lessons out of our home. Meanwhile, our vinyl collection continued to grow.
In 2018, having wrist surgery forced me to take a break from teaching. By then our record collection had become quite large, so we rented a booth in the Greenwood Vintage Market. The booth turned out to be very successful, and we realized that there was genuine interest in having a local place to buy records.
In 2019 we rented a small office and began selling records from there, as well as resuming lessons. It was certainly a modest start, but the business continued to grow. In 2021 we moved into a bigger space so that we could expand our inventory and keep building the store. By 2025 we had once more outgrown the space and moved into our present location.
It’s been an entirely organic journey. In 2015 there wasn’t a business plan that said, “We are going to open a record store.” It really grew one step at a time from a love of music. Playing, teaching, collecting, and setting up a place where we could share our love of music with the community.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It definitely hasn’t always been a smooth road, but we’ve been lucky that the business has continued to grow through all of it. One of the first challenges was the wrist surgery that made teaching impossible for a while. However, that setback helped lead us down the path to opening the record store.
We’ve also grown the business very gradually. We didn’t start with a huge amount of money, so growth has been funded by the business itself. That has meant being careful about when to expand, how much inventory to carry, and where to invest our money.
There’s also a big learning curve in figuring out what people actually want. We’ve learned a lot about our customers over the years, but retail is always unpredictable. Plus you’re always competing with big box retailers and online marketplaces.
COVID arrived just 6 months after we first opened. We’ve moved locations twice, been through multiple landlord changes, navigated taxes and all the less glamorous parts of running a small business. We also learned that owning a family business doesn’t come with a lot of vacations!
One of our hardest challenges has been losing our beloved shop cat, Buddy. He had become part of the Wound for Sound family and was loved by so many of our customers.
And then there’s our sign. It was hit by a vehicle twice and managed to fall down on its own another time. At this point, our sign needs its own interview!
We’ve just kept adapting, because owning a small business means solving whatever problem happens to be in front of you that day.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Wound For Sound?
Wound For Sound is a music shop specializing in vinyl records and guitar/bass instructions for 12 years old and up. We are family-owned/operated and are a proud part of the Greenwood, MO community.
We also carry CDs, cassettes, posters, t-shirts, and other music merch, as well as offer services such as record cleaning using a professional VPI machine.
We carry both used and new vinyl. Every used vinyl is cleaned, tested, and sleeved before it hits the floor. When it comes to new vinyl, we make sure we have relevant bands, stay up-to-date on new releases, and are always happy to make special orders for someone looking for a particular release.
We participate in Record Store Day every April and RSD Black Friday every November, as well as various other events throughout the year.
If you love KISS, this is where you want to be! I am a big KISS fan and always have something special I can pull out from the back to wow the KISS Army.
What sort of changes are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?
I think collecting and listening to vinyl will continue to be a wildly popular hobby. It always has been, it’s just really exploded in the past few years. We see people of all ages starting and continuing their journey!
I think we will see the colored and special variants be more and more popular as well.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.woundforsound.net
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/woundforsound
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/woundforsound
