A Liverpool musical instrument retailer backed by YFM is to close its 11 stores around the country and online business after being put into administration.
Play Music Today was a multi-channel retailer of musical instruments and equipment with a popular ecommerce arm and 11 physical stores, including in Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester and Newcastle. It was the UK’s fourth largest musical equipment retailer with annual sales of £43m. Its main warehouse was in Speke.
Rick Harrison and Howard Smith from Interpath were appointed joint administrators to S & T Audio Limited, which trades as PMT (Play Music Today) yesterday (11 June 2025).
In its last set of published accounts to the end of April 2024 the business achieved revenue of £43m (2023: £47.1m) and reported EBITDA of £182,489. It made a pre-tax loss of £280,193 in the year.
In a statement this morning the the directors said they sought to explore the options available to them, including a possible reorganisation of their store estate, as well as sale, refinance and investment options, but with no solvent option available, the directors took the decision to appointment administrators.
Immediately following their appointment, the joint administrators concluded a knock-down sale of £2.4 million worth of stock and “certain intangible assets including websites, trademarks, and commercial data,” for £1.2 million to York-based Gear4music, which said it is not acquiring any part of PMT’s trading business, nor any other assets or liabilities, and has no plans to use the PMT trading name.
Rick Harrison, managing director at Interpath and joint administrator, said: “It’s been a tough few years for specialist music equipment retailers who have battled headwinds including rising costs, dwindling margins and the rising cost of living affecting consumer behaviour. Unfortunately, despite the best efforts of the board, in the case of PMT, these challenges proved too difficult to overcome.
“While we are pleased to have concluded a sale of the stock and other assets to Gear4music, our immediate priority is to provide support to those employees who have been made redundant, including supporting them with claims to the Redundancy Payments Service.”
In 2019 YFM Equity Partners funded a management buyout (MBO) led by David Black, who became managing director of the business. At the time, Jamie Roberts, of YFM, said: “The founders of PMT have done a great job in building the brand in a growing niche. They are bucking the wider high street trend with the plan to open new stores, but we also see a huge opportunity to invest in its existing online presence to continue PMT’s impressive growth.”
