El Argonauta, la librería de la música

When you think about your business, what are you most proud of?

To have been able to build a place of reference for music-related bibliography, with a website containing an immense amount of information and a place where you can browse through biographies of rock musicians, treatises on musicology, a jazz piano method or a book on the history of the piano.

What is the history of your commerce?

It was born in 2004, after more than a year of preparation, from the dream of two friends from college, book and music lovers, who decided to make it come true, leaving their professional careers behind. Since then, we have been building a name for ourselves, learning from our colleagues in other specialised bookshops (a special mention for the association Librerías Especializadas Asociadas, LEA, pioneers in the presence of bookshops on the Internet with the first websites). We have participated uninterruptedly until 2019 in the Madrid Book Fair and we have collaborated in media such as Radio Clásica, Radio 3 and M21 Radio.

What is your professional experience?

Prior to the bookshop, our experience with books was exclusively as readers. During the development of the project, we studied texts, essays and manuals on the booksellers trade, in Spain and abroad, and we consulted anyone who had anything to do with this world that fell within our radius of action. Subsequently, the advice of our colleagues was very important. Our previous experience in project management in telecommunications companies was very useful for the administrative side of the business.

How has covid 19 affected your business?

Like so many businesses, the forced closure was a difficult time for us. Fortunately, by having online sales, we were considered an essential service and we were able to continue working in the bookshop (closed to the public, of course, but with all our communication channels open), managing online orders and, above all, taking the opportunity to think about possible internal improvements that would make our work more efficient.
For example, we added an online chat to our website, we finished adapting to the Confianza On Line standards and got the seal, we elaborated processes to update the stock on our website almost in real time (it is currently updated every hour)... Not everything was negative, although the decline of face-to-face customers in the bookshop has not yet recovered, and we suspect it will take some time yet.

What services and products does your business provide?

Books related to music, in its different modalities (classical, jazz, popular, pop-rock...) and different approaches (biographies, histories, essays, technical books). Also learning methods and manuals of the disciplines included in musical studies (musical language, theory, dictation...) as well as instrument learning. Also, mainly on request, scores of all kinds. This catalogue is constantly updated on our website, with new items being added practically every day.

What other NGOs do you collaborate with?

Institutionally, we had a long relationship with Médecins Mundi. We personally collaborate with a number of partners: Oxfam, WWF, Red Cross, Ecologistas en Acción.
Since 2019 all the electricity we use is renewable thanks to Gesternova.