The Q1 2026 benchmarking report for UK music retailers has just been published. Learn how the top 10 UK music retailers perform across the digital space.

The latest Q1 2026 benchmarking report for UK music retailers has just been published. It covers the largest 10 UK music retailers, including Gear4music Ltd, Andertons Music Co., Dawsons, Absolute Music, guitarguitar, The Music Store Ltd, Yamaha Corporation, Normans Musical Instruments, Musicroom, and Hobgoblin Music.

The research gives an inside track on who is winning the biggest share of voice online, and quantifies the gaps, risks, and missed opportunities for other music retailers to win brand exposure, drive online views, and generate policy enquiries & sign-ups. The report highlights quick wins that will improve enquiries from your online strategy and identifies the barriers that may be reducing your site’s ability to optimise digital performance.

To see a preview and contents page of the Q1 report, click here. To get a copy of the full report and the key takeaways, please complete the enquiry form or schedule a call.

Q1 2026 WINNERS LEADERBOARD

For a glance into just six of the metrics we evaluated these top 10 UK music retailers on, check out our quick-look table below;

Continue reading for further detail on this quarter's best and poorest-performing UK music retailers or request a copy of the report for the full review.

Request the report

What The Industry Research Report Covers

The 70+ pages of research benchmarks each retailer based on 50+ metrics and indicators of successful digital strategy, including organic visibility, domain authority, paid media ads, conversion performance, technical performance, site speed, universal search, content, social ads, accessibility, and mobile performance.  

Driving Optimal ROAS from Paid Media Channels

Some of the leading players in the space are high spenders on paid media channels such as Google, Bing and Facebook - but have a poor or sub-optimal conversion improvement strategy. Without an optimised, sophisticated conversion strategy that maximises the conversion rate, the return on investment is unsustainable or will underperform. Scaling spend on paid media is not achievable unless the conversion rate delivers optimal performance in the sector. Some in the space have paid media spend levels from £30k+ per month but dedicate minimal resources and budgets to conversion testing. Given the cost per clicks on ad networks will continue to rise, we recommend spending at least 10% of your paid media budget on ongoing conversion optimisation testing schedules to ensure your paid media ROI maintains long-term viability, competitive advantage, and sustainability.

Pay-Per-Click Marketing

Pay-Per-Click marketing is constantly evolving, with more and more advertisers being forced to hand over a lot of control to Google's algorithms as the push for automation grows ever stronger. There are still key elements of control that we have though, the main one of these being budget which is ultimately something the algorithms can't take from you. That's why being smart with your budget and ad coverage is essential to achieving strong results and bettering what your competitors have to offer.

For Q1 2026, the average monthly budget wastage across these UK music retailers was £4,492 with some of the top players in the market spending a considerable amount on areas and audiences unlikely to deliver a return. We can see this in more detail when looking at the average monthly cost per cost-per-click (CPC) amongst advertisers, with the average of this metric being £50 . This highlights how competitive the market is and how important it is to control your budgets effectively.

There are varying monthly ad budgets across the competitors in the report. While this gap highlights the competitive advantage that larger budgets can provide, it's not just about spending more; it’s about spending smarter. By focusing on driving efficiency in campaign management, targeting, and budget allocation, businesses with smaller budgets can still effectively compete with larger players. Investing in data-driven strategies and refining ad performance can help close the gap and maximise the return on every pound spent, enabling growth even in a competitive landscape. Relative to their spend, Normans Musical Instruments reported the lowest monthly cost-per-click (CPC) at £0, and Hobgoblin Music has the highest at £399.

The report highlights the importance of budget efficiency by comparing monthly ad spend with estimated CPC in relation to your competitors, see who has the highest and lowest CPC. To maximise the effectiveness of your budget, it’s essential to focus on driving CPC down while maintaining or improving campaign performance. In this report, Yamaha Corporation has the lowest estimate monthly ad spend at £1,210, and Gear4music Ltd has the highest at £160,000.

By optimising targeting, refining ad copy, and leveraging data to identify high-converting opportunities, you can ensure every click delivers maximum value. This approach not only stretches your budget further but also boosts your return on ad spend (ROAS), enabling you to achieve stronger results without simply increasing expenditure.

Technical Website Compliance

Savvy  digital marketers know that having a technically sound website is an essential component of a successful fully integrated digital strategy - plus a site capable of maximising conversion performance. For music retailers, having an easy-to-navigate site is essential for consumers looking for new music accessories and/or instruments and particular care should be taken to ensure pages accurately represent stock levels and any links are updated with replacement products.

In our previous audit, Hobgoblin Music received the most 404 errors (6). This quarter, Hobgoblin Music remains the music retailer with the most 404 errors, and they’ve since increased their total to 9. Implementing proper redirects is another key method for reducing 404 errors. When pages are moved or deleted, 301 redirects ensure users are sent to the most relevant alternative page. This preserves usability and prevents visitors from hitting dead ends. 

Site Speed & Conversion Rate Performance

When  62% of consumers are less likely to convert if they have a negative mobile site experience, ensuring that your site is quick and easy to load makes a significant improvement on your overall conversion rates. Music retailers should consciously assess their website for page weight to help with download speeds, helping create a more user-friendly web experience for those using a mobile.

In our last audit, Musicroom received the slowest mobile site speed (8). This quarter, Musicroom has since decreased their mobile site speed to 6, keeping them at the bottom of the leaderboard. Slow mobile performance can be especially frustrating for users with accessibility needs. Delays can complicate the use of assistive technologies and make it harder for users to understand whether a page is loading correctly. This can lead to confusion and a less inclusive browsing experience.

Building Competitive Advantage with Domain Authority

Domain  authority is an essential metric for measuring the effectiveness of SEO performance, and helps create a reliable overall gauge of how effective your site is at achieving organic traffic, i.e. ‘free’ traffic that is not gained through sponsored ads. Music retailers should be continually pushing to improve their DA by focusing on uploading quality, original content that encourages other brands with a similar target audience to backlink to them.

A ‘good’ DA really comes down to how your competitors are performing, however it is generally considered average between 40 and 50, good between 50 and 60, and excellent above 60. In our last audit, Hobgoblin Music reported the lowest DA score (46). This quarter, Hobgoblin Music continues to report 46 for their DA score. However, the music retailer to watch currently is Normans Musical Instruments, reporting 43. Consistency is a key factor in building domain authority. Regularly updating existing content and publishing new material signals that a website is active and well maintained. Stale or outdated content can weaken authority over time, particularly if competitors provide more current information.

Organic Performance – Mobile & Desktop

A  strong organic performance is strategically important as it ensures your site ranks above competitors for key, transactional keywords. When 93% of your customers won’t go past the first page of Google, your absence or lack of targeting for essential keywords will cost you conversions. Music retailers can expect a fluctuation in traffic, as the majority of people focus on spending their money on essential items. With that being said, music retailers can still follow steps to improve their organic traffic, such as optimising their website across all devices, making their product pages easy to navigate and their checkout process simple with few steps required.

Five brands reported a drop in organic traffic on desktop, with Musicroom receiving the biggest loss (-14%). On mobile, 2 brands received a drop in organic traffic, with Dawsons reporting the biggest drop (-13%). Differences in organic traffic performance between mobile and desktop can create confusion for users. A website that performs well on desktop search but poorly on mobile may feel inconsistent or poorly optimised. This inconsistency can make visitors doubt the overall quality of the website experience.

Universal Search Opportunity

Google  Universal Search Results is an evolving opportunity to make your pages visible on a SERP (Search Engine Results Page). Universal results often appear before traditional listings and are eye-catching for users. Universal search results refer to rankings on a SERP that are not the traditional ‘blue line’ Google link, and a retailer can appear for universal search results without being strong in standard rankings. Music retailers should be utilising all universal search features as potential customers will be interested to see how previous customers have found their experience via 'reviews'.

Gear4music Ltd continues to secure the most Universal Search appearances (15,476) — an increase from 14,013 previously. The majority of their appearances this quarter came from ‘images’ (9,500).

The Longtail Keyword Opportunity

Longtail  keywords are often considered high intent and potentially more likely to convert as a searcher is being more specific. Optimising for longtail keywords also puts your content strategy in a strong position to rank for brand-new search terms as they enter Google’s index. There are many longtail keyword options music retailers could be using such as ‘buy musical instruments’ and ‘premium musical instruments.

Gear4music Ltd continues to secure the most longtail keyword appearances for position 3 (4,843) — a decrease from 4,908 previously. Gear4music Ltd also secured the most appearances for positions 4–10 (9,459) — an increase from 9,221 previously. Internal linking plays a supportive role in strengthening longtail keyword performance. Linking from broader, high-authority pages to more specific long-tail content helps distribute ranking signals. It also guides users towards deeper, more relevant information.

Facebook Adverts

With the number of Facebook users in the United Kingdom (UK) hitting over 44 million users in 2023, it is not surprising that companies have jumped at the opportunity to advertise on the social media platform. Facebook’s UK digital advertising revenue has been estimated to have breached 2.6b GB pounds in 2019. For UK music retailers, Facebook ads are an opportunity to showcase their latest launches and potentially expand their audience reach.

We’ve included screenshots of Gear4music Ltd’s sponsored Facebook posts. This UK music retailer utilised line spacing to help capture attention quickly. When someone is scrolling fast, spaced-out lines stand out visually compared to dense paragraphs.

Top Social Shares & Content

When  it comes to social media and on-site content strategies, it is important to release content that has a longer shelf life. An article is considered 'evergreen' if it has maintained its relevancy to an audience for a long period of time. It's great for your engagement, but great for Google, too, who will recognise content which achieves traffic over a long period of time. Social media could be especially useful for sharing information about different financing options and special offers.

Guitarguitar secured the most Facebook Likes (131,700), and Andertons Music Co., secured the most Instagram followers (255,600). Twitter was the most popular social media platforms of all brands. Guitarguitar received the highest total engagement rate (11,794), and The Music Store Ltd., received the highest average engagement (31).

Website Readability & Accessibility

20 % of people in the UK have a disability – 2 million of which are people living with sight loss. In addition, 1 in 12 men and 1 in 200 women have some degree of colour vision deficiency. When websites are not designed to meet these needs, brands lose customer interest as they turn elsewhere. All music retailers need to ensure their website is accessible for all customers looking for musical instruments.

In our previous report, Andertons Music Co., flagged the most accessibility alerts (930). This quarter, Andertons Music Co., remains the music retailer to watch, though they’ve slightly reduced their total to 874 — a step in the right direction. When visitors encounter issues such as poor colour contrast, missing labels, or navigation problems, it can create immediate frustration. This experience can make the website feel exclusionary or difficult to use. 

GET THE FULL 70-PAGE Q1 2026 REPORT

To get a copy of the full report, please complete the enquiry form. If you want to talk to us about accelerating your digital performance, please call us on 01543 410014 or schedule a call with Rory Tarplee.