Our Story
We lost the original "History of Fine Music" thread when Zuckerberg et al changed the Facebook format, so here it is again.
Fine Music was originally established around 1960 by Reuben Fineberg, who saw the need for a retailer who could supply classical music to professional musicians and the general public. The company was incorporated in 1968 and found a home in the basement of York House at 294 Little Collins Street with like-minded tenant Discurio, (founded by Peter Mann) who specialised in classical & folk music recordings.
Joining these two businesses were the Showbusiness Book Shop (run by Vin Foster) and the Church Music Department. The church department dates back to the 1930s when it was successively part of the Diocesan Book Society and the General Board of Religious Education Bookshop. In the 1930s it was run by Harry Scott Simmons (precentor of St Paul’s Cathedral) and later by Bruce Naylor (who left to join the priesthood. When purchased by Reuben Finebergin the early 1970s, he was advised to take Miss Dorothy Watson who ran it, along with the stock. Fine Music together with the Showbusiness Bookshop were sold by Reuben to Peter Mann in the 1970s.
These businesses came together under one company name, Musicmann Pty Ltd, when they moved into 20 & 22 McKillop Street, opening on the 1st of May 1979. The buildings dating from the 1880s had for many years been the printing works of Arbuckle Waddell. The two companies, Fine Music & Discurio stayed in this location successfully providing all types of music to the general public & institutions throughout Australia, gaining a reputation as the most specialist supplier of classical music.
The Showbusiness Bookshop gained a separate reputation as a supplier of playscripts and drama related text books to the theatrical people of Australia. Together, Vin Foster & Grahame Murphy (manager of Fine Music) had formed the Gravin Theatre Agency who were agents for a number of US play publishers, mostly for the school market. This was an agency for collecting royalties, all the stock being sold through Fine Music. Following the deaths of first Vin & later Grahame, this agency eventually closed although the selling of playscripts continued.
When Discurio moved away from McKillop Street in the early 1990s, the Fine Music business was changed slightly when the wholesale division became a separate entity under the name Encore Music. When in August 1999 the building at 20 & 22 McKillop Street was sold, Encore Music moved out to a warehouse in Fitzroy and Fine Music remained in McKillop Street, finding a new home at number 17, the former home of Phillips Antiques and before them, Joel’s Auctions. This store opened on January 2nd 2000. The business was sold in December 2002 to Billy Hyde Music, Blackburn and closed at McKillop Street in December 2006 when all the stock was transferred to Billy Hyde Music, Blackburn
