Joe & Melonie Dorsey, owners of Hoggtown Music, are relocating their store to Thornebrook Village with the help of Eric Ligman from Bosshardt Realty.

“He goes out there and works very hard to try to make what I want come true,” said Dorsey about his experience Eric Ligman. “I don’t know anyone else who does that”

“We are a music store here in Gainesville Florida,” said Joe Dorsey, owner of Hoggtown Music. “Our primary emphasis is taking care of the school music needs for both middle school and high school.”

However, while their store is impressive and now expanding to a new location, it hasn’t always been this easy for the Dorseys.

“In the early days, my wife would get on her lunch break and she would come to the store and grab whatever checks we got and take them to the bank because we had to get them to the bank that fast. It was very stressful in the beginning,” said Dorsey. “Honestly, I opened my business with $5,000. All we had.”

With over 240 private music lessons a week with 18 different private instructors, the store has grown a lot from when it first opened its doors in 2006. Now, the Dorseys want to move to host outdoor events.

“I don’t have the flexibility to do the outdoor events since there’s no room for it right here,” said Dorsey. “We want to be able to showcase our young talent to the rest of their friends and family”

Nowadays, the small-town charm of Hoggtowne Music is becoming increasingly rare in the digital age.

“The world has changed, and a lot of the sales have gone online, so to see a music store like what we have here owned and operated by an independent, not a chain, is becoming extremely rare,” said Dorsey. “Most of my friends who are still in the business, when they retire, they just close their stores because there’s no one to buy them.”

Set to re-open in the next three months, keep your eyes open for the new location of Hoggtown Music, the last independent music store in Gainesville.

“This move is a very big step for us,” said Dorsey. “Eric is absolutely, I’ve never met someone like him. Somebody who knows the right questions and takes the time to figure out exactly what it is I need.”

To read more about Eric Ligman’s role with Dorsey as a tenet rep, click here.

Photo of the new location for Hoggtowne Music.


The new home for Hoggetowne Music
in Thornebrook Village.