Roland opens its first standalone retail store in the United States in early October. Roland Store New York City sits at 414 West 14th Street in Manhattan's Meatpacking District, and joins the company's existing flagship stores in London and Tokyo.
The total footprint passes 9,000 square feet including warehouse space, split across areas for piano, drums, guitar, synthesizers, dance and DJ gear, and Roland Cloud.
The floor carries Roland’s piano range, V-Drums, BOSS pedals and amplifiers, SP samplers and TR drum machines, plus the FP-40, the first Roland piano with built-in Wi-Fi.
Roland says three of the rooms are unique to this location: a dedicated grand piano showroom, the only DW showroom in the US, and the BOSS Cavern, built around BOSS guitar effects.
A space near the entrance is given to the TR-808, with legacy hardware exhibits rotating through it. Visitors can book a free 30 minute session with the machine. The store also runs free 30 minute workshops and one-to-one product appointments, bookable from October, and free after-sales training for owners. All of it is staffed by Roland specialists.
An AI system called Roland Soundscapes generates continuous background music for the store, responding to movement, MIDI input, time of day and outside weather.
An invitation-only event on 10 October opens the store, with a performance and a ribbon cutting. Masahiro Minowa, CEO of Roland Corporation, and Manuele Barbini, CEO of Roland Americas, are both expected to attend. Regular hours are 11am to 7pm, seven days a week.
The opening falls under Roland’s Then. Now. Next. campaign, which marks ten years since the company launched 30 instruments across a 24-hour livestream in 2016.
Roland has reached US customers through dealers for decades. A direct store changes that, and gives the company a floor for the parts of its business that are harder to sell online. Roland Cloud has its own area, and Soundscapes puts a generative system in the room.
Both fit where Roland has been heading. It released Melody Flip, a free AI melody generator this month and added the CR-78 to Roland Cloud at NAMM in January. The TR-1000 remains its most anticipated hardware release.
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