Tue Aug 18 11:53:02 -0400 2009

Fast Company (New York)

- John Kirkpatrick is a lucky guy. “My teenage daughter and 10-year-old son think I have the coolest job,” he says. As chief music officer of the retailer Hot Topic, Kirkpatrick has the onerous responsibility of bringing in emerging bands to rock out on the in-house stage at the company’s City of Industry, California, headquarters. On his desk, CDs pile into precarious towers – he gets more than 100 a month – amid dueling Transformers action figures. Graffiti and hundreds of music posters fill the walls. All of this, he can say with a straight face, is work: “We’re basically cultivating a kingdom of fandom.”

The site is not yet profitable, but retail analyst Dana Telsey of Telsey Advisory Group believes the two-pronged approach makes Hot Topic “more essential in the music space and more unique in the retail space. It’s building community in a very smart way. By creating a reason to go to the stores, they’re driving sales.”

To view the full article, download the PDF here: Fast Company, September 2009