Founded in 1973 by Dick Cushing, Sound of Music began the sales of music and communication systems to businesses in the Chicagoland area. The first music products were delivered to customers through on-location Cantata tape machines. As the industry expanded and technology moved forward, Sound of Music embraced new products and offered them to their customers. Message repeaters, amplifiers, speakers, paging systems, direct satellite broadcast communications systems and digital music provided through the internet to name a few. Music and messaging services have been provided through many sources, the longest relationship was with 3M's Sound Products Division for more than 25 years. By the mid-1990s Sound of Music was the largest 3M Music dealer in the United States.

Rich Cushing joined the company at age 11, starting off stuffing envelopes for mailings to advertise Sound of Music's services. Rich was the youngest student to graduate from the 3M Sound Products Technical Training Division at the age of 15, and, after getting several years of experience under his belt, became Sound of Music's Chief Sound Engineer. As the past President of the 3M Dealers Association Rich has developed relationships with sound contractors all across the United States and has utilized these relationships with out-of-area installations for thousands of Sound of Music clients. His passion for the sound business is reflected in his religious attendance to trade and technical seminars to catch up with fellow sound contractors and, most importantly, to keep up to date on the latest in the industry.

By 1995 Sound of Music had sold services to approximately 2,000 individual True Value locations and over 1,039 Sears locations. Each sale was made one at a time with the only incentive for each location being that Sound of Music was the "preferred vendor" of music and messaging services. This was no small feat: the owner or manager of each location was contacted and provided with the full line-up of services and costs. Each location had its own individual contract directly with Sound of Music. Each of these major accounts had their own dedicated help line which was available to assist customers with any issues or questions they had about the services we were providing. By 1999 Sound of Music had over 5,500 local and national accounts.

Today Sound of Music & Video Systems continues to offer the finest in audio, video and integrated systems design and installation. They offer the very latest in technology while remaining true to the values of customer service and quality products that have been the hallmark of their business for nearly 40 years.

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