For three years, Julie King saw the Internet nibble away at holiday sales at her Ann Arbor sheet music store, Julie’s Music. But this year, King is singing a different tune.

The "Buy Local" movement is making a difference this holiday shopping season, King said.

“This is the first year where I’ve seen people come in and tell me they want to support local. They are telling me they are trying me first, and if I can’t get what they want on time, then they’ll order on-line.”

The buy-local wave began at the end of summer and has picked up steam going into this month, King said.

That’s good news because it can be impossible to compete with the Internet, King said. Some music publishers have been selling direct to music teachers over the Internet at a 40 percent discount. This leaves her almost no room for making a profit, she said. 

King switched advertising strategies this year. Rather than running a conventional print ad, she decided to try something different and ran advertisements with coupons. The coupon generated more traffic than past advertising, she said.

December is the second busiest month for Julie’s Music, trailing only September when students return to school and start private and school-based lessons that call for new sheet music. King is seeing more last-minute shoppers cross her threshold.

“It used to be we’d see holiday shopping starting in October, but this year it started the day before Thanksgiving. It’s going back to the way it used to be when Christmas shopping didn’t begin until Thanksgiving,” King said. 

Sales for this December are ahead of last year, she said, with customers buying Christmas and Hanukkah print music. Musical gifts - pencils covered in musical notes to coffee mugs and statutes of classical musicians - are also popular this time of year. “Kids buy them for their teachers and teachers buy trinkets for their students,” King said. 

But the most popular musical gifts are the tree ornaments in the shape of musical instruments. Customers also look for music to give as gifts, from Billy Joel to the Beatles. And, King said, she sells a fair number of gift certificates for the holidays, which are usually redeemed in January and February.

“They’re good because the people who come in to use them usually buy a little more than what they got on their gift card,” she said. 

While the Internet has taken away some business, technology can be a boon. Julie’s Music downloads music for last-minute shoppers who want something the store doesn’t have in stock. The cost is $4.50 a song. “Everyone gets a cut,” King said. “The publisher, the composer and us.” It’s especially convenient for someone who wants a song in a different key. The program allows a customer to transpose it. 

King’s Keyboard House split into two separate businesses in May 2006 when founder Richard E. King retired: Jim King took over the piano half of King’s Keyboard, keeping the family name attached. Julie King, who had handled the print music end of King’s Keyboard for 20 years, opened Julie’s Music. While the business spilt, the brother and sister remain close - literally. Their stores are next to each other on East Stadium Boulevard. Richard King, who opened his store in 1961, passed awaylast June.

While December sales are boosted by the holidays, January is the store’s third best month, King said. “In December, teachers hold recitals. So in January, they are starting new and need music.”