Dolphin Music was an online retailer selling a vast array of musical instruments and recording equipment online and is currently owned by S&T Audio. It first began in

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

1999 1999 was designated as the International Year of Older Persons. Events January * January 1 – The euro currency is established and the European Central Bank assumes its full powers. * January 3 – The Mars Polar Lander is launc ...

History

Robert Williams (11 September 1979 — 2 March 2009) and Jason Tavaria, while still at

Liverpool University The University of Liverpool (abbreviated UOL) is a public research university in Liverpool, England. Founded in 1881 as University College Liverpool, Victoria University, it received Royal Charter by King Edward VII in 1903 attaining the de ...

, used their credit cards & student loans to set up a company that would sell musical equipment by mail order and over the internet. By 2008 the business had 80 staff and £16m in revenues. In 2009 Robert Williams Co-Founder died whilst snowboarding in

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

whilst with Co-Founder Jason Tavaria. In 2011 Dolphin Music was purchased by S&T Audio Ltd, who also own Play Music Today (PMT) retail stores and th
PMTonline.co.uk
webstore.

Legacy

A memorial fund has been established with the

Prince's Trust The King's Trust (formerly the Prince's Trust) is a United Kingdom-based charity founded in 1976 by King Charles III (then Prince of Wales) to help vulnerable young people get their lives on track. It supports 11-to-30-year-olds who are unempl ...

with the aim of helping inspire others follow Rob's business success following a fatal accident British entrepreneur Rob Williams dies on skiing holiday in tragedy played out on Twitter
/ref> while on holiday – with associates including Michelle Dewberry – snowboarding at

Verbier Verbier () is a village located in south-western Switzerland in the canton of Valais Valais ( , ; ), more formally, the Canton of Valais or Wallis, is one of the cantons of Switzerland, 26 cantons forming the Switzerland, Swiss Confederatio ...

. On 2 March 2009, he slipped 60 ft (20 metres) during treacherous skiing conditions. Jason was found alive via

GPS tracking A GPS tracking unit, geotracking unit, satellite tracking unit, or simply tracker is a navigation device normally on a vehicle, asset, person or animal that uses satellite navigation to determine its movement and determine its WGS84 UTM ...

, but Rob was dead by 11pm. The news broke of the plight of the missing adventurers on the Swiss Alps via mobile telephone updates to microblog networking service

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

. The celebration of Mr Williams's life was marked by his funeral and a reception at

St Albans Cathedral St Albans Cathedral, officially the Cathedral and Abbey Church of St Alban, also known as "the Abbey", is a Church of England cathedral in St Albans, England. Much of its architecture dates from Normans, Norman times. It ceased to be an abb ...

and

Sopwell House Sopwell House is a historic Georgian country house, now a luxury 128 bedroom hotel, country club & spa located south of St Albans, Hertfordshire, England. It gained fame as the gathering place for the England national football team before intern ...

respectively on 19 March.
-->

References

External links

Official site and Web Store

The Rob Williams Enterprise Fund

ST Audio buys Dolphin
Online retailers of the United Kingdom {{UK-retail-company-stub