Nature of Business and Significant Accounting Policies (Details)	9 Months Ended
Sep. 30, 2012 item
Nature of Business and Significant Accounting Policies
Number of operating segments	3
Guitar Center
Nature of business
Number of operated stores	236
Number of primary format stores	151
Number of secondary format stores	77
Number of tertiary format stores	8
Music & Arts
Nature of business
Number of operated stores	109
Number of states in which stores are operated by the entity	22

Number of operating segments. An operating segment is a component of an enterprise: (a) that engages in business activities from which it may earn revenues and incur expenses (including revenues and expenses relating to transactions with other components of the same enterprise), (b) whose operating results are regularly reviewed by the enterprise's chief operating decision maker to make decisions about resources to be allocated to the segment and assess its performance, and (c) for which discrete financial information is available. An operating segment may engage in business activities for which it has yet to earn revenues, for example, start-up operations may be operating segments before earning revenues.

No definition available.

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Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	duration