The Doors' frontman Jim Morrison famously sang, "when the music's over, turn out the lights," and such may be the fate of one of Australia's most iconic music retailers.

Australian Music Group Holdings (AMG), which trades as Billy Hyde and Allans, has been placed into receivership by one of its creditors.

James Stewart and Brendan Richards from Ferrier Hodgson were appointed as administrators this morning by Revere Capital, a group of private investors owed around $27 million by AMG, and immediately placed the retailer into receivership.

Unsecured creditors are owed around $13.5 million, while employee entitlements are estimated at $3 million.

However, the company will continue trading while the receivers look at ways to restructure the group and sell some or all of the stores.

Receiver James Stewart says there has been significant preliminary interest, and he is hopeful of its sale as a going concern.

"The business is a substantial business, it turns over $110 million a year, it has over 25 per cent market share for musical instruments in this country," he told ABC News Online.

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Listen Duration: 3 minutes 46 seconds 3 m 46 s Music over for Allans and Billy Hyde ( Michael Janda ) Download 1.7 MB

"It's clearly not performed at the level people would have liked it to perform at. We think there is an opportunity for a new owner to look at this group and take it forward in a sustainable structure."

However, the receivers say that, due to the financial circumstances of the company, gift vouchers will not be honoured and deposits will not be refunded.

Such customers will join the queue of unsecured creditors, and how much money they receive back will depend on whether, and for how much, parts of the business are sold.

However, Mr Stewart is not optimistic about achieving a significant return to those customers.

"You would have to say, at the moment, that there is probably not a high prospect of any sort of major return."

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Listen Duration: 3 minutes 40 seconds 3 m 40 s Receiver James Stewart is hopeful the business will be sold ( Michael Janda ) Download 1.7 MB

Existing lay-bys will still be honoured.

The receivers say the 25 company-owned musical instrument shops and four franchise stores employ around 500 staff.

Mr Stewart says employees will continue to be paid by the receivers, and it is expected that employee entitlements will be covered under the Federal Government's General Employee Entitlements and Redundancy Scheme if the business cannot be sold as a going concern.

AMG has nine company-owned stores in New South Wales, eight in Victoria, five in Queensland, two in South Australia and one in Western Australia.

There are also two franchise stores in New South Wales, and one each in Victoria and the Northern Territory.

However, Mr Stewart says around half of the staff are based in Victoria.

Allans dates back to a music warehouse on Melbourne's Collin's street opened in the 1850s, while Billy Hyde was a drum maker who opened his first store in Flemington in 1962.

The two businesses merged in July 2010.

You can follow Michael Janda on Twitter @mikejanda.