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Music Industry Alive and Well at NAMM
Sonic Weekly had its first booth at this year’s NAMM Show, the National Music Manufacturer’s Association trade show in Anaheim, California. NAMM takes place annually at the end of January and gives manufacturers from around the world the chance to meet, greet and showcase their latest new products. And despite the country’s bleak economic forecast, the bulk of this year’s attendees say the 2009 Winter NAMM Show proved very successful.
NAMM organizers reported there were 85,799 registrants for this year’s trade show. Of those, there were 1505 exhibitors at this year’s Show—all businesses related to the music industry. But despite a 3% drop in numbers from 2008, the aisles were crowded and deals were clearly being made, “There was a lot of apprehension throughout the whole industry about how this show was going to do,” says Communications Manager for Peavey Electronics, Jim Beaugez, “But you know, I’ve worked in this booth the entire show, and we’ve been very busy. We launched several major guitar amplifiers including a new signature amp with Joe Satriani and we also unveiled our “amplifier customs shop” where you can specify your own personalized custom amps. Those offerings really helped us bring a lot of dealers here, everyone was really excited from the get go.”
Gerald Marleaux, Marleaux Bass Guitars
For businessmen like Gerald Marleaux and Peter Bellak, the experience was entirely different. Their two small companies shared a 10 x 10 foot booth where Marleaux who came all the way from Clausthal-Zellerfeld, Germany, showcased his custom-made Marleaux Bass Guitars while Bellak showed off his Mighty Moe Amp Straps, “There’s a slightly different vibe this year, I think people are a little more cost-conscious and running a little bit scared,” says Bellak, “But I think they’re going to pull together and get through this okay.”
Marleaux’s business is based largely in Europe, but he’s hopeful NAMM will help him to spread the word, “We’ve made some good contacts for the American market at this Show. [In Germany] we have a workshop with only two people,” says Marleaux, “Each instrument is made for each unique person, we don’t have any in stock. It’s all made by hand. We can change everything—the choice of wood, the shape, the size, everything [about the bass] is [made for] the musician.
Bellak says he’s comforted by the fact that his product is also unique, “There is no other guitar strap with an amplifier built on with an integrated signal cable and controls that you can access. What I’ve been able to do is find a sweet spot that has okay sound, and also keep the portability in place so that it’s just big enough to sound good and small enough to fit in any guitar case.”
Peter Bellak, Mighty Moe Amp Straps
A trade show like NAMM gives small exhibitors like these incredible access directly to musicians, retailers and distributors, “A lot of people know the [Marleaux] brand which I was impressed by,” says Marleaux, “A lot of guys came over [to our booth] all bassists playing my basses and that’s good for me.” His booth buddy, Bellak echoes this sentiment, “I got into the hands of Kid Rock today. John Sebastian came by, John Sebastian! So I gave him an amp strap! I said, ‘You know, I scored with more girls to your music than anybody else, so it’s the least I can do for ya.’”
Legendary musicians like John Sebastian weren’t the only ones in attendance. This year’s show attracted the likes of Gene Simmons and Steve Vai and featured performances by Alicia Keys, Billy Bob Thornton and Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys.Bellak who’s been attending since 1993, still gets excited, “I’m meeting people [newcomers] that were like me when I first got here to the NAMM Show and I thought, ‘Wow this must be what heaven’s like!’”
Andrew Earle, Axewraps
Andrew Earle, Founder of Axewraps guitar skins is a freshman NAMM attendee from Portland, Maine. He manufactures guitar skins that both decorate and protect the finish on your guitar, “For us [the most challenging thing ] is the product concept, the idea that you can actually skin a guitar, and as product awareness increases—the idea of skinning your laptop or your cell phone increases—that will help us too.”
For new businesses like Earle’s, the experience of exhibiting at NAMM comes with its share of lessons, “We came in thinking ‘Get a bunch of retailers,’ but now we’re thinking it’s probably better to get some good distributors to help us out.”
Karl Kussmaul, Sony
Senior Product Manager for Sony Electronics, Karl Kussmaul buzzed with musicians and retailers about a few of the latest offerings from Sony—portable digital recorders that record sound much like the human ear hears it, “The thing that makes these [recorders] special is they have very high quality microphones and three amplifiers so they make high quality recordings. It captures the stereo image in the same way you hear things with your ears. And this one has the ability to switch [to X or Y] configurations and it actually makes a recording with a stereo image that sounds very similar to the way your ears hear, so it gives you a very natural stereo sound.”
Kussmaul knows that getting the right sound is critical. And he counsels businesses that cater to the music industry to learn to use their ears, “My advice to any business large or small is listen. Get feedback. The feedback I get here is invaluable.”
Jim Beaugez, Peavey Custom Shop
Jim Beaugez of Peavey says as a musician himself, the perks of attending a NAMM Show are fantastic, “If you’re a musician, the best thing is you get is an advance look at what’s going to be coming out in the year, it’s like the ultimate dream—you get to come in and see all the new toys before everyone else.
And no doubt working with an industry icon like Hartley Peavey has been an inspiration for him, “He was here with us the whole time,” says Beaugez, “He’s involved in everything that we do from product conception to engineering, marketing, manufacturing, I mean, the whole thing. He’s very much the life of the company.”
So what’s kept Mr. Peavey going for 44 years in this business? “I would have to defer to Hartley Peavey on that,” says Beaugez, “And his advice is just don’t quit.”
Sound advice indeed.
