Miscellaneous NAMM 2024

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ESJohn

ESJohn

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This might be mostly for Pete, but was wondering if anyone had attended the NAMM market? I saw a YouTube video with Jay Metcalf that had SYOS and other famous names featured in booths. I don't know if Jamie Anderson was there.
What impressions might you have had and did you notice anything there that all of us should rush out and buy? I also saw that Stevie Wonder was there! How cool that must have been!
 
That video covered just horn area. Good to see a lot of Saxophone vendors. I haven’t been in a couple of years. This was definitely filmed on Thursday early. By late afternoon on Friday there’s practically no room to work/walk. It’s that crowded and no fun. If it was that much fun I would go. It’s 20 minutes from my house.
 
I'm not a music bizz insider but I've been involved in various ways in various mega trade shows in various industries. They crack me up - everyone goes about their business with so much self importance; keeping the punters amused while sniffing out deals and waiting for the convention dinner with 5 square kilometres of chicken breast and too much wine...

I was on the committee for one huge one. Filled the entire cookie-cutter Marriott hotel-convention centre with people self-importantly shuffling around bringing in a brave new world... And after it wound down I was hanging around watching the next convention set up - self-importantly getting ready to usher in a new generation of model trains...
 
NAMM you get loads of students pretending to playtest mouthpieces, but actually they are showing off how many Brecker licks they can play per second, thinking that way they will be offered to become an endorser.
 
25 of my career years were spent in attending shows (most of the time, three per year) as a wholesale hardware distributor rep. My company's expectations of me were to maximize my customers participation. During Covid, we had virtual markets duplicating as much as possible the person-to-person experience. Once the in-person markets resumed, they were to packed houses and the general feeling was that of excitement.
Yes, they were grueling and tiring. Yes, there were a few self-important folks that attended or were in the booth. But everyone seemed to enjoy the one-on-one contacts with fellow dealers, vendors and sales reps. The best deals that a vendor could offer were there. The newest products were there. Our company's and our vendors best efforts were put into these events. The dealers spent a great deal of time preparing for them and most did very well and did not regret their being there.
I know that our industry and the company depended on strong attendance from vendor and customer alike. There was nothing worse than a poorly attended market. It made for a very long weekend! Luckily, the number of events like those were few. Everyone was much happier when there were crowds of people working their way through the aisles.
Maybe shows like NAMM have too broad of a focus. I don't know as I have not been to one. I just wonder as to why there seems to be resistance to seeing the latest and greatest in music instruments and gear. Is there a better way to see and hear about them?
 
And furthermore! 😉
I was able to experience hearing Lorrie Morgan, Ronnie Milsap, Pam Tillis and Sugarland (just before they hit the big time) in person and got to meet Peggy Fleming.
I witnessed two MLB games, went on riverboat cruises, and spent some wonderful times enjoying meals with people that will be my friends for life.
 
As a commercial printer for 32 years. I did more than my fair share of convention packages for vendors. Sometimes it was just a couple of booths or a whole entire manufacture press release. The last convention I did for Yamaha in Las Vegas was just insane. I don’t miss it one bit. I don’t see anybody in the trade traveling to NAMM from out of town being worthwhile. Not only is it expensive for the vendors but it’s expensive for the participants. There’s not a one day pass. So if you go for one day it’s like $200. Just to get in the door by the time you pay for parking. There’s no place to sit inside the convention hall. Everything within a 15 minute walk is packed. Good luck finding something less expensive than a $12 hotdog. I would rather spend my money supporting the trade by buying product.
And like Pete says, Friday afternoon, Saturday and Sunday are just jampacked full of students. Just make sure you pack an extra pair of earplugs.
 
From Jay's clip, it's evident that the mainland China instruments industry is increasing its penetration into the luxury goods markets with imitation and cost to value. As in golfing, they wish to master and eventually dominate the music instruments industry as part of broader appropriation of Western wealth icons.

Meanwhile, leaders in the West stayed home and doth protest too much.
 
Most industrialising economies ramp up from basic to high value manufacturing because the margins are much better at the top... And, often, the conditions for labour are better.

The tragedies are when they don't do that and, for example, remain the sweatshop to the world. I heard one report on the Bangladesh garment trade which was struggling with this.
Equally, remaining the raw materials provider and letting developed economies reap the profits of, for example, turning coco beans into chocolate, is tragic.
 
I used to go to AV shows and to begin with they could be an enjoyable way to pass an afternoon and they would give you stuff like bits of software, I once got a huge folder of typefaces. They could also be fun in places and you could make the odd new contact but then all that stopped and the shows just became gruelling, headache inducing affairs.
 
ESJohn said:
...the latest and greatest ... Is there a better way to see and hear about them?
Read more…
Yeah, the big reveal game, played by two teams.
The company who wants to be the talk of (their corner of) the town.
And the audience/competitors who play Innovation?/Incremental?/Vaporware?

ESJohn said:
And furthermore!
Read more…
But don't get me wrong. I do appreciate the role conventions play in industry. Marriott and Carlton didn't conquer the world with giant hotel/Convention centers because folks just love being in huge, enclosed, versatile spaces with toilets 15 minutes away.

It's what I think of as the "mezzanine viewpoint". Stand in the mezzanine of any space, not just a conference and convention center, and look at the going-ons... It is weird. Railway stations are good for that.
 

Similar threads... or are they? Maybe not but they could be worth reading anyway 😀

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