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NAMM Show a global gathering of the tribes for music instrument and technology makers – The San Diego Union-Tribune


No one will ever mistake the annual, members-only NAMM Show at the Anaheim Convention Center for such annual music festivals as Coachella in Indio, Glastonbury in England, or Rock in Rio in Brazil and Portugal.

But the constantly growing popularity of these three festivals, which together drew nearly 1.5 million people in 2019, is as undeniable as the surging number of other festivals they have spawned. Ditto the constant growth of the global concert industry, which saw the top 100 tours of 2019 gross a record $5.55 billion, up 7 percent from 2018, and the average ticket price for those top 100 tours rise to a record $94.83.

The explosion of festivals, concerts and other forms of live music — from school marching bands and orchestras to church-service ensembles — is reflected in an array of ways at NAMM’s enormous annual trade show. It fills all 1.8 million square feet of the Anaheim Convention Center and virtually every adjacent hotel ballroom and meeting space.

The Thursday-through-Sunday event will be attended by more than 115,000 of the nonprofit organization’s members. More than 7,000 brands will be on display from 2,000 companies, 387 of which are based in California, including El Cajon’s Taylor Guitars, Spring Valley’s Deering Banjos and Escondido’s Kiesel Guitars.

NAMM members attending hail from nearly 130 countries and are a vital part of the almost $18 billion worldwide music instrument, technology, sound and lighting industry.

They gather each January in Anaheim to unveil their latest products, check out new innovations, meet with retailers and distributors, attend seminars and training sessions, network with their peers, and take the pulse of the national and international marketplace. And they are benefiting from the surge of concerts and festivals, as well as from hobbyists who make music for their own fun and consumption.

“This may be the golden age of live-music events,” said Joe Lamond, the president and CEO of the Carlsbad-based NAMM (short for National Association of Music Merchants).

“When NAMM was founded in 1901, if you heard music it was because someone was playing it in front of you, or you were playing it yourself. There was no recorded music. It’s ironic that, 119 years later, we’ve come full circle and realized that music was meant to be appreciated live.”

‘Higher expectations’

Joe Lamond Taiko.jpg

NAMM president and CEO Joe Lamond (right) is shown with Akitoshi Asano during a recent visit to Japan. Asano’s family company, founded in 1609, is the world’s foremost maker of traditional Japanese Taiko drums. Asano Taiko has been a NAMM member since 1996.

(Photo courtesy of NAMM)

Lamond is a former drummer for the band Tommy Tutone and a former tour manager for Todd Rundgren. In 1990, Lamond got a job in the warehouse at Skip’s Music, one of Sacramento’s leading music instrument stores, then became the store’s accountant. In 1998, he was hired as NAMM’s marketing manager and has been its CEO since 2001.

During that time, Lamond has seen dramatic changes in the music industry as digital replaced analog and sales of recorded music nosedived in favor of downloading and streaming. Where bands and solo artists once made most of their money from album sales, not touring, that equation has now been inverted in a major way.

The continuing growth of the concert and festival industries — and, with them, the demand from artists, audiences and event producers for higher-quality performance experiences — is paying dividends for NAMM as a year-round organization. It has also benefited the NAMM Show itself, which in recent years has surpassed Germany’s annual Frankfurt Musikmesse as the largest, most diverse and prestigious annual music trade show for manufacturers, retailers and performers alike.

“I think that’s true; we’ve definitely seen more exhibitors at NAMM and less at Frankfurt,” said Tom Sumner, president of Yamaha Corp. of America, which will debut more than 75 new products at the NAMM Show this year. “One of the reasons the NAMM Show has become even more robust is that we’ve looked at the industries that are similar — concert staging and touring pro sound and lights — and invited them into the fold.”

“The NAMM Show is the most important music trade show in the world,” said Akitoshi Asano, the head of Japan’s Akitoshi Asano. The taiko drum company, which was founded in 1609, has exhibited its wares at the show each year since 1996.

Conversely, Germany’s d&b audiotechnik is only 39 years old. The high-end audio company did not make its NAMM Show debut until 2017.

“We have increased our presence their each year since,” said d&B spokesman David Claringbone.

“In 2019 we held the global launch of our renowned KSL system at NAMM, the first time a global product launch of such significance had taken place outside of Germany. The NAMM show allows us to present our thinking, services and products to a broad section of the music and technology communities. It’s an exciting event where there is a strong intersection between the musicians, producers, technicians, business managers and production personnel.”

NAMM CEO and president Lamond describes the NAMM Show as “a melting pot of all the different parts of the industry, where people from around the world meet, ideas mingle and achievement is honored.”

High-achieving honorees at this year’s NAMM Show range from Joni Mitchell, who will receive the Les Paul Innovation Award at the 35th Annual NAMM Technical Excellence & Creativity Awards, to Mark Spring, who is Paul McCartney’s longtime tour production manager. Spring oversaw McCartney’s 2019 “The Freshen Up Tour,” which included sold-out concerts at Petco Park in San Diego and Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.

“It would be hard not to be excited about the growth and heightened experience you get by going to live music events today,” Lamond said.

“That’s partly because the technology has gotten better. And, the higher you pay for your ticket, the higher your expectations.”

This growth is readily apparent internationally, nationally and in San Diego, where three annual festivals — KAABOO, CRSSD and Wonderfront — have launched since 2015. The coming year will see the opening of the San Diego Symphony’s year-round concert venue, the $45 million Bayside Performance Park, and a $15 million concert and entertainment center at the Del Mar Fairgrounds.

To some, it seems paradoxical that festivals and concerts are thriving so much now. We live in an era when anyone with a smartphone or laptop can access untold amounts of music, when earbuds and headphones are the favored mode for listening, and the demand for acquiring albums (as opposed to streaming individual songs) has plummeted precipitously.

Even so, the demand for hand-played musical instruments, as well as the latest high-tech music, audio and production gear, is evident at the NAMM Show. It’s especially evident to robust homegrown companies like Deering Banjos, whose clients include Steve Martin, Mumford & Sons and San Diego-bred Grammy Award winner Alison Brown.

‘Nothing else like it’

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Jamie Deering (center), the new CEO of Deering Banjos, is shown with her parents, Greg and Janet, who founded the Lemon Grove company in 1975 and made it into an international leader in its field.

(Photo courtesy of Heather Sali Photography)

When Deering celebrated its 40th anniversary at the NAMM Show in 2015, the company had manufactured 100,000 banjos in its first four decades. In the five years since then, the total number has grown to 150,000, with the higher demand being boosted in part by technology.

“Because information, videos and lessons are so much more accessible online, it’s allowed instruments like the banjo to become better-known and not be daunting,” said Jamie Deering, the company’s new CEO. She attended her first NAMM Show as a toddler with her parents, Greg and Janet, the co-founders of Deering Banjos.

“There are a ton of people now giving banjo lessons on YouTube, so it’s made us more accessible,” Jamie Deering continued. “And the NAMM Show is where all the components that make up how music happens are all in one place. Everyone comes together, and you get a good feel for the direction the industry is headed. There’s nothing else like it.”

Those sentiments are shared by industry powerhouses like Yamaha. At this week’s NAMM Show, the company will display its latest products across 34,000 square feet in and around the Marquis Ballroom at the Anaheim Marriott Hotel, adjacent to the convention center.

In addition to guitars, keyboards, drums and orchestral instruments, Yamaha will showcase its recording products, wireless multi-room audio systems, professional digital and analog audio equipment, AV receivers, its exclusive line of Digital Sound Projectors, home-theater-in-a-box systems and more. The company will also host performances by Sarah McLachlan, Tower of Power and Christian-music staple Michael W. Smith, as well as an all-star concert.

“In the 1980s and 1990s, the NAMM Show was much more music-instrument-focused,” said Yamaha Corp. of America president Sumner.

“Now, it’s definitely more high-tech and more varied, and there’s lots of professional audio and lighting products you wouldn’t have found previously. But we’re still selling lots of guitars, drums and keyboards, so the demand for those products hasn’t diminished.”

In the eyes of the legendary Gibson guitar company, technology is not an impediment but a tool that helps fuel the interest and market for musical products of all kinds.

Indeed, after skipping the 2018 NAMM Show because of bankruptcy, the 126-year-old Gibson returned last year with a 20,000-square-foot exhibit area to display its latest instrument lines for Gibson and two other guitar companies it owns and operates, Epiphone and Kramer.

For this year’s edition, Gibson is doubling that size to 40,000 square feet, 2,000 of which will be devoted — for the first time — to a separate showcase area for the company’s acoustic guitars. Among the new products the company will unveil this week at the NAMM Show is the Slash Collection, a collaboration with the Guns N’ Roses star that includes are four Les Paul electric guitar models and two J-45 acoustic models.

“Ultimately, in a world with so much content, it’s the story that matters more than the delivery system,” said James “J.C.” Curleigh, CEO and president of Gibson Brands.

“People used to be enamored talking about whether something was on YouTube, Snapchat or SoundCloud. Now, we’re focusing more on the story and the image we can create as content creators. In my previous experience (as the president) at Levi Strauss & Co., what we saw was that ‘turning back to authenticity’ wasn’t just a platitude, it was a reality in a world of too much choice.

“That applies strongly to the world of music. The next generation won’t grow up seeing artificial intelligence and digital technology as being different from the physical experience. For Gibson and the music industry as a whole, progress is a journey, not the destination.”

119th annual National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) Show

When: Jan. 16-19

Where: Anaheim Convention Center

Expected attendance: 115,000-plus from more nearly 130 countries and regions (the show is open to NAMM members only)

Number of exhibiting companies: More than 2,000, representing 7,000-plus brands from 55-plus countries, from Argentina to Vietnam

Estimated economic impact: $100 million (the NAMM Show has been held in Anaheim since 1978)

Intriguing fact: Sales of musical instruments and equipment in the U.S. typically dip a bit during a U.S. presidential election year.

NAMM at a glance

Full name: National Association of Music Merchants

Founded: 1901

Headquarters: Carlsbad

Membership: More than 10,490 companies from nearly 130 countries

Annual NAMM trade shows: Anaheim (January), Nashville (July)

Bottom line: Globally, NAMM’s members represent an industry that earned $17.6 billion in 2017, $7.63 billion of it in the U.S. alone (2019 sales figures will be released in April)

Mission statement: “To strengthen the music products industry and promote the pleasures and benefits of making music.”

Did you know? NAMM operates the Museum of Making Music at its Carlsbad headquarters, where it also presents concerts on a nearly weekly basis. The current exhibit, “Music from the Sound Up: The Creative Tools of Synthesis,” runs through Aug. 30.





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