In most years prior to the pandemic, the press releases for the January NAMM show in Anaheim would begin to heat up at the beginning of December. By the second week in January they would reach a crescendo as music gear and audio manufacturers would attempt to blast the word out about a multitude of products that they would show at NAMM. Not this year though, as the gear world is very, very quiet.
Yes, it looks like there will be far fewer new products at the show this year, if the press releases that I receive are any indication.
It Was A Boring Gear Year
A lot of that has to do with the fact that 2024 wasn’t a very exciting year for gear. Sales were only down about 1% from the year before, but there was no real buzz going on for a particular product or product category.
At the beginning of 2024 AI took the industry by storm, but by the end of the year it was met with a combination of ho hum and suspicion. Not so much that the technology was going to take a musician’s job (it will if you’re not very good at it), but that consumers just didn’t like AI-generated music that much.
There are certainly some awesome AI audio tools and plugins now available, but most are specialized in one process (like noise reduction, track separation, and even EQ and compression). Some audio pros find it helpful and others don’t, but the fact of the matter is that none of them set the world on fire enough to become the talk of the industry.
So here we are with NAMM a week away and we’re just not seeing the product avalanche that usually accompanies NAMM world. What we see instead is about the same number of releases that you’d see in a normal month.
Cause And Effect
What are the causes? I think there are several. First of all, the competition is fierce, with not only reputable companies developing plugins, but so may start-ups that you can’t count them all. Add to that the number of producers and engineers who have designed their own plugins and you have a software market that’s not only overloaded, but with generally the same products. I mean, how many more compressor and EQ plugins does the world need?
As for hardware products, they’re expensive to develop, manufacture and ship. And let’s face it, there’s far less of a need for almost any kind of music or audio hardware anymore, as so much music making is now in-the-box.
Another downside of music hardware is the fact that the dealer network has dwindled so much. With the giant retailer Sam Ash going out of business last year, and local mom & pop stores seeming closing every week, there just isn’t the retail network needed for robust hardware sales. And the stores still in business aren’t very likely to take on a new product as they probably still have inventory left over from post-pandemic purchases.
Just like the rest of the world, the music gear world isn’t what it used to be. I’d like to go to NAMM next week and come back with the feeling that I was totally wrong about the direction of the industry, but I don’t think that’s going to happen.
If you’re going to NAMM, be sure to say Hi if you see me in the hall.
