Archive for January, 2008

NAMM News Wrap

Jan 23rd

Posted by MgMt. in Uncategorized

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We’re back in NC from our trip to the NAMM Show last week. Although we posted a lot of pictures, we left out much of the business that went on, so here’s wrap-up of the business end of things…

The economy may be shaky, but manufacturers including Peavey, Hal Leonard, Daisy Rock, Roland, and The Music People, among many others, reported having an extremely busy show.”This industry is recession proof,” declared Scott Davies of American DJs.

D’Addario announced the opening of its brand-new distribution facility in Farmingdale, NY. The new facility implements a variety of systems and capabilities, including increased square footage—from approximately 48,000-square feet within two buildings to over 52,000 square feet contained within one building.

Gibson Guitar and TC Group announced merger plans.
“This merger will revolutionize the music industry for many years to come,” said Henry Juszkiewicz, chairman and CEO of Gibson. “The synergy between the two companies will allow us an enormous advantage in the development of the new audio technologies and bring together two of the world’s most powerful brands.”
“Technology and music are coming together,” said Fauerskov. “Gibson is a great guitar, and we can bring our audio technology to their product. We are very happy with the merger.”

TC Group includes TC Electronic, TC Helicon, Dynaudio Acoustics, and Lab.gruppen. TC offers a number of pro audio technology,amplifiers, speakers, digital processors, and guitar pedals.

Finally, Roland has reached an agreement to acquire a major share of Cakewalk, developer of music creation and recording products. New products will be branded “Cakewalk by Roland.”
The two companies have been partners since 1995, and have worked together on many projects. In 2003, Roland augmented its strategic partnership with Cakewalk by becoming a minor shareholder in the corporation. As a part of that relationship, Roland gained exclusive worldwide sales distribution rights, with the exception of the United States, which was still handled by Cakewalk.

You can always see pictures of the show here. Thanks for checking out our blog and stop by any Progressive Music Center anytime!

NAMM Wrap-Up

Jan 20th

Posted by MgMt. in Uncategorized

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If you’ve been following my other posts then you know it’s been a great trip to sunny California. We got in on Tuesday and have had nothing but a great show. Here’s the week in review:

1. Industry meetings kept me busy most of the week. I started off on Wednesday morning with a GAMA meeting and ended up presenting my drumset marketing programs for 2008/2009 at the PMC meeting ( I’m 2nd from right in picture above).

2. Thursday was drum day – I made my rounds to my endorsing companies and spoke to many of the people that I deal with on a regular basis, but only have a chance to see during NAMM. I also had a chance to meet Chad Smith (Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer at the Alfred booth – Chad’s brother, Brad, is an Alfred Exec and is the 1st guy on left in the picture with me above.) I also ran into Slash (literally, I just about knocked him down at the bathrooms by the Gibson booth), meet Santana at the Paul Reed Smith booth, had a drink with

Herbie Hancock, meet Tony Levine (Peter Gabriel bass player) T.M. Stevens, Nikki Sixx (Motley Crue) and Dave Larue of the Dixie Dregs. As I made my rounds meeting reps I snapped pics of however happened to be at booths when I walked by, that included Jason Bonham (Led Zeppelin), Jerry Cantrell (pictured @ left), Eric Singer (KISS), George Lynch, Joe Satriani, Kerry King (Slayer), Billy Sheehan, Nuno Bettencourt, Yngwie Malmsteen, Mick Mars (Motley Crue), Brian McKnight, Jon Anderson and Alan White of Yes, and yes, even Kenny G! You can find all those pictures in our photo gallery on our Progressive website.

3. I inked a deal for Progressive with Zoom to use their new H2 handheld recorder in our our teaching rooms. These are very cool little units that record direct to an SD card using 4 onboard mic capsules for 360° recording. The Zoom is super easy to use with remarkable sound quality. You simply push a button, record the lessons to either a WAV or MP3 file and that’s it. We’ll use the H2 to email the files to our students so they always have a recording of what they are doing. Students can pop the lessons on to their iPods or simple archive them on their computers at home. Very cool, very Progressive!
Progressive will also have the H2 for sale in our Wake Forest shop for $199.00, so students can use them for band rehearsals and recording any, and everything, they want!
4. Friday and Saturday were my guitar/amp and everything in between days. I have tons of pictures from the Fender and Gibson booths, plus shots from ESP, Jackson, Charvel, Dean, Orange, Mesa, Ampeg, Randall and tons of others to long to list. Probably one of the coolest things was seeing Eddie Van Halen’s original guitar in the Fender booth.

I’ve got to catch my flight now, so I’ll have to post the rest of this later, but check back often!
See Ya back in NC!

NAMM – Saturday Report

Jan 20th

Posted by MgMt. in Guitar

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It’s been a long week and a long day. I have about three hundred pictures from Friday and today (Saturday) that I need to download and post at some point. I’ll have to get to that later and post some news too…but before I retire for the evening one of the best NAMM show moments happened this afternoon in the technology wing of the show floor. Stevie Wonder walked in to a booth where I was checking out some recording software. His assistant was very pleasant and introduced me and a few others that were in the booth to Stevie (he does this since Stevie can not read names on badges). Stevie says without hesitation, “I dig your shirt, the color looks great on you”. Oh yeah, Mick Mars looked frail over at the Marshall booth…

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NAMM Report

Jan 19th

Posted by MgMt. in Uncategorized

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Today was BUSY! From the moment I walked in to the show to the minute I walked out I had something going on non-stop. About 10 minutes after I got to the show I headed to the Fender and Gibson booths. As I rounded the corner to Gibson I ran into Slash and his entourage. That’s a shot to the left of Slash as he headed past me walking out to smoke on the patio of the convention center. Seems like the rest of the day I ran into Slash (and the large amount of people following him around). Not sure who was around more, Slash or Santana. I ran into Santana at Paul Reed Smith, then at Alfred (pictured below @ right), then over at LP Percussion and then at Mesa…Santana stopped long enough to shake a few hands, but he was adamant about no pictures or signing. I think Slash signed any and everything. I also had a nice conversation with Tony Levin & T.M. Stevens (me pictured below tih Tony and T.M.), Jason Bonham and I spoke to Jerry Cantrell for a second – to name a few. I’ll post all the pics of these guys tomorrow at some point.

Oh Yeah, today was not all about seeing rock stars around the show floor…Roland has reached an agreement to acquire a major share of Cakewalk, a developer of music creation and recording products. New products will be branded “Cakewalk by Roland.”The two companies have been partners since 1995, and have worked together on many projects. In 2003, Roland augmented its strategic partnership with Cakewalk by becoming a minor shareholder in the corporation. As a part of that relationship, Roland gained exclusive worldwide sales distribution rights, with the exception of the United States, which was still handled by Cakewalk.Right now I’m heading back out to see Joe Satriani play at an Ibanez Party in Huntington Beach! More tomorrow…

Live from NAMM – Day 1 Wrap-Up!

Jan 17th

Posted by MgMt. in Drums

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The day started @ 8 am with the NAMM Breakfast of Champions where NAMM Pres. Joe Lamond had a panel discussion with industry leaders Henry Juszkiewicz of Gibson, Marty Albertson of GC, Bill Mendello of Fender and Kaman’s Ed Miller, plus Skip Maggiora of Skip’s Music in California.

On the Fender buyout of Kaman, Mendello said, “It’s very simple. Kaman was a company we could acquire and literally just let operate. It’s not a situation where the company is broken and we’re going to try to fix it.” If you don’t know, Kaman is a large distributor that owns the Takamine, Gibralter, Gretsch drum and Toca brands. Kaman has been a large, “one-stop” distributor for music retailers for years. I have direct word from Kaman that Fender sees the guitar market as over saturated with Strats and Teles, so they are very interested in the drum market and see that Kaman has some serious brands under one roof.

Guitar Center’s Marty Albertson discussed taking the company private, and what it will mean in the short term. “We’re going to significantly slow down the growth of new GC stores over the next few years”.

The floor opened for exhibits at 10:00 am – and the exhibits are what everybody is really here for.
Drummers, it’s your lucky day since:
A. I am a drummer by trade
B. That’s the side of the industry that I work in
C. That’s where the majority of my meetings took place today
D. That’s where I got most of my pictures!
E. Guitarists – this is what you get for all the bad drummer jokes (your day is tomorrow….)

There was some SICK drum gear on the floor from Pearl (see pic @ left), DW, dDrum,Taye, Yamaha, Tama, Pork Pie, Dunette, and just about EVERY drum maker on the planet! Most of my day was spent with reps and talking with drum dealers, so nothing major to announce right now, but they say a picture is worth a thousand words, so you will need to see the pictures in our photo gallery to believe the drum sets Pearl and dDrum had on display.

Paiste had a great booth along with Bosphorus, Sabian and Zildjian. Taye introduced a new limited finish on their hardware while Pork Pie and Trick drums both had amazingly HUGE bass drums at their booths (see picture). A few year sago at a PASIC show in Ohio, I bought some Factory Metal percussion that we have in our shops, it’s a strange mix of metal made into these cymbal like instruments…very cool and they have expanded the line with distribution from Kaman.

I did make it by the Mesa booth and a few other guitar companies, but I’ll put that stuff up tomorrow when I have more time and can get all of the pictures downloaded from my camera.

Oh yeah, did I mention in yesterday’s post that Guitar Hero and Rock Band seems to be the talk of the show? Peavey, Ludwig and a few others had these games in their booths and they ALL had crowds watching the people playing – interestingly, there were crowds watching real musicians play, too? See pic @ right from Ludwig booth…

I did have a run-in with Slash and Mick Mars. Slash was walking out of the back of the building to a waiting car. I rounded the corner and he came around the other side and we ran into each other. Mick Mars was standing at the Schecter booth. I got a picture of the booth earlier in the day and then saw Mick late in the afternoon.

Until tomorrow…

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NAMM Corrections

Jan 17th

Posted by MgMt. in Uncategorized

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Updates from the NAMM show floor:
1. I posted yesterday that Guitar Center has invested in an online music company – the company is TuneCore, not TuneCorps as listed in the post…
2. It’s been rumored around the show that Best Buy will introduce more music stores into their existing retail outlets across the US to the tune of 600 stores in 2008. While there is sure to be conversions in some stores that number seems a little inflated to us, so we’ll have to wait and see if Best Buy moves heavily into the music retail business in 2008.

NAMM Opening Day

Jan 17th

Posted by MgMt. in Blog

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We finished up yesterday with a NAMM Presidents Council Meeting followed by the annual Percussion Marketing Council (PMC) Meeting. The presidents Council was a collection of young music industry professionals that gathered to discuss the growth of the industry and the direction we feel it’s going in the years to come.

Interestingly, the discussion primarily focused on the introduction of the video games Guitar Hero III and Rock Band. This has been a conversation topic at not only these meetings, but at the show in general. In yesterday’s pre-NAMM post I referenced Guitar Center CEO Marty Albertson stating that Guitar Hero III was the chains number one selling item for the 2007 holiday season. Regardless of the popularity, some here feel it’s not a good thing (i.e. fewer kids picking up a real guitar causing fewer students for teachers and smaller sales for the local shops) and some feel we need to embrace it 100% (i.e. it will create players because kids want to experience the real thing). Either way, NAMM has embraced it by teaming up with Red Octane, creator of Guitar Hero, for a new dealer program that brings the game into stores across the US. I will have pictures on our web site gallery of the NAMM/Guitar Hero kiosk later today.

We’re heading out now for the Breakfast of Champions and a panel discussion of industry veterans on how they have navigated the MI industry over the years and their thoughts on the road ahead. After that, the show floor opens and NAMM will be officially under way! Check back later for updates and we should have pics up in our website gallery!

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Pre-NAMM Day 1

Jan 16th

Posted by MgMt. in NAMM

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It’s 1:30 here & I have just a few minutes to get an update in before I head off to the NAMM President’s Council meeting @ 2. The day has been packed with mostly meetings since 8 am Pacific time, and everyone’s running around setting up exhibits for the show opener tomorrow (Thursday).

Things kicked off this morning at the Guitar and Accessories Marketing Association (GAMA) meeting.
GAMA is an organisation that works to implement guitar programs in schools offering seminars to train music teachers around the country to develop programs in their schools. The overview of 2007 and the organizations accomplishments were interesting, however the highlight of the meeting had to be the address by Guitar Center mastermind and CEO, Marty Albertson.

During his talk Albertson touched on several key aspects of the guitar market and the issues we face in the upcoming year and what it may hold for the music industry. Alberston’s thoughts on recognizing music education and music teachers in the country were refreshing, since the 214 store Guitar Center chain does not have any music education programs, outside of it’s Music and Arts Center chain, to speak of. Albertson pointed out that more emphasis needs to be placed on music education while teachers need greater funding and resources if music stores such as Guitar Center, and others were to survive and grow.

Moreover, Albertsom believes we are moving into some economic headwinds for 2008 that may slow the growth of the music industry, but he remains convinced that the guitar segment of the music industry will continue to grow with the help of the video game, Guitar Hero III. Another surprise was Albertson’s admittance that Guitar Hero III was the music chains number one best selling item for the 2007 holiday period.

In 2008, Guitar Center has invested into www.tunecorp.com, which allows anyone to post an album to iTunes or any music hosting company on the internet. It’s part of what Albertson thinks is a shift in the paradigm that is leaning towards a Do It Yourself movement for musicians.

Another note before I wrap this up – rumor has it around the show that electronics giant Best Buy will remodel 600 of their stores to add full scale music stores. Stat tuned…

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NAMM Coverage

Jan 10th

Posted by MgMt. in NAMM

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Progressive Music Center heads to Anaheim, California for the Winter NAMM show January 15 – 21! NAMM is the place to see all the latest musical products from around the world and experience the latest trends in the music instrument world.
Never experienced a NAMM show? Tune in right here for daily updates from the show floor!

5 Tips Every Musician Needs

Jan 10th

Posted by MgMt. in Guitar

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Learning to play an instrument, or have been playing your instrument for a while? Here’s 5 tips for every musician from Espie Estrella, from About.com:

1. Patience – Learning an instrument is hard at the beginning so you must be very patient with yourself. The beginning musician should especially keep in mind that each of us learn differently and it doesn’t necessarily mean that if you learn slower you’re not as good as someone else.

2. Warm-Up – Finger exercises and other form of warm-ups are crucial if you want to be a good player. Not only will it make your hands and fingers more flexible, it will also reduce the danger of injuries[/link]. Every music instrument player must do warm-ups first before playing or performing. You won’t run a marathon without stretching first, right? The same principle applies to playing an instrument.

3. Learn To Sight Read – Sight-reading is the ability to read a music piece without difficulty. It’s much like opening a book and reading it, the act is effortless and comes naturally. Tactile-playing is the ability to play an instrument without looking at your hands. This means you have mastered your instrument so much so that you can play it even with your eyes closed.

4. Know Your Theory – Understanding the difference between a grand staff and a quarter note makes it a lot easier to “talk shop” with other musicians. This knowledge can lead to better gigs and a greater satisfaction from performing.

5. Have Fun – Music and playing music should be fun and enjoyable.

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