THE 2008 NAMM SHOW I BY ZACH PHILLIPS
The Industry Hero?

Mergers, partnerships and video games pervaded the 2008 NAMM Show

The biggest product at the 2008 NAMM Show wasn’t a musical instrument, and it didn’t have a formal exhibit. Yet Guitar Hero dominated supplier booths and show floor conversation from Jan. 17–20 at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, Calif.

Talk centered around how to harness Red Octane’s popular video game and its competing counterpart, Rock Band, in converting video gamers into real musicians.

“We ended up bringing in about 150 people to [our Guitar Hero II tournament],” said James Bethea of Baton Rouge, La.-based The Perfect Bass/The Perfect Guitar. “We had high traffic in the store on the day of the event and better than average sales.”

Many suppliers featured the video games at their booths to draw attention while others launched peripheral products. Hal Leonard received top honors during the closing NAMM University breakfast session, “Best In Show,” for its new Guitar Hero and Rock Band songbooks. Allegro Multimedia and SoundTech partnered up to debut Guitar Wizard, a similar video game with one major point of departure: players use real guitars.

During the Guitar & Accessories Marketing Association’s annual meeting, Guitar Center CEO Marty Albertson even mentioned that Guitar Hero was his company’s top-selling SKU during the 2007 holiday season. It’s anyone’s guess as to whether that momentum will last or if Guitar Hero will go the way of many video game relics. (Does anyone still play Pitfall?) For now, it’s putting live rock ’n’ roll front-of-mind with a text-messaging demographic that’s inundated with entertainment choices.

“Guitar Hero and [video games] like that can bring some new life into the industry,” said CJ Averwater, general manager of Memphis, Tenn.-based Amro Music. “I’ve joked about it, but I would honestly love to see something like Bassoon Hero or Trumpet Hero.”

NAMM Newsmakers
The influence of music video games can’t be downplayed, but the NAMM Show was home to plenty of other breaking news. At show close, it reported a 4-percent boost in overall registration from 2007, for a record-breaking 88,128 total registrants. International attendance received a 7-percent increase from the previous winter show, for a total of 10,605 registrants. NAMM University also had a record turnout with 9,026 total attendees, as compared to 8,872 last year.

“Traffic was slamming,” said Fishman Transducers President Larry Fishman on the second day of the show. “It was the best Thursday opening day we’ve seen in 20 years.”

Corporate mergers, acquisitions and partnerships also dominated headlines in UpBeat Daily. Among them, Taylor partnered with Fender for its European distribution, Gibson and TC Group merged and Roland acquired a major share of Cakewalk.

2008 Summer NAMM returns to Nashville, Tenn., after a three-year hiatus in Indianapolis and Austin, Texas. It will be held June 20–22 at the Nashville Convention Center. MI

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