KING ’ S MUSIC ’ S DANIEL KONING
MUSIC MAKERS ’ RYAN HARTE
kept the home fires burning with our customers and the music teachers . I mean , our sales overall are down , but they have come back now that lessons are happening , so printed music was good for us .”
“ Obviously there were declines in all areas . But print , we ’ ve moved the majority of it to our online store and it ’ s doing quite well there ,” adds Francis Domingue , the manager of music and books at The Sound Post in Toronto , which specializes in violins , violas , cellos , basses , and related sheet music , accessories , and repairs . “ I think print is an important part of the classical music industry , in particular … so the demand is kind of always going to be there in some way .”
As Music Trades pointed out in its comprehensive report on the American MI market in 2020 , the economic downturn caused by COVID-19 has had one important and unique feature compared to “ normal ” recessions . Whereas the typical recession , like that experienced in 2008 , are indiscriminate and tend to negatively impact all music product categories , the living conditions caused by the pandemic created a type of yin-yang effect . On the one side , any product category aimed at public performance , such as PAs , was devastated . On the other side , however , anything focused on playing music at home got a boost . The large sales increases for home recording gear and entry-level guitars and keyboards has been widely acknowledged in the industry . Print music , of course , falls into this category of tools for home-based learning and playing .
“ We saw a surge in the teach-yourselfto-play stuff – whatever your interest was , whether it was guitar , ukulele , and piano , or home recording equipment – it went crazy during that period ,” reports Long & McQuade ’ s print purchasing manager , Bob Kohl . “ But there were different components within print music that saw a spike , and others that just bottomed out . It ’ s been interesting to see how that ’ s all factored . I think private lessons have continued to fare well , and I think that hobbyist music is doing remarkably well . But school music is really where we ’ re suffering , as well as just the choral component in general .”
Kohl also notes the interesting transformation that school music programs have undergone over the last year in order to adapt to the considerable safety concerns . Gone are most choir and band programs because of concerns over aerosols ( i . e ., people spreading COVID-19 by projecting their droplet-filled breath ), as well as large congregations of students . But in their place , a lot of school music teachers have launched bucket drumming and other types of percussion-based lessons and programs , or , if they ’ re lucky enough to have the instruments , switched to orchestral strings .
“ They found ways to continue classroom music so that there is still the band experience , so to speak , but in a new revised format . Percussion stuff has gone crazy because they ’ ve been able to do bucket drumming and body percussion and that sort of thing because it is safe and you can effectively distance and that sort of stuff , while still giving a pretty meaningful music education ,” says Kohl , with a sense of admiration for music teachers ’ adaptability and determination . Of course , he notes , changes in music programs often have a positive trickle-down effect on the print and educational music market as teachers need new learning materials for those programs . “ In fact , what was interesting was that as the pandemic started to happen in spring of last year , specifically within the band market , there were a group of composers and educators who got together to do the Creative Repertoire Initiative . This was to create ensemble repertoire , and what is known as Flex Series . So , it ’ s flexible instrumentation where you didn ’ t necessarily need a balanced band to be able to effectively perform this repertoire . It ’ s great because the composers just went straight to work on it and created great works . But the dilemma was that the publishers could not necessarily keep up with the production end of it . So , they were only available as a digital edition and not available as a printed edition .”
In B . C ., though , Wentworth says his stores have indeed been selling a lot of scores for concert band this year . He speculates that this is because music programs , at least in some school boards , have actually received a larger budget because funding is being redistributed from dormant sports programs . “ It ’ s ultimately up to the principal on where they defer their funds to . So , I ’ ve been noticing and in speaking to different teachers , the arts have actually been getting a bump in the funds compared to what they would normally see . So , they ’ re using that to their advantage to pick up things , to get instruments , get repairs done , but definitely in the purchase of scores . That seems to be a big thing right now .”
“ Our summer method book special orders that we normally do were definitely down . But what we have found , especially with the public schools , is that there still is money there ,” adds Daniel Koning , the owner and store manager at King ’ s Music in Abbotsford , BC . “ There still is money to spend , and the government is still putting money into the school band programs . It ’ s just being spent more intentionally this year . So , instead of a teacher walking in and just going , ‘ I ’ ll take two of those and four of those ,’ they have to run it through some checks and balances first before they ’ re allowed to spend the money . You know , that ’ s fine with me , especially as a taxpayer . I love to hear that money ’ s being spent more effectively . But we have found avenues to generate revenue that weren ’ t there before , but not all in print .”
Of course , many stores ’ print music departments work hand-in-hand with private music teachers . Wherever there are a lot of students taking private music lessons , print music is surely being sold . Like their classroom counterparts , the majority of private
CANADIAN MUSIC TRADE 21