and I think everyone had the same idea at the same time .”
Likewise , for Alexandre Kano , founder and president of Moog Audio in Montreal : “ Everything exploded in those categories . Like USB sound cards and USB microphones , and even some headphones and isolation products , like mic guards and acoustic panels … Now we ’ re fully loaded and even after all that big surge , it ’ s still going on . We ’ re selling out of sound cards and everything that has to do with podcasting or vlogging and stuff like that . So , it ’ s really doing well . Before it was normal and steady , and now it ’ s just on fire ,” he says to CMT in mid-January 2021 . He recalls that as soon as the shutdowns began , DJs were the first customers to flood the store ’ s website and phones looking for sound cards . “ I was getting calls every 40 minutes from DJs asking what the best sound card was and suddenly everything was sold out everywhere . All around the world , it was madness for sound cards . And then after we started receiving a lot of stock and everything went back to normal . But it ’ s still selling every day and still crazy .”
“ During the first lockdown of the pandemic back in March ,” adds Jason Hart ,
manager of Steve ’ s Music ’ s flagship store in Montreal , “ the sound cards sold out and you could not get them by the end of April , and then you had to wait .”
In each of these conversations with Collins , Van Hemmen , Kano and Hart , they all almost immediately mentioned that insatiable demand for external sound cards .
“ Some of them that we ordered in March just came in December that we ’ d been waiting for ,” continues Hart . “ The microphones and the sound cards are almost impossible [ to keep in stock ]. And everybody seems to want the same companies , like the Shures and Sennheisers and the Audio-Technicas . I ’ m trying to sell them another brand , but it ’ s like , ‘ No , I ’ m going to wait ’ or ‘ I ’ m going to look for it somewhere else .’ But what ’ s really nice is that a lot of people are trying to shop locally and not to go to Amazon . That ’ s really , really nice , but if you can ’ t get it and they need it , then they ’ re looking elsewhere – locally first , but then if they can ’ t , then they ’ re obviously going to go to the big box stores and that type of deal .”
It seems , in talking to our interviewees , that especially when it comes to USB microphones , customers are often coming in with a particular model in mind . Most likely this is driven by online research and a lot of googling “ best USB microphones .” In this market , the Yeti microphones from Blue have long been popular models , and Van Hemmen singles out Rode ’ s NT-USB and NT-USB Mini and the Samson Q2U as other popular USB mics . But for Collins at Long & Mc- Quade Pro , there ’ s no question what model has been the winner with his customers : “ Far and away it ’ s been the Audio-Technica AT2020USB +. It ’ s insane ; like usually if someone came in and said , ‘ I ’ ve been looking for a USB mic ’ and they ’ d been given a recommendation as to one , nine times out of 10 times that was the one that they were recommended ,” he attests , though notes that because of Audio-Technica ’ s recent changes in Canadian distribution , he ’ s had a hard time replenishing their stock .
The other standout product for Collins over the last couple years has been the RodeCaster Pro podcast production studio . “ There was nothing else like it on the market … It took a while for it to pick up . Like , when it came out [ in December 2018 ], it seemed almost like an odd bird , but there was really nothing else like it on the market .”
CANADIAN MUSIC TRADE 21