LONG & MCQUADE ’ S ADAM STOKHOLM TAPESTRY MUSIC ’ S DAVID SABOURIN BUFFET CRAMPON ’ S FRANCOIS KLOC
distancing and various PPE options , such as bell covers and musicians ’ masks . Ontario band programs were the most affected and still remain highly compromised as this school year winds down .”
Unsurprisingly , the pandemic story is largely the same from everyone Canadian Music Trade spoke with on both the supplier and dealer sides . For example , Buffet Crampon ’ s Inside Sales Manager for Canada , Jack Dring , notes : “ Overall , band sales were significantly down [ during the pandemic ]. I don ’ t think that comes as any surprise to anyone operating in our industry . Especially in the band segment , I think that was hit particularly hard due to the lack of in-classroom music lessons on the student side of things , and then economic and budgetary limitations on the pro side of things . Symphony orchestras weren ’ t allocating the same budget , and the military weren ’ t doing the same spending on the higher-end stuff that we would normally see .”
And the hard data continues to back up the rough story of the pandemic for band instruments . Steve Butterworth , Yamaha Canada Music ’ s VP of sales and marketing , notes that “ I prepare the Canada import report for NAMM every year and I can tell you from the import point of view , that based on imports to Canada , it would seem that the demand for new instruments was less than half coming into the new year [ 2022 ] for band instruments , specifically .”
And it wasn ’ t just band instrument sales that suffered , but rentals especially . Many stores have spent years , even decades , serving school teachers and students with instrument rentals and that suddenly disappeared .
“ I think in the earliest days of the pandemic , especially , let ’ s say , April to June
of 2020 , there was so much uncertainty for the customers , for the teachers , the parents that were renting instruments , especially . Then for the dealers , if band isn ’ t happening , [ customers are saying ] ‘ I want to return my rental ; I want to get out of this .’ And so , how do you handle pickups ? And then at the same time , the dealers had to refund a whole bunch of rental money in a time when cashflow was really tough for them ,” Butterworth adds . “ Some dealers do rent-to-own programs and they even had families that were bailing out of rent-to-own programs that had lots of equity in their instrument . So , they had to try and convince them and say , ‘ Listen , it ’ s going to be normal in September and your kid ’ s going to be playing the saxophone again , so don ’ t return it .’ So , there was a lot of work by the dealers behind the scenes to try and keep the instruments in the customers ’ hands .”
“ We had so many instrument rentals out there , the biggest fear for me was that because it was March , so close to the end of the school year , that people were going to start calling and saying they had to return their horn . And so , that rental revenue that we rely on to get to get through the summer to the next season , we were very nervous that it was going to be severely affected ,” recalls David Sabourin , owner of Tapestry Music ’ s three stores in British Columbia . Tapestry has really built its business on selling and renting beginner- and mid-level band instrument to teachers and students . “ We just had to roll with the punches with the teachers . Again , those relationships really kicked in , because the community really rallied . They knew that if 30 or 40 kids decided to stop , not only is it going to affect their program and the feeders , the longevity or the natural
progression of their program , it ’ s going to affect us . We didn ’ t hesitate to tell people that . We weren ’ t trying to push panic buttons , but we were letting people know that if there ’ s anything we can do … we ’ ve got road reps that are out and about working with kids , and of course , they weren ’ t allowed into the schools . But we started promoting more individual song books for kids , play-along books , anything to keep a kid motivated and excited to play their instrument .”
As things stand currently for band instruments , thanks to school programs and concerts coming back , demand is rebounding . But how fast and steady that rebound will ultimately be , though , is still to be determined . In part , that ’ s because of the backlog of band instrument inventory dealers have that was purchase pre-pandemic .
“ The biggest challenge , I would say , probably for band instrument companies is to try and figure out how fast the demand is going to come back . You ’ ve got to think about how much inventory the dealers already have that ’ s new , how many instruments they have in their rental fleet that are not being used right now ? Of course , the dealers , for their own best interest , they have to put out the instruments they already have invested in , and then the manufacturers will have the chance in the future to supply instruments when they deplete their current inventory ,” explains Butterworth .
At Long & McQuade stores Canadawide , Stokholm says they ’ ve seen a slow but steady recovery of band sales and rentals over the past year . But , he adds , “ The return to pre-pandemic levels will likely be a slow process . There are students in elementary grades who have missed two
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