CMT : Having done Believe in Music Week and stilling having that platform at your disposal , are there plans to incorporate more digital elements into future shows ?
Lamond : For the January show , for sure . There will be an augmented digital event that goes alongside the physical event . I think it ’ s going to focus on a couple of key areas : extending the brand reach for the exhibitors ; on-demand education for those who are there , but who maybe can ’ t make a particular session and want to watch it later , and those who can ’ t be there at all ; and then , three , we actually reached much deeper into the global community with Believe in Music Week than we did through to the usual show . Something like 50 more countries were able to have a presence in Believe Week than we had at our best physical show . So , that will be the goal , to extend the brand experience for the exhibitors , education on-demand , and go deeper with the global reach .
But you got to find that line guide between incentivizing being there in-person and seeing everything for yourself , versus supplying as much of the benefit as possible for those who can ’ t physically go , or for a company that sends 10 people but has another 10 at home who can ’ t go .
The [ Swapcard ] platform itself has proven to be quite useful . The platform is our registration system now . It ’ s our app , it ’ s our map , and it ’ s the networking tool so that you can connect with someone who ’ s three halls over … The platform has turned into quite a blue ocean .
CMT : This year for the first time , the RP- MDA , the Events Safety Alliance , Alliance of Independent Music Merchants , and the National Association of School Music Dealers are all co-locating various events with Summer NAMM . Did the current circumstances make different segments of the of the industry more cooperative , or increase the desire to work together ?
Lamond : You know , it ’ s the idea of , “ How do you make the first event back after a pandemic as much of a return on your investment and your time as possible ?” That was one motivator for all of us . There ’ s the fact that most of those groups had to suspend their normal meetings for one or two complete cycles , and have not seen each other , so they were also eager to get back together . This may be one-off and the only time in history that all this happens . I can tell you , I go to each one of those events and there are a lot of plane flights . I ’ m actually kind of happy about having only one plane fight and being able to do all of this in one fell swoop , but it ’ s not going to be the same .
You know , NASMD is usually three to four days in some nice hotel in Arizona or Florida and you really spend time with people . With RPMDA , it ’ s the same thing . The Event Safety Alliance , I go to Rock Lititz , Pennsylvania at Clair Brothers for that . These are all wonderful things I like doing , but they couldn ’ t be done this time . And so , by bringing them all to Summer NAMM , we will save many people a lot of expense and we ’ ll have provided a lot of return on investment for those people , because a lot of them are the same people . You know , NASMD members go to NAMM , and many of them are print music dealers and go to RPMDA , and many of them are also in the Alliance of Independent Music Workers . So , in many cases , a portion of those groups are all the same anyway , so we ’ ve really given them some synergy .
Like I said , it may not ever happen again , but I ’ m glad it ’ s happening . If we end up liking it , I could see it being a possibility . That ’ s one of the things we have to explore about what are the temporary changes brought about by COVID , and which ones are permanent changes ? The jury ’ s out on that one , but I ’ m happy it ’ s happening this time .
CMT : Not to get too far ahead of ourselves , but looking to January ’ s 2022 NAMM Show , what are you guys expecting for that ?
Lamond : No one knows what will happen , but I have two data points .
One is , after NAMM canceled the show for two years during World War II , the first event back after the war in 1946 was it ’ s the largest event to date . So , that came back very strong and there was a lot of pent-up demand at all levels .
Second data point is the great recession in 2009 , when the industry really was hit hard by that , it took us four years to get back to the pre-recession levels at the show . Not so much in attendance , but in exhibit space . A lot of companies just took smaller spaces . They said , “ Look , we ’ ve got to tighten our belt .”
So , those are two opposite data points . But my instincts tell me that we will have a smaller show in January . It seems like the registration has been consistent throughout , but if it ’ s smaller , it ’ s because companies were just being more careful . But who knows ?
It ’ s cloudy to me , and one reason it ’ s uncertain is the number of unnatural inputs into the economy that we ’ ve experienced since the pandemic . Unnatural meaning , they don ’ t occur in the regular cycle , like governments dumped trillions of dollars into the system . That ’ s totally affected purchasing power , and all of a sudden you can ’ t buy a guitar anywhere . Two , unnaturally low interest rates . So , there ’ s a continued consolidation . Companies are buying companies rather than out-competing them . So , we ’ re seeing consolidation , especially in the manufacturing side . That ’ s not normal but that ’ s brought on by unbelievably low interest rates .
And then I think , three , some of the larger trends of online selling , where was the distribution changes that have been building but that were accelerated by the pandemic ? What will we see in January 2022 as a result of the Amazons getting bigger and online getting bigger , while brick-and-mortar was suffering in some cases because of government-mandated shutdowns , and then it kind of roaring back when they got opened up again ?
So , there ’ s just enough untraditional inputs into the picture that we really can ’ t tell what we ’ ll see in January . But I think the world will be open by them . I think for the near-term , the economics are going to be unbelievable . You can ’ t just dump that much money into an economy without having it grow six points in GDP . And that ’ s true of Europe , that ’ s true of Japan – everyone ’ s doing the same thing .
So , I think we ’ re actually going to be in a little bit of a renaissance . I think we ’ re going to be in a bit of a roaring twenties , and I think we ’ re going to see a pent-up release of new product . With some exceptions , I think there ’ s been a very slow release of new products . I think companies will have a backlog of new and innovative products that are going to want to launch in January . You might see a bit of this at Summer NAMM , too , but definitely by January I think we ’ re probably going to see the first and maybe only time in our careers where there ’ s more demand chasing too little supply . It ’ s generally been the opposite . Typically , there ’ s booths everywhere at NAMM all trying to find that elusive buyer , or trying to influence you guys to write up the product or do some YouTube blog about it . There ’ s been so much supply chasing the demand , but right now it ’ s just the opposite … Maybe this is a one-time opportunity to see what that looks like .
Michael Raine is the Editor-in-Chief of Canadian Music Trade
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