M Pire Magazine February 2014 | Page 52

M Pire Magazine gets the scoop on the lively activity that transpires during the NAMM show. The following cover article was written by Ayana Webb: NAMM, which stands for the National Association of Music Merchants, is an association built to help music product makers, music retail owners, and the like, to connect and network with each other. This year, M Pire Magazine had the opportunity to attend the NAMM show and see what it’s really about, and boy, were we taken aback at the activity! The weekend-long show took place at the Anaheim Convention Center in California, which we discovered was right by Disneyland. During our attendance, we have witnessed concerts on multiple stages, indoors and outdoors, great food, great scenery, and great folks. There were literally thousands of exhibitors there, on multiple levels of the convention center. As we were there for one day, we unfortunately weren’t able to get around to all the exhibitors and concerts, but what we did come across was rather unique. Among some of the exhibitors were retailers for audio equipment, guitars, drums, pianos, classical instruments, keyboards, music schools, and even some new instruments we can’t even name! What was cool, was that spectating artists and musicians were allowed to play most of the instruments that were on display (which explains the noise in the background of our interviews). Speaking of interviews, we were able to get a hold of a couple of the exhibitors, as well as capture a couple of indoor performances and take lots of still photos. One exhibitor we made the priority to interview was that of the prestigious manufacturer, Yamaha. (Cont’d) 52 Image by Jesse Grant/Getty Images