In conversation with
Hisayoshi Matsui, General
Manager & Rehan Siddiqui,
Business Head- Yamaha
Music Instruments India
You have a very good line up of artists for the
Yamaha Arena this time. How do you choose
artists for your performances?
HM- We try to choose people who endorse and are a face
of Yamaha. We try to find out artists who can present our
products in the right way. We also check their playing style
with the products we have. This is how we find out the artists!
What does it take for artists to sign endorsements
with Yamaha?
RS- For Yamaha, being a strong brand, artists want to
be associated with us but there are some criteria that we
follow. This totally depends from one product to another.
For example- For synthesizer category, modx is a product
we launched last year, and Stephan Devassy is our endorser
for that product. We discuss with the artist and based on the
product, decide on them and sign on with them.
Can you tell us about the new products launched
at Palm Expo this year?
HM- We have few products as usual. One of the main products
is the PSR i500 which is the first product coming from
Yamaha’s India factory. We have started the production
late last year and this is the first product to be launched at
Palm this year. The characteristic of this product, such as
the sound, tone, style is as per the requirement of the Indian
market. Compared to the previous models, our development
team in Japan, ran a survey in India to find out what exactly
is the tonal style required for India.
How has Palm Expo helped you reach out to your
target audience?
HM- Palm Expo is a big opportunity for us to show our entire
line up to our customers. Yamaha is the only manufacturer
that produces all categories and this is a good opportunity for
us especially in the city of Mumbai where western music is
quite popular, we are able to showcase our best products.
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Score Magazine
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Tell us about your new factory launched in
Chennai, India
RS- It was a really a dream come true for us! We decided
about it in 2015 and started work in 2017. On 27th May this
year, we launched our PSR i500 to the Indian market. For
the next quarter, we have guitars coming for the Indian
market and in 2020 some PAs are going to come too. Our main
objective through this is to enter the school market. We feel
that music education is increasing and lot of schools have
included music subjects in their curriculum. As Mr. Matsui
has already mentioned, we have local sounds, voices and
tones in our new product PSR i500, thus reaching out to local
artists too apart from national ones.
Your message to our readers
We have been affiliated with the magazine for five years and
we believe that they cater to all kinds of musicians and across
the length and breadth of India and we would like to promote
music in India through them.