flaxwood guitars, perspective of a "new" player entering the market - rick nelson
DESCRIPTION
Tonal Innovation Center (TONIC) hosted the second annual International Musical Instruments Seminar in Joensuu, Finland on 14th September- 16th September 2011.TRANSCRIPT
“So You Think You Can Compete In The Music
Industry?”
Breaking into the Music Business, from the perspective of a new player in the market
“It’s gotta be a Fender, a Fender Copy, a Gibson or a
Gibson Copy”
In spite of their looks, guitar players are very conservative
• 60+ yr. old designs are still the predominant choices for guitar players
• “traditional” construction methods have changed, but not materials or body shapes
• Guitarists are slow to accept something new or different.
Some 20th Century innovators
• Leo Fender• Les Paul (Gibson)• Paul Bigsby• Ned Steinberger • Grover Jackson• Trevor Wilkinson• Floyd Rose• Bob Taylor • Ken Parker
“You only have one chance to make a first impression”
The Worldwide Web: www.
“Online Revolution”
• 1995: 634,000 internet sites
• 2010: 255,000,000 internet sites
• 21,400,000 new internet sites in 2010 alone…
• Much more information is available to the consumer than ever before
Factoids:
96.4% of M.I. retailers have a website
62.4% of M.I. retailers will redesign their internet sites this year
43.8% of M.I. retailers sell new products online
Internet Sales
• In 2010 34% of total music industry sales were made online or by catalog vs. only 9% in 1995
#1: Thomann (Germany): $752.4M / €524.8M
• Musician’s Friend (USA) $708M / €495M
Social Media
• 80.6% of M.I. Retailers now have a Facebook presence
• 42.6% of M.I. Retailers are on Twitter
Where purchases were made:
• Independent M.I. Retailers: 41.2%
• “Chain” Stores: 36.9%
• Online Stores: 21.9%
Fretted Instrument Sales
Guitars are STILL the single most popular instrument worldwide
• 2010: 2,377,310 units sold in the U.S.A.; $839M / €590M (up 2.2% vs. 2009)
• Acoustics (1,200,831 units) up 8.2% 2010 vs. 2009
• Electrics (1,176,479 units) up 1.1% 2010 vs. 2009
Guitar Purchase SurveySurvey of over 1,100 consumers who
purchased a guitar valued at €645+ during the last 12 months
• 93% male; 7% female
• Median age: 32 years old
• Median Income: €43,700
• Owner ship level: 2.9 instruments ea.
Guitar buyers are willing to sample a variety of retail
formats:
• Online retail stores
• Chain stores
• Independent retail stores
Guitar buyers remain highly price driven
• 90.9% of online buyers said “low prices” were extremely important to them
• 49% of online buyers were “very satisfied” with their purchase
The €¥£$ have it…
“We don’t make a lot of money in the music business, but we sure don’t make a lot of money”
“Who IS that masked man?”