The Beat Goes On – Disparate Feedback from U.S. Drum & Percussion Retailers Indicates a Market in Transition

To gauge the relative health of the drum & percussion market, MMR recently polled over 350 dealers from across the country. While responses to our surveys of this sort often indicate a clear trajectory for a given market segment, this time around the results are a little murkier.

Some trends are pretty clear-cut: with minimal difference, percentage-wise, between those reporting 2014 sales as being up, down, or level (30 percent, 40 percent, and 30 percent, respectively), those figures suggest a largely flat market. Many we heard from complained about Internet sales (nothing new there, unfortunately) and all the related frustrations that come along with that larger issue: specifically, showrooming (trying out gear in-store and then buying for less online) and buying gear on the Internet and then turning to brick-and-mortar dealers for repairs and support. Most (nearly 60 percent) reported that low-end product was selling best for their operation. As Adam York of Tulsa, Oklahoma’s The Music Store observes, “With the Internet and auction sites, MAP has become the new retail – you have to come off of that price to close the deal.” But, to provide contrast, there were certainly those who feel that high-end instruments are rebounding. “We stock more high-end kits than we ever have before,” says Dan Grabski of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania’s Dale’s Drum Shop. “The general consumer usually spends around $1,500 or above on a shell pack.” Mike Guillot of Mississippi Music (Flowood, Mississippi) notes that, “We are pleased to see that sales of higher quality cymbals, Zildjian and Sabian, are starting to return. We hope that this is an indication that we will see the return of higher-end drum set sales.”

In terms of what styles of music seem to be driving new sales, rock continues to be the driving force, although many cited increased drummer interest in country and jazz. Interestingly, of the genre options we offered in that particular survey question, nearly 30 percent of participants selected “Other,” with the majority of those specifying Christian, Church Music, or School Music.
Drum & percussion sales would seem to be in a state of flux, with the market still reacting to the economic downturn of a few years ago, as well as changing purchasing habits and preferences of end-users in terms of styles of music and types of equipment. These differences can exert drastic differences in how well or poorly a store is doing, and can sometimes seemingly be a byproduct of nothing more than geography. As Bryan Lo of Franklin, North Carolina’s Paradise Music observes, “I have two stores, 30 minutes apart.  One sells a lot [of drums & percussion], the other does not.  It depends on where you are.”