It’s In The Details

B&O accessories sales in 2016.

Band & Orchestra accessories: that’s a “big tent” right there – we’re talking reeds, mallets, tuners, drumheads… Suffice to say, this month’s retailer survey was something of a bear, but in the end (we hope) worth the effort.

For one thing, due to the expansive nature of the topic, instead of providing brand options (see question #2), we left it up to the participants to tell us which were selling best for their stores, across a number of categories. Related: some chose as their “top selling brand” companies who field a number of different lines (e.g. Conn-Selmer), so to preserve the integrity of the responses without drawing assumptions, we’re presenting them as received.

Internet competition, emerging technologies (smartphone tuner and metronome apps), and shrinking margins are topics of the day for the over 300 dealers we reached out to. Read on…