Hal Leonard has been growing its representation of MI products steadily for over 10 years and now announces further expansion of its MI Products Distribution division. This comes as the company plans for even more expansion that includes website updates, branding, new product categories, more lines, and staff expansion. The announcement was made by Hal Leonard CEO Larry Morton.
Hal Leonard, long known as the world’s largest publisher and distributor of printed music, has also been using the skills they’ve developed over the years in processing, warehousing and shipping millions of small goods into the music trade, to capitalize on those strengths by now distributing products for other companies. Starting with a few accessories and gift items in the 1990s and music notation software in the early 2000s, the division started to grow more substantially in 2009. Since that point, every year has seen significant new distribution lines, including software and technology relevant to musicians from companies such as Avid and IK Multimedia. Hal Leonard also began expanding into gear and instruments including Blue Mics, Samson, Line 6, Presonus, Flight Ukuleles, Warm Audio, Michael Kelly Guitars, Cordial Cables, TASCAM, and more.
In 2016, Hal Leonard began to develop a full line of drum-related distributed brands as well and started a separate “Drum Team” of sales reps to support these efforts. Hal Leonard now distributes Gretsch, Gibraltar, KAT, Tycoon, Remo, Paiste, and Vater products.
Brad Smith, Vice President – MI Products who oversees the roster of distributed companies, commented, “Our goal from Day 1 was to expand our offerings so that we could support music stores by giving them the ability to consolidate their order to get everything they need for a successful business from one source—with no minimum order requirements—and to have those orders ride along with existing print orders and our existing freight programs. We love hearing from our accounts about how easy and efficient ordering all these lines has become.”
With double-digit growth YOY in 2020, plans are in the works for 2021 to expand into more product categories and lines, including DJ and Lights, Live Sound, more guitar gear, and more digital delivery of software products. To ensure the same high level of customer service Hal Leonard has always provided, they have also added additional warehouse support for inbound and outbound shipments, quality assurance inspection at the warehouse for fretted instruments, and added purchasing agents to work with product ordering and inventory management.
The Hal Leonard MI Products Distribution division will have their own booth at the NAMM Believe in Music marketplace in January showing off their latest new offerings.
