And They’re Off!

Even though it certainly still feels like summer in much of the country (It’s 81 degrees in Boston as I type this on what is, according to the calendar, very much a “fall day”), we here at MMR – along with many of you reading this column – have already been focused on events and seasons distinctly hibernal in nature:

• In our September issue, we included the 2023 Holiday Buying Guide, outlining new and notable instruments and gear to stock in advance of the soon-to-arrive busy shopping season.
• Many have already registered to attend and/or exhibit and booked flights and hotels for the upcoming NAMM Show in January, with more names and brands being added to the list daily.
• Now, in this issue of MMR, we share the official nominees for the 31^st Annual Dealers’ Choice Awards (DCAs), with winners to be announced in our final issue of 2023.

This last bullet-point represents the penultimate stage in a yearly process that, for us, begins in early summer and, for MMR readers, starts only a few weeks afterwards. For the majority of the summer, we invited anyone to suggest the specific instruments, or brands/lines that really shone brightest this year – gear that was “flying off the shelves,” as the saying goes. In late September, the nomination process was closed and we tallied up the results (shared here on page 16) and prepared the online ballot for the “real” DCA voting.

A refresher for anyone new to these awards: Only current MMR subscribers are allowed to vote for DCA winners (one ballot per subscriber) and the ballot will remain live until Friday, November 17.

In addition to the DCA’s impressive legacy (31 years – even I haven’t been at MMR for that whole stretch!), we’re all very proud of not only what the Dealers’ Choice Awards have represented to the nominees and winners throughout the decades, but also the way in which these honors are determined. Unlike how things go down at many other publications and organizations (I speak from experience…), there’s no assemblage of vaguely defined “experts” who decide the winners. The senior company officers don’t sit around a conference table, cross-referencing nominees with current advertising contracts and then – ever so conveniently – deciding that the victors are all active business partners with MMR. Neither I nor anyone else on our masthead has anything whatsoever to do with any of this. They are called the Dealers’ Choice Awards for a reason – MI retailers are the primary voting body for these awards, because who else is better equipped to accurately comment on what products are driving sales in this industry, or which suppliers are active, helpful business partners?

So, if you’re an MMR subscriber, please take a moment to share your thoughts on what instruments and equipment led the way in the past year. We want to hear from you because you’re the true experts!

The link to vote is under the AWARDS tab at mmrmagazine.com, as well as pinned to our Facebook page. If you’re the type who enjoys manually typing long-ish web addresses, you can also just go here: https://mmrmagazine.com/2023-mmr-dealers-choice-awards-ballot/

Best of luck to the 2023 nominees!