By Mike Lawson

Music China’s 22nd edition wrapped up at the Shanghai New International Expo Centre after four days of business, networking, and industry exchange, running 22–25 October in Shanghai. The show floor brought together roughly 1,700 exhibitors and more than 114,000 visitors, with attendees coming from 121 countries and regions and a reported 15% year-on-year increase in international diversity. 

Beyond the exhibits, the fair delivered a packed fringe schedule of 600+ events—including workshops, forums, and talks—with programming that reflected current growth areas such as music-technology integration, music healing, and senior wellness. International participation remained a key theme, with exhibitors representing 28 countries and regions, including 10 country pavilions, and leading visitor markets cited as Brazil, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand, and the United States.

This is akin to our NAMM show in the USA. The square footage is much bigger, but the attendance is very similar. One of the striking things about visiting Music China is the sheer number of companies that you see. It is a very eye-opening experience for an American in the music products trade to walk around this conference hall or shall I say 2 mi.² of conference halls. The show has literally every product you can think of and probably 1000 more you’d never thought of. One the one hand you’re gonna see a ton of brands that we may never see in the USA but are seen around the world in music, retail stores and online shops. On the other hand, nothing is more evident than the dependency that United States manufacturers importers and distributors have on these decades, old relationships with OEM and manufacturing partners in China and around the world. The show is much more than just music products on display, it is supply for these manufacturers parts wood hardware, anything really that you can think of. 

As I wrote about last, May, the tariff situation in the US has caused a lot of trouble. This was very evident being an American walking around in Shanghai at a music products show. It was the first thing most people wanted to discuss with me, as though I have any insight and the madness that created the situation. Spoiler alert: I do not. I know this much, we are not our government, these people at Music China, they are not their governments. Many were bewildered by the situation after having spent decades in close partnerships with American companies. Frankly I am bewildered too. We’ve spent literally almost my entire lifetime creatin  a situation where we send to be manufactured to overseas factories after designing in the USA and importing them for sale  and even re-export. We create millions of jobs in the USA for sales people, warehouse, marketing, executives, support, and all manner of US citizens to run these businesses. We have discussed this before, but it is important to know 53% of all music products sold in the United States. Come from China. That’s over half from one country. That does not count all of the other countries that we do business with whether they are in Asia or South America, North America, Europe, this is how we have spent half five decades forging this industry for our 21st century reality. The tariffs caused a great disruption in a system that we purposely designed, and it was purposely designed to serve, not only our markets, but to create greater global opportunity for US companies.

I walked the halls of this massive show with eyes wide open, photographing all of these American company booths. I think the readers of MMR would be interested to know that it’s a two-way street. How many companies in the US design products here to manufacture there and import to the US for sales, there are many US companies that manufacture in the US and export to China and countries abroad all over Asia. You’ll see brand names that you know in these photos. American brands are respected, cherished, and highly desirable. The biggest names, from Fender to Martin, from Ernie Ball, to Peavey, Stringjoy, D’Addario, Shubb, and JodyJazz, they are all represented. The inability of US manufacturers this year to adequately predict their inventory and pricing has been a nightmare. It has resulted in layoffs at a ripple through the music products trade from the manufacturing and distribution levels down to retail. Over the past year I’ve kept close tabs on how things are going with our readers, and in the local music retail stores. I visit them around the country, not just because I own the music products trade publication they’ve read for a century, but because I am first, a musician. I want to know how are things going? What new products are you selling, what’s the hot new item trend?

The hot new product and trend this year was uncertainty

It’s a common thread to every discussion, if you don’t know, if you can get product, you don’t know when you can sell it, when you can advertise it, how you can price it, when you will have it, and everything snowballs from there. We have a system we have to live within. Whether you belong for the mythical days of make it all in the USA, and believe that nostalgia is going to bring back all of that manufacturing into the USA”, or not, what is reality is that even if that we’re going to attempt to create that here (again?), it is billions of dollars in investments to be had to be made and decades to even attempt to catch up. Even then we would need the workforce will need to work in these factories, with these skills in place, we would need the supplies, and frankly, we are decades, if not, half a century behind.

What I saw again this year at Music China was a wonderful worldwide relationship between US and foreign suppliers. These are people like you and me that work around music products because they love them, most of them being musicians as well, and really no different than anyone else you’d meet it at NAMM. These are extremely important markets also, for example, when our friends at Jody Jazz make the trek around the world every year to sell their exquisite mouthpieces made in Savannah, Georgia to a waiting audience in China and beyond, it just further provides at least anecdotal evidence as to how important these markets are for American companies. So the tariffs did not only hurt American companies that designed products here and import after manufacture, but they have caused a lot of trouble for American companies that export back.

If there’s any positive here, it is that American products are very desired, and the people at Music China are eager to be partners. This is a critical relationship, there is nothing that is going to change that in the near future or any of our lifetimes. When you have been to foreign countries and seen investments in manufacturing, not dank, dirty, dark sweat, shops, but state-of-the-art, modern astounding factories, and you see the workforce and their skill and the products they’re making, the delusion of we’re going to bring it all back here right away quickly vanishes.

This is not about politics, at least not for me, this is about common sense. If our country really wants to make the kind of investments that foreign countries make into their manufacturing structure so that their citizens have good jobs, I’m all for it. Put your money where your mouth is, make the investments. I’m not seeing this happening. I hear a lot of talk. I hear a lot of nostalgia, I hear a lot of big ideas without substance. I am all for global music manufacturers, music, retailers, music, educators, and those who work to make and become lifelong musicians. Why? Because music is a universal language, a universal truth. Until you have sat down and played the blues with someone who does not speak your native language, but instantly connect on that indescribable level of being able to immediately jam, you really can’t understand. Music China will happen again next year, hopefully things will be settled down on the tariff front, but I don’t have a lot of confidence in anything really settling down for a while. I know China is a critical training partner for the music products industry and Music China is an important part of our musical world. That’s not going to change anytime soon. 

So while our industry figures out how to navigate this mind field of Terra trouble, remember that there is a waiting market on the other side of the planet for American goods, American design, and American brands. Designed and made here, designed and made there, either way what we do is important to them, and what they do is critical to us if you’re part of the music products, industry, and ever have the opportunity to go to Shanghai to see music, China, you’ll see what I saw. MMR is proud to be the only US trade publication that not only attends this important show, each year we go, and further the relationships that bind our industries. It’s always more fun when we can come back and talk about what a great time we had at the show, how well it’s produced how well it is attended the innovative things we saw new products, etc., but we live in different times and for now the primary subject was tariffs. MMR looks forward to attending these of China in October 2026, and helping to continue our work representing the US music products industry to our foreign friends and partners. https://en.musicchina-expo.com/

Mike Lawson is a lifelong working musician, publisher, and owner of MMR Magazine.

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