Dealers out in force for UK play day

UK trade body, the Music Industries Association declared its annual Learn to Play Day its most successful to date, with more venues involved than ever.

This year, 129 venues, up more than ten percent from last year, gave more than twelve thousand free lessons, to members of the public, young and old, across the whole of the UK.

The day also generated a huge amount of media coverage for the UK industry. Paul McManus, chief executive of the MIA and industry charity, Music for All, was interviewed on London Live TV, BBC Radio London and Sky Arts filmed Fender at the Royal Festival Hall. Waitrose and Tesco magazines, Time Out, Parentdish, Londonist, and many other events listings featured LTPD as a recommended activity for the weekend.

Venues, including Yamaha Music London, Fender, and ACM, reported lessons on the day as fully booked with waiting lists for people hoping to take part.

Over two hundred families took part in the Bromley Youth Music Trust day, more than 100 children took part in music lessons at the Old Vinyl Factory, and other hugely popular events were Korg at the MK Dons soccer stadium before the kick-off and Spider Music at the Motorpoint Arena in Cardiff, running alongside a Comic Con event. On Sunday March 22nd 2015, Absolute Music in saw eight hundred people visit their store in Bournemouth.

McManus told MMR: “By any measure, this was our biggest and most successful Learn To Play Day to date. As always, this was a huge team effort between the shops, venues, suppliers and all our sponsoring partners. We are truly creating new musicians with the national Learn to Play Day and planning for 2016 is already underway.

“It has been interesting to see the types of venue involved changing and evolving and we’ve brought in some different venues this year. We’re really pleased with the growth, and outside of all the fluffiness of giving away free music lessons, it is about selling more gear at the back end of it and creating more musicians and therefore customers.

“Like any industry initiative it has taken a while to percolate but businesses are realizing that it generates publicity on a different scale to that which they can achieve on their own. Suppliers are also starting to see it as a great way to wave their brands under the noses of the public.

“And, I’ve made the offer to several other trade associations around the world that, if they would like to know how we do it, it’s not rocket science, but we would be happy to help in any way they like.”

The initiative, which is only open to MIA members, has also been a useful recruiting tool for the trade body, added McManus. In addition, the association’s recently launched Trusted Music Store scheme now has more than 200 dealers sporting the logo in their windows.