Results from this month’s retailer survey were something of a mixed bag, though there were some takeaways.
While complaints regarding online competition are pretty standard, regardless of the topic being discussed, for whatever reason the realm of band & orchestral percussion instrument sales seems to be particularly hard-hit. Even participants in this poll who shared generally upbeat views on this market segment often cited difficulties related to keeping up with internet retailers.
While it’ll come as a surprise to virtually nobody that school music directors, districts, and student musicians were most frequently noted as “typical” B&O percussion instruments, it may be of interest that a good portion cited young to young-ish (20s-40s) adults looking to “jam” as go-to customers for this type of gear.
Another “what to make of this?” result of this survey: for every retailer who described typical B&O percussion end-users as being lower-middle or, even, low income, there were those who remarked that a trend in the past year has been one of customers more willing to spend more (even a lot more) to get a quality instrument that will last for years to come.
On average, how would you describe – age, income level, ability, intended usage of instruments/ gear – your typical B&O percussion customer?
“Elementary to middle school, middle class. All are brand-new students. Many return the rentals at the end of the year and don’t continue the next year.”
Jennifer Harrigfeld
Woodstock Music Shop
Woodstock, New York
“Beginning fifth and sixth graders.”
Ej Dombrowski
Jim’s Music
Green Bay, Wisconsin
“There is no one or average band instrument customer. They come from all income levels, and the ages are usually between 35-40.”
Mark Magellan
Bill’s Music Sales, Inc.
Stockton, California
“Lower income, beginner to intermediate, for school usage.”
Paul Durand
Family Piano Company
Waukegan, Illinois
“Intermediate drummers and mature drummers, students.”
Jimmy Marks
GLYNS Guitars
Fostoria, Ohio
“16-35 years old, upper-middle Income, [purchasing for] “jam” usage (djembe, hand percussion).”
Allegro Music Center
Miami, Florida
“Middle-aged parents buying for their kids.”
Dean Tower
Dean’s Strings and Music Suppliers
Whitehorse, Yukon
Canada
“Middle school, beginner, beginner band, sticks and mallets and rentals for snare/bell kits.”
Justin Sims
Sims Music
Columbia, South Carolina
“Young beginning students from families with low to moderate income, primarily. Starting band and continuing band levels 1 & 2.”
Ted Engstrom
Sunday Guitars
Bend, Oregon
“In their early 20s… just getting a band together to jam.”’
Shelly Morris
Morris Music Store & Studio
Sheridan, Wyoming
“Schools and institutions, eighth grade through college.”
Randy Pratt
Sweetwater
Fort Wayne, Indiana
Have you been noticing any significant trends with respect to B&O percussion instruments – either on the supplier or the consumer side?
“It’s hard to compete with catalogs, internet, and MAP policy in the entire music industry!”
Bruce Marion
Marion Music
Melbourne, Florida
“Suppliers are not stocking as heavily and consumers are buying good quality instead of economy brands.”
Wesley Edwards
Draisen Edwards Music
Anderson, South Carolina/Atlanta, Georgia
“On the consumer end, I’m definitely seeing that parents are still very money and space-conscious with their purchases. Parents of beginners are wary about drum purchases and prefer practice pads.”
Karen Janiszewski
Music Room
Cheektowaga, New York
“Everyone wants price to be lower for everything. They take pictures of store merchandise and then look it up on the web and tell us, “Well, I can get it for $____ on Amazon or Musician’s Friend or Sweetwater” et cetera. We need to stop the big stores from taking our clients somehow!”
Sue Sexton
Greenfield Music and Amps, LLC
Greenfield, Ohio
“Better availability this year. More schools are doing ‘total percussion,’ rather than just a snare drum.”
Kevin Walters
Central Penn Music
Palmyra, Pennsylvania
“More and more ISOs (instrument shaped objects) flooding the market with cheaply made, poor quality product shows up every year. As for school purchases, they’re finding budgetary constraints preclude the purchase of new equipment and we’re refurbishing more and more of the old stuff for them.”
Bob Josjor
Lou Kraus Music, Inc.
Ogallala, Nebraska
