On the Stick: Percussion Mallet Sales

Band & Orchestra mallet sales are driven, in large part, by school music programs at all levels. As such, it’s not terribly shocking that a large swath of participants in this month’s dealer survey (41.3%) reported that sales of such accessories remain lower than hoped-for. That said, with the re-opening of most schools – however tentative – more than half (54.8%) share that sales are up, when compared to this same time in 2021, so… every little bit of positive news is good news, right?

Read on to learn more about how MI retailers feel about this market segment and what brands are driving sales.

Compared to early 2021, sales of Percussion Mallets at your store are…

Up: 54.8%

Down: 41.3%

Level: 3.9%

The majority of mallets sold at your business are…

Wrapped mallets: 48.2%

Unwrapped mallets: 12.9%

Felt/Cartwheel mallets: 38.9%

What price point for mallets are driving the majority of sales?

Under $25: 33.8%

$26-50: 58.4%

$51 or more: 7.8%

What mallet brands are top sellers at your dealership?

Vic Firth/Balter Mallets: 80.7%

Innovative Percussion: 67.2%

Promark: 64%

Zildjian: 42.3%

Vater: 33.6%

Stagg: 29.8%

Malletec: 29.8%

Black Swamp Percussion: 20.1%

Salyers: 8.1%

What trends have you been noticing when it comes to Percussion Mallets?

“Manufacturers have been coming out with more signature lines of mallets, which are hard to sustain in the long run (dependent on visibility and career path of Artist) and confuse the customer as there are SO many choices out there already. If this continues, it will be worse than with drumsticks, as with sticks Artists only have one or two signature models, typically. With mallets, there are at least five models – all the way up to eight to account for the varying hardness. This puts retailers in a predicament about how much, or what models to stock of a signature line, as some don’t move fast enough to warrant stocking.”

Lauren Calkin

West Music

Coralville, Iowa

“It has been an interesting year with the low dip in sales from School of Music, but students, themselves, are finding that they are needing to own personal mallets, driving the same sales but from a different avenue.”

Ryan Kotrlik

Beacock Music

Vancouver, Washington; Eugene, Oregon; Philomath, Oregon

“COVID still has most of the local school music programs unsure of themselves. The charter schools seem to be a little more flexible on brand and we’ve really been focusing on the fast flipping ‘Under $20’ category for mallets.”

Anthony Mantova

Mantova’s Two Street Music

Eureka, California

“We are selling significantly more mallets to rental customers, both wrapped and unwrapped, due to two things. First, more and more directors are asking for a special mallet package to be provided to percussion rental customers. This has been a growing trend for the last five years or so. Second, we are doing all of our rentals through an online portal, and the mallet packs directors request show up with the rental. The customer is required to ‘unselect’ the mallet pack if they don’t want them, and very few do so. We have also seen an increase in other accessories sold with rentals (books, stands, care kits, et cetera) for the same reason.”

Jeff Young

Marshall Music Company

Lansing, Michigan