Remo Focuses on Growing Music Therapy Industry

Remo will soon be exploring new distribution channels outside of the traditional music industry, announced the company's president, Brock Kaericher, at the annual Remo international sales meeting Thursday.

“We've realized that the drum is an effective tool for caregivers,” said Kaericher.

Founder and CEO Remo Belli elaborated on the point in a thoughtful talk. “The biggest industry in the world is the caregiving industry, which is only going to get bigger,” he said. “We have to look at the growing market of our aging population.” The company indicated that traditional drum heads and percussive products would remain a focus, but the new direction marks a significant change in attitude. Belli says the move is backed up by years of research and collaborations with neuroscientists and hospitals such as New York's Beth Israel Hospital. The company now hopes to stress the importance of its emerging "Comfort Sound Technology" equipment.

Belli noted that the market for therepeutic instruments was “significant and urgent.”

“This business makes the music business look like nothing,” he said. “The music business is teeny in the sense of the world.”

He stressed that possibly many in the MI may not be interested in entering this new market. “You have to decide where you want to live. But this is here if you care to understand it.”

The meeting wasn't short on traditional Remo drumming products.  On hand to demonstrate the company's new Emperor Ebony drum heads was drumming phenom Oscar Seaton, while a presentation also stressed the company's new Silent Stroke mesh heads, which sales and marketing vice president Bob Yerby  said reduced the sound to nearly 20 percent of that of typical drum heads.

"It's like Remo Belli's been saying for years," he said.  "'Not so loud…'"