ANAHEIM — This year, the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) Show will not only be the place where the music industry congregates to learn about the latest products, immerse themselves in education and build their networks.
Jan. 20–24 at the Anaheim Convention Center, the NAMM Show will be a celebration of the 125 years the organization has been serving the industry, and how music has evolved technologically.
“One of the themes is understanding why NAMM has been around for 125 years and what’s going to keep us around the next 125,” the organization’s President and CEO John Mlynczak said. “We’ll talk a lot about resiliency as an industry. We’ll talk about innovation of the member companies, all the products that are launched at the NAMM Show and how over decades, products that were launched here are now in museums. Also, new products will be announced. That’s the evolution and innovation that we celebrate every year at the show, and it’s the spirit of what’s kept us thriving for 125 years.”
Of course, the current evolution of the music products industry involves the use of artificial intelligence. During this year’s NAMM Show, there will be discussions about the uses of AI for product development, music creation and business operations — which Mlynczak believes will benefit the industry in numerous ways.
“One of the benefits of AI is we’re an industry with a lot of small retailers and a few really big ones,” he said. “There’s a lot of ways that AI can help small retailers do things they couldn’t do with their small teams before and that’s really exciting.”
But one professional’s excitement is another one’s concern. As with all industries being touched by AI, there are early adopters in the music business who have already fully embraced the technology, while others have been reluctant and want to wait and see how it develops to decide on its usefulness.
However, Mlynczak notes that technological disruptions are nothing new to music — and the industry has always managed to weather the storms.
“You could map the history of our industry by technology that was going to kill our industry, starting with the record player. Then the radio came, then the television,” said Mlynczak. “All these technology innovations were always going to completely kill music making. The electronic drum machine, electronic keyboards, MIDI, everything was going to kill music making, but it only empowered people to make more music. Even when you look at what people are doing with AI, they’re finding ways to create music.”
It is this desire to create music that has helped NAMM endure as an organization for over a century, and helped the NAMM Show grow exponentially since it launched in 1902.
“I think our longevity lies in the fact that we’re in the music products industry and humans will always desire to make music. I have a feeling if we were the Telephone Switchboard Operators Association or the Milkman Association, we might not be around 125 years,” Mlynczak said. “But we’re music. Humanity desires music, and our association and our trade show have always led the innovation and excitement around that desire.”
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