We attended our first NAMM show last week. NAMM stands for National Association of Music Merchants, and their January show in Anaheim is a huge convention for manufacturers, retailers, distributors, and the media in the music products industry. It's a $17B industry globally and everyone is here.
We didn't know what to expect going into it, but it was a great learning experience. While we didn't exhibit, we got a real lay-of-the-land. Boy was it enlightening.
Here are a few notable things that happened:
- Stayed at The Rainbow Inn (not recommended)
- Discussed manufacturing with Hartley Peavey, the founder of Peavey Electronics
- Discovered Loog guitars, some really cool 3-string guitars for kids
- Met Christopher from Wattson Electronics. Check out their dope pedals
- Went to a bunch of enlightening sessions, especially a product design session by Ravi from RKS Design
- Met a ton of great people that are making guitar straps
- Had some good meetings with distributors
- Got our products into 3 guitar shops in LA–McCabe's, Grayson's Tunetown, and Caveman Vintage!
- Had some time on Sunday to drive along the Pacific Coast Highway, up into the Santa Monica mountains and back down to watch the sunset on Venice Beach, which was a freak show
