Canadian Music Trade - August/September 2020 | Page 10

News
Plenty of Opportunity for
Back-to-School Sales
Despite Pandemic
Challenges
As the COVID-19 pandemic
shut down schools across the
country in the spring, and as
it became more apparent that
things would not be “normal”
by the fall, MI retailers were left
with a lot of uncertainty about
what the crucial back-to-school
sales season might hold. Now, as
September quickly approaches
and provincial governments and
regional school boards across
Canada reveal their plans and
safety restrictions for schools,
including music programs, some
clarity is emerging. With that
clarity, though, are both challenges
and opportunities for MI
retailers and their suppliers.
The approach to music education
is differing significantly
from province-to-province, and
even between regional school
boards. There is obvious concern
about using, and especially sharing,
instruments – particularly
brass and woodwind instruments
because of the spread of the virus
through respiratory droplets.
“There is still much uncertainty
about how students will return
to school in September and
even more uncertainty about how
music programs will fit into these
back-to-school plans,” says Jim
Welter, director of Yamaha Canada
Music’s Piano,
Band & Orchestra
Department, noting
his company has an
ongoing program into
the fall that supports
Yamaha dealers
acquiring instruments
for sales directly to
schools and for rental
to parents, depending
on the province.
“Most of our dealers
have been very tentative
to make commitments
to inventory
for the fall but that is
starting to turn around
quickly now.”
MI retailers now
have two opportunities,
depending on the budgets,
priorities, and concerns of their
local schools. For some schools,
there may now be an opportunity
to boost sales of instruments
so that schools can reduce the
sharing of instruments among
students. There’s also a likely
opportunity to sell more
accessories and disinfectants to
schools to ensure any necessary
sharing is made safer. As well,
there is also the chance to sell or
rent to more students/parents
because they may feel it’s safer
to keep their own instrument
than to share school instruments.
This is reinforced by Welter’s
own experience: “We have also
seen some independent schools
in Québec making some larger
purchases to ensure that students
do not have to share instruments,
and we have been working with
our dealers to fulfill these orders.
We’re also starting to see some
increase in individual sales at the
retail level,” he says.
For Ontario and other
provinces where classroom
music teachers are being told
to eliminate instruments from
their lessons and programs, as
well as singing/vocal instruction,
this opens a big opportunity for
stores offering lessons to pick up
the slack. Those students who are
most passionate about music will
be looking for somewhere they
can actually play and learn. Of
course, more private students also
means more customers for rentals
and sales.
“Due to reduction in school
instrumental instruction [in
Ontario], we are hoping for a
much larger influx in private instruction
demand, which we can
now accommodate via our online
lesson program,” adds Mark Hebert,
president of Cosmo Music
in Richmond Hill, ON.
Alternatively, for stores without
their own lessons program,
they could also look into partnering
with local private teachers and
come up with mutuallybeneficial
custom solutions to attract
new students and customers.
PHOTO: FLICKR/ MIA & STEVE MESTDAGH
2020 NAMM Global Report Now Available
NAMM members can now download the 2020 NAMM Global Report, a detailed report on the latest
MI industry trends and opportunities. This year’s document consists of data from more than 28 countries
and regions, resulting in the largest report NAMM has created to date.
Unsurprisingly, the U.S. is the largest market for music products by a wide margin. In terms of
market sales share, the U.S. leads with 45.8%, and Canada ranks fifth with 4.5%. Filling out the top
five are China at 10.8%, Germany at 5.9%, and Japan at 5.4%.
The NAMM report indicates that Canada’s imports of musical instruments decreased 2.4% in 2019
compared to the previous year, with an especially large decrease of 22.8% in bowed instruments being
imported. On NAMM’s list of the top sources of MI imports into the United States, Canada ranks
ninth, with China being the largest source of music product imports into the U.S. by a large margin;
however, Canada is the largest single export market for MI products coming out of the U.S., taking in
28% of the U.S.’s exports of MI products.
NAMM members can download the report at www.namm.org/membership/global-report.
10 CANADIAN MUSIC TRADE