 MSR Awards Mighty for Many
The Music & Sound Awards, handed out at Winter NAMM, included several highlights. Clearly one of the biggest was NAMM, who was nominated for and won its first Music & Sound Award in the latter’s 22-year history. NAMM grabbed the award for outstanding community service. Big winners on the manufacturer side were Vic Firth, who earned a lifetime achievement/Hall of Fame honor, and Ovation’s VXT hybrid, which won for best acoustic guitar and product of the year. Audio-Technica won both microphone categories, and Ken Haas, a rep for Reverend Guitars, was named representative of the year.
On the dealer side, Skip’s Music had a huge year, winning four awards, including multi-store dealer of the year. West Music took home two awards for best multi-store dealer in keyboards and sound reinforcement, and Daddy’s Junky Music also won two awards for best multi-store dealer in percussion and best clinics for a multi-store.dealer
As far as single-store dealers go, Tennessee’s Corner Music had a terrific year. The Nashville-based dealer snatched three awards, including single-store dealer of the year.
Roland Digests Large Piece of Cakewalk
 Expanding on a partnership that first began in 1995, Roland Corporation announced the acquisition of a major share of Cakewalk. Roland had been a minor shareholder in the company since 2003 and the two companies co-developed and released products like SONAR Power Studio and SONAR REAC Recording System.
“Roland and Cakewalk will continue to expand our joint-product line,” said Roland Corporation President Hidekazu Tanaka. “Together, our companies bring decades of experience in a wide range of music and audio technologies to the table. That breadth of knowledge will enable us to design innovative products which blend hardware and software in a unique and harmonious way.”
New products will be branded as “Cakewalk by Roland.”
Huckabee Advocates Gather at NAMM
Campaigners and fans of former Arkansas Gov. and presidential candidate Mike Huckabee gathered at NAMM to rally behind the oft NAMM visitor. “Mike Huckabee is the most passionate advocate for music education that has ever sought the presidency of the United States,” said Fred Bramante, founder and CEO of Daddy’s Junky Music. “Every time the governor would talk about music during his regular speech and would perform with local bands. He also talked about the importance of music making and the affect it would have on U.S. economies. I believe in my heart that if Gov. Huckabee is elected president of the United States, we will have a renaissance in arts and education in this country.”
“One of the things we can all be proud of is for the first time in our lives, we not only have one presidential candidate talking about the importance of music and arts education, we have several candidates doing so,” said Bob Morrison, CEO of the Music For All Foundation. “Through our efforts with NAMM, we have been able to elevate this level of importance on a national level. It’s a credit to the industry. Gov. Huckabee has a record to show he has done more to advance music and arts education than any single elected leader in the history of our nation…The governor recognizes innovation will be necessary for the U.S. to succeed in the future. He realizes one of the best ways to promote this creativity is by providing music and arts instruction. As president, he has a track record that he will do more to provide music to every child in this nation.”
“Gov. Huckabee is unbelievably passionate about music performance, music and arts, and music education,” said Don Griffin, president of West L.A. Music. “Our industry should be enthusiastic in supporting him. Huckabee is very committed to furthering the music education cause.”
“Here’s a guy who’s one of us,” added Henry Juszkiewicz, CEO of Gibson. “He plays musical instruments. He is behind music education. I think he deserves our support. Frankly, I don’t agree with all of his conservative beliefs, but I know him personally and he’s a great person. He’s a man of compassion.
“And he’s one of our endorsees,” quipped Juszkiewicz. “We have to support our endorsees.”
Taylor, Fender Enter Partnership
Taylor Guitars tapped Fender Musical Instruments Corporation to help it expand into Europe. Fender Europe’s new Taylor Division will be the exclusive distributor for Taylor guitars in Europe, Africa, and most of the Middle East as of July 1.
The company had looked into starting its own European arm, but found that involved a lot of expertise and funds, so instead Kurt Listug and Bob Taylor approached Fender’s chairman and CEO, Bill Mendello. “Bill shared his experiences in creating Fender Europe with me a few years ago, and invited me to see their European operations first hand,” said Listug, co-founder and CEO of Taylor. “I spent a week visiting their warehouse, sales offices, and even their Düsseldorf custom shop showroom.”
Sierra Celebrates First Anniversary
Sierra Guitars celebrated its first anniversary with a party at Winter NAMM. The event featured a performance by singer/songwriter Patrick Davis, as well as a presentation of Sierra’s sales rep of the year award to Gene Taylor. Following NAMM, Sierra partnered with Music Unlimited School, where its guitars are the preferred educator line. The two put on a raffle to benefit WillPower, Inc., a rehabilitation program for people with chronic mental illness.
Pianodisc Launches Hi-Def Content
Among several announcements made by Pianodisc at NAMM was it launched HD/Blu-ray audio and video content using its IQ technology. “It allows customers to completely control the intensity of the piano performance from any number of devices like an Apple iPod, Microsoft Xbox, or other MP3 players,” said Pianodisc’s Tom Lagomarsino. “For 2008, we’re offering 100 free hours of music with the first purchase of our flagship Opus 7G2 player system, which is the world’s fist Internet-connected player system. Also, the package includes a free 24/7 streaming radio station called Classical Music and More, which can literally play a customer’s piano around the clock with royalty-free music. 2008 is the year of music player content for Pianodisc.”
Lagomarsino also announced Pianodisc entered a worldwide distribution agreement with Sync-a-vision.
In addition, Pianodisc announced it released Music Connect 2.0, which allows customers to merge piano performances with off-of-the shelf CDs.
Player’s Club
 Cascio Interstate Music decided to capitalize on the current music video game trend and offer interactive Player’s Pod stations at store-sponsored concerts at three area venues.
“With the success of ‘Guitar Hero’ and ‘RockBand,’ our goal is to provide an opportunity for attendees of musical concerts to try out instruments of their choice and what better place than at a concert with live music?” said CEO Michael Houser. “We believe this is the first time this interactivity has occurred at a theater/concert setting, and we’re glad to be able to expose fans to real musical instruments.”
The program was launched at a Todd Rundgren concert. Seven Player’s Pods were set up with headphones for fans to jam on “their choice of electric guitars and a Line 6 guitar modeling processor, an electric bass and a Line 6 bass modeling processor, a Roland keyboard workstation, and a Yamaha digital drum programmer,” the store said. The selection of guitars and basses mirrors the rig of the performing band that night.
In other news, the store won its second consecutive National Independent Dealer of the Year award from Drum Workshop (DW). Houser and drum buyer Scott Thayer were on hand at Winter NAMM to receive the award from DW national sales rep Bob Peyton.
photo caption: Music fans try out Cascio’s new Player’s Pods
Hart and Soul
Roger Hart, who has been a Kaman employee for 15 years, was tapped to fill the position of director of merchandising for Kaman’s consolidated distribution business. Hart manages the Genz Benz product line, as well as the distribution side of KMC and Musicorp’s Fender Accessory program. He leads Kaman and Musicorp’s merchandising team to “determine product assortment and offerings, selling propositions, and seek out new products for the marketplace.”
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