-Guitar Hero is all the rage for consumers.

-Need to take a break from searching for the latest gear during The NAMM Show? Here are some celebrity appearances and parties to check out.

-Attendance increased at Music China and Prolight + Sound, and Kenny G made a big splash.

-Improving next month's NAMM Show is like making the 1972 Miami Dolphins better. But NAMM is certainly not resting on its laurels.

-We reveal all of the manufacturer nominees for Music & Sound Awards to be handed out next month at The NAMM Show.

-Counterfeiting on MI products, particularly guitars, may have received minimal national press, but the problem is real and not going away.

-Find out how to sell products your customers are probably not looking to buy.

-M&SR features its second annual independent retailer roundtable. What's on dealer's mind's this year. Are things better than last year?

-Females playing musical instruments now outnumber males, according to a NAMM/Gallup survey.

-Industry leaders paved the way for the next 10 years.

SupportMusic.com,
SupportMusic.com
The coalition, which is headquartered on the Internet, is backed by more than 100 organizations including NAMM members and the National PTA. NAMM hosts and provides full-time staff members for SupportMusic, and funds it, along with the National Association for Music Education (MENC). MENC celebrated its 100th anniversary in April.

Scott Robertson, NAMM’s director of marketing and communications, said the Support Music coalition is really pleased the Government Accounting Office is going to conduct a study on the No Child Left Behind Act’s impact on music and arts education. “This is really big news, because we will have real actual data that talks about No Child Left Behind’s impact,” said Robertson. “We’re often asked, ‘What is the state of school education?’ And it’s really hard to make our points when you don’t have that data to support them. When you talk about data in school systems, it’s best to go to the source, the government, to do it. We’ve been able to accomplish this due to consistent outreach by the NAMM government affairs team and the SupportMusic coalition to elected representatives.”

In addition, another huge advancement was both houses of Congress passed resolutions promoting the importance of music education. “That’s really important because it gives local advocates ammunition to use with school boards,” said Robertson.

VH1 Save The Music Foundation, www.vh1.com/partners/save_the_music/
This year marks the 10th anniversary of the organization, with a celebration set to take place in the tents at New York City’s Lincoln Center on Sept. 20. “It will feature a student orchestra who benefited from the program,” said Laurie Schopp, director of programs and policy for the organization.

VH1 works with 1,400 schools in 80 cities throughout the country to develop music programs when there is none in existence. In all, about 1 million children have benefited from the program and VH1 has donated about $40 million worth of new instruments to schools, including a quarter-million dollars it will donate in September. Schools can apply for a set of band instruments, string instruments, a keyboard lab, or a guitar lab. “Our work is strategic in that we don’t only work with individual schools, but with full school districts,” said Schopp.

According to Schopp, many school districts don’t have any school music program due to budget cuts taking place during the recessionary years of the ‘70s and ‘80s. VH1 provides help only for school districts without music programs established already.
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