One thing that concerns me about our industry’s future is the mismatch between growing interest and instrument availability, particularly in the school music ...
As I write this, Black Friday (including myriad Black Friday previews, Black-giving holiday openings, Web releases, preview extensions and the ironic “me-too” C...
Over the last few months, I’ve been talking about the fact that our real business—or, at least, our business moving forward—is selling not the products but, rat...
Everywhere we turn, we encounter change. Not just “Oooh, that’s different!” change, but also “Where the hell am I?” change. We’re navigating paradigm shifts, ...
If Necessity is the Mother of Invention, then we have to define Necessity to re-invent our stores. And re-invent them we must, because Necessity IS changing. In...
We are not living in relaxed times. The rapid pace of innovation, the ability for instant—and constant—communication and the regular introduction of “disruptive...
If you’ve been following the trades, you might be gleefully crowing over the difficulties Guitar Center seems to be having. Although I shed no tears for the rev...
For decades, a driving force behind consumer behavior has been price. “We’ll beat any price!” has blared out at us from TVs, scrolled across our desktops and sp...
I get e-mails from all corners of the industry, from both the retail and the supply side. Sometimes, the message is “thank you” or “you took the words out of my...
Almost all of us are passionate about something, and virtually all of us want to share our passion. Whether it’s music, cooking or our favorite football team, f...
